Room Stat and or new boiler

Linda32

Hello, I wonder if you could give me some pointers on the following system which needs updating.

We have a gas fired boiler in our kitchen for central heating and hot water. We have three radiators down stairs and 4 upstairs.

The boiler is at least 12 years old.

We do not have a room thermostat only the thermostat on the boiler.

The central heater is opporated by a timer clock. With the raditors turned off during the summer and the "heating" on for an hour in the morning and evening for hot water.

As we don't have a room stat the heating is either on or off. During the winter we need it on for a certain amount of time, then it gets too hot so we have to turn it off, then in gets too cold etc.

Could we just have a room stat attached to this system and any idea how much. Or do we need to replace the boiler and have a room stat.

espresso

You could almost certainly have a room stat fitted to your present system and wireless ones are now available, meaning that cabling does not need to be fitted during installation making it easier.

Sorry I can't give a price as I would DIY, but it should be cost effective so get a few quotes.

economiser

Our system is similar to yours although we use an immersion heater on night rate electricity for hot water in summer.
I looked into replacing ours but it seemed that a replacement would take a long, long time to pay back, if ever. Also ours is very reliable, if inefficient by modern standards. Our only problem in over 30 years has been one thermostat failure. I don't think many modern boilers will last that long or be so trouble free. On ours the boiler thersmostat is adjustable so we turn it down in when its not so cold. Does yours? You could try fitting thermostatic valves to the radiators.

Linda32

economiser wrote:

On ours the boiler thersmostat is adjustable so we turn it down in when its not so cold. Does yours? You could try fitting thermostatic valves to the radiators.

Hi, yes our boiler does have a thermostat but its always at its lowest, and still gets too hot when the heating needs to be on all day during the winter a weekends. :rolleyes:

We have thermostatic valves fitted to the living room rad, but that sticks closed :rolleyes: the hallway one works fine.

The radiator in the bedroom only gets hot in patches.

Linda32

Update:-

We had a plumber call around and its apparently the type of hot water cylinder we have. This one will always sludge up a system, always has and always will.

He is going to quote for a new hot water cylinder which can have a chemical added to prevent this. Can't be done to the current system.

Flush out all radiators and fit valves to rads which don't have them at the moment.

He said the type of boiler we have, which we only know as a glow worm hide-away is fine and not a problem at 15 or so years old. There is apparently only three things to ever go wrong with them.

He didn't say what they were, but gave the impression that it realy happens and isn't likely to do so with this one.
It would benefit from a service though.

I'm confident that this sounds okay but would just like a re-assurance please, if poss.

tooconfused_2

Sounds like a crock to me you can flush out a system and add inhibitor ,Fernox,or the like why should your cylinder not be able to take inhibitor(the chemical you mentioned)???? The hot water cylinder is just a big copper pot if you like nothing fancy except the new ones usualy hve the insulation attached to the outside (Green colour) so you dont have to put a jacket on them.

plumb1_2

tooconfused wrote:

Sounds like a crock to me you can flush out a system and add inhibitor ,Fernox,or the like why should your cylinder not be able to take inhibitor

NOT a load of CROCK

If it is a Primatic, and it is feed from the cold water storage tank, that also feeds your hot water cylinder,which then inturn feeds your hot taps.
There is a Air Bubble inside the cylinder which seperates your hot water and the water in your heating system(rads)
So if your boiler overheats and blows the air bubble, you will then have cross contamination, thus the inhibitor/fernox will leak into your cylinder and end up flowing into you hot taps.

They only way is to swop the cylinder to a Indirect and install a header tank.
This way there is no chance of cross contamination.

To confirm you have a Primatic cylinder you will need to check in your loft and see how many tanks you have.
1 tank= primatic
2 tanks= indirect