heating on all the time?

bigblackdog

i just cant get my head round this ,
perhaps someone knows how to run the heating in the most economical way ,
there is a big gas combi boiler in the utility room , and it serves 12 big radiators ( 3 bed house ) each radiator has a thermostat on it to control how hot ,
there is no timer to say when the heating comes on and goes off so i think i have to leave the heating on all the time , or manually switch it off
i knew a plumber who reckoned that even with thermostatically controlled radiators , you would use the same amount of gas as the boiler had to keep heating the water all the time ,
i would appreciate some help on this , if i were to leave the heating on 24/7 perhaps with the rads on a low setting , is that better than turning the heating off and on manually ? but having to have the rads on high to get the house warmed up , any hints or links appreciated ,

Cardew

How do you switch on the heating? Isn't there a wall thermostat?

How old is the system?

There surely must be a timer for hot water and central heating?? If not get one fitted!

bigblackdog

the system seems fairly new , made by bosch , megalis http://www.elmleblanc.fr/chaudieres-a-micro-accumulation-megalis.asp , problem is it is french and the only book i have on it is in french too , but there is no timer that i can see

Cardew

Are you sure there isn't a pull down flap on the boiler with timer controls?

The hand book will show some pictures of the timer.

Cardew

Looking at some other pictures it does seem that the bottom panel is either hinged, or is removable.

bigblackdog

Cardew wrote: »

Looking at some other pictures it does seem that the bottom panel is either hinged, or is removable.

i have pulled down the panel and there is actually no timer function , so unless i tried somehow to get a plumber to fix a thermostat with timer i am stuck .
under the circumstances i will turn the heating on and offmanually ,
i have just thought of another option whilst writing .....i will turn off every rad in the house but have the heating switched on at the boiler , i will then see if the boiler keeps firing up , if not i will turn a rad on at a time and see how i go , its just inconvenient isnt it as in the depths of winter it would be nice to get up after the heating has been on already , rather than have to get up and turn it on and wait for the place to heat up , it will be my job to do that , the wife and kids will be oblivious lol

Cardew

I really cannot believe that there is not a timer somewhere on a modern CH system!!!!

Jon_Tiffany

Cardew wrote: »

I really cannot believe that there is not a timer somewhere on a modern CH system!!!!

Many modern boilers, especially the Bosche ones use a remote wireless control unit. It could be that this is missing, leaving only the controls on the boiler?

bigblackdog

Cardew wrote: »

I really cannot believe that there is not a timer somewhere on a modern CH system!!!!

i forgot to mention i am in france , i find it hard to believe also , this is the second house i have rented here , the last house sold , we were renting it temporary , it had pretty up to date equipment in there , automatic sprinklers for all the plants and garden etc , big water softener machine ,and therefor a pretty new heating system , but the heating had two dials on the boiler , one for the hot water and one for the heating , going from off - full blast , so i kind of think that timers for the heating are not really a consideration here . In your opinion is it really worth it to turn the heating off at all , does the boiler work harder having to heat the water up from cold ?
perhaps leaving the heating on all the time would be a better option at least there are thermostats to control each rad , excuse my ramblings

Pincher

bigblackdog wrote: »

i forgot to mention i am in france ,

I guessed as much from the link.

The only thing I don't understand is what happens in summer, if you switch it to off, surely you have no hot water?


You can try direct access to the demand lines into the boiler, and manually patch in a conventional heating/hot water programmer, or

Find out which RF wireless controller/receiver is compatible,
and get it fitted.

Pincher

Put this in where the on/off switch is.

http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/TCTI24.html


Saves you manually switching it on/off.

The only puzzle is whether the boiler ever shuts off.
Maybe it has a temperature sensor on the return flow.