My weird heating setup

gturfrey

I have an electric immersion and a boiler for the central heating! so the boiler man tells me. Now it gets odd.

I have a dual channel controller one for heating, one for the hot water.

If I set the heating to come on at 6pm til 7pm it will only work if the immersion is set to do the same.

Wheras the hot water can turn on at 6pm til 7pm and the heating can be off.

The heating is not indepedent from the hot water, the boiler man told me its the way the system is setup but come winter when my heating is on 8 hours a day then so will my immersion which will make for a hefty electricity bill.

Can anyone advise shed any light on this?

Thanks

ormus

you dont make any sense.
what make and model boiler do you have?

normally the immersion heater for the hot water, is just a back up (alternative) for the boiler.

gturfrey

Its an Ideal pretty old cant give you model number im at work.

I know it doesnt make sense! but thats how it works or doesnt as the case maybe.

Can have immersion without heating but not vice versa.

WestonDave

I think you are confused. I suspect in fact you are not talking about an immersion heater at all (that is an electric element within the hot water tank). Its more likely that you have an old style heating system in which the boiler heats the water in the hot water tank, and then there is a secondary coil (or pipe) within the hot water tank which allows the water which is being pumped round the radiators to pick up heat from the hot water. That being the case - no hot water in the tank equals no means of heating the radiators. Its not the most efficient way of doing things (and wouldn't be done that way now) but once the tank is hot you probably won't use much more energy to keep it hot to feed the radiators than you would to directly feed the radiators anyway.

WestonDave

Just to add - its quite common on those systems to have a back up electric immersion element in the tank (usually obvious by a black or red circular cover with electrical figures on it) which you can switch on manually if the central heating fails. If you've not been manually switching it on and off, its very unlikely its in use as it would be too high powered for most dual channel programmers.

The other thing you do need to do with this type of system is make sure the tank is well lagged/insulated with a tank jacket plus any spare duvets etc you may have!

gturfrey

Hi,

So what is the gas boiler for?

1984ReturnsForReal_2

WestonDave wrote: »

I think you are confused

Definitely confused.


Put a picture up of you hot water cylinder & all the bits in there & the boiler controls.

victor2

The gas boiler provides the heat for the central heating - and hot water whenever the heating is on by the sounds of it. You do not need the immersion heater to be on whenever the heating is on as you're getting hot water anyway. Maybe you are assuming that the immersion heater is on because the timer for the heating automatically switches the hot water on when the heating is on, but it is possible to have hot water without heating. That's just the way those setups were designed to work. The boiler timer will not be controlling your immersion heater element, so you won't be using extra electricity for that whenever the heating is on, not unless it's been wired up in a very strange way.
You've probably got a separate switch for the immersion heater, so long as that is off, the element will not be drawing electricity even when the boiler timer has hot water "on."

gturfrey

No I just have one switch,

On my control unit I have 2 lights for on, one for heating one with water.

If I turn the heating on, and the water is off the heating with not come on. When the water is turned on the heating pump starts up.

Whereas the water light can be on without the heating.

ormus

a typical, open vent, gravity system.
as been said, the immersion heater is just an electric element to heat the hot water, (just like your kettle), if and when required.
usually only needed in the summer.

the coiled pipe inside the HW cylinder heats the hot water, for the taps. its real name is a heat exchanger.
CH systems (should) have controls to have heating or hot water, or both together.

1984ReturnsForReal_2

gturfrey wrote: »

No I just have one switch,

On my control unit I have 2 lights for on, one for heating one with water.

If I turn the heating on, and the water is off the heating with not come on. When the water is turned on the heating pump starts up.

Whereas the water light can be on without the heating.

90% of what you say sounds like a busted port valve.