Hot water

keystone

pinkteapot wrote: »

We found a plumber who was also Part P qualified so he installed everything and did the wiring for the valve. Also tidied up some other very bodged wiring from a previous owner in the airing cupboard!

You don't need to be Part P for this type of work.

Cheers

pinkteapot

Don't need to be but it made me happier that he is both a plumber (GasSafe but again irrelevant for this work) and a sparky.

Ken68

keystone wrote: »

Thanks but is hot water actually passing through the heating coil in the cylinder as already asked. It would be wrong to blame the valve if all other possibilities have yet to be excluded.

Whether you use the Immersion Heater or not doesn't matter if its failed in the on state or is just on anyway but you don't know because you never go near it. Have you checked that yet?

BTW electricity is far more expensive than gas. The average UK annual consumption for gas is 10k kWh for a single bed property, 25,000 for a three bed. If you are heating all your hot water needs by electricity then its costing you more than it would to keep the cylinder topped up at the same time as the CH is on. Whats your annual electricity consumption? I think you need to do yourself an energy audit as part of this process.

Cheers

The immersion switch is OFF unless the socket has been installed upside down. And how do I check if the water is going thru the coils.?
Hot water comes out of the tap. As far as I can see what other hot water would I need apart from as I mentioned . For hand washing I use cold water and soap and finish off with an alcoholic squirty thing that my carer gets.
So , say 1litre of water or maybe 2 litres per day when the kettle is going to be on anyway for making tea...versus..a whole tank of water to be kept hot to 60. It's a conventional system not a combi.
My electric is 1313 kwh p.a. Fairly constant for the last three years. And gas at the year ending Jan 12 was 247 cu.ft units. (7783kwh)
And only me and the cat
Thanks for your reply.

keystone

Ken68 wrote: »

The immersion switch is OFF unless the socket has been installed upside down.

OK that settles that question then.

And how do I check if the water is going thru the coils.?

Put your hand on the inlet and outlet as the boiler fires up?

Hot water comes out of the tap. As far as I can see what other hot water would I need apart from as I mentioned . For hand washing I use cold water and soap and finish off with an alcoholic squirty thing that my carer gets.

So , say 1litre of water or maybe 2 litres per day when the kettle is going to be on anyway for making tea...versus..a whole tank of water to be kept hot to 60.

Yes but the tank isn't being heated up from scratch every time. If the three port valve is nerfed it won't matter what the stat is set to cos the valve won't react to the stat saying "no more heat please".

It's a conventional system not a combi.

Yes I realise that - otherwise you wouldn't have a tank.

My electric is 1313 kwh p.a. Fairly constant for the last three years. And gas at the year ending Jan 12 was 247 cu.ft units. (7783kwh)

For the last 12 months our usage was 5k electric and 22k gas which is below the national average as advised by Energywatch. I don't think you need to worry too much about your gas consumption which is extremely low TBH.

And only me and the cat

LoL. Well the cat doesn't use an awful lot of hot water but bet it likes to be nice and warm and toasty.

Thanks for your reply.

Au plaisir.

If the inlet and outlet pipes for the coil are getting hot (warm they will be either by convection or transmitted heat from the hot water stored in the tank) as the boiler comes on then yes that does suggest the valve. The head may need replacing or it might just be that the valve is stuck being full of carp. It happens. Valve can be freed by taking the head off and operating it manually. Actually thats a short term solution for you in any event. Remove the head(or get someone to do it for you) and turn the valve so that its on CH only. Leave the head off. It won't do it any harm.

Then you can worry about what may be wrong with it in the longer term.

I notice you said you have a carer. You might be able to get some help with this but even if its a complete new three port valve needed it shouldn't cost more than about £ 100 fitted. Partial drain down only required and about 30 minutes work.

Cheers

Ken68

Good figures too Keystone 1825 and 8030. We should start a club.
Will report back re coils.
oops got that wrong. but top pipe hot. Will do something tomorrow.
Thank you.

keystone

Ken68 wrote: »

Good figures too Keystone 1825 and 8030. We should start a club.

Eh? What are you on?

Cheers

Ken68

Glenmorangie

supermoneysaving2008

Hi my boiler has stopped working this morning so i wondered if i could get any advice on here? I have had it on constant for the last three nights as its been very cold.
Then this morning the red flashing light comes on. i had noticed it had been making more noise lately, a bit of thuding and banging,
i switched it back on , and it worked for more than ten minutes so i could shower, then has gone off again, i switched it on again and lasted a couple of minutes and gone off. i have left it off now. Its a newish boiler a few years old, its worcester 24. the pressure bar is on 1 the radiater was on max but have turned it down, any help would be appreciated in this cold weather.

Canucklehead

supermoneysaving2008 wrote: »

Hi my boiler has stopped working this morning so i wondered if i could get any advice on here? I have had it on constant for the last three nights as its been very cold.
Then this morning the red flashing light comes on. i had noticed it had been making more noise lately, a bit of thuding and banging,
i switched it back on , and it worked for more than ten minutes so i could shower, then has gone off again, i switched it on again and lasted a couple of minutes and gone off. i have left it off now. Its a newish boiler a few years old, its worcester 24. the pressure bar is on 1 the radiater was on max but have turned it down, any help would be appreciated in this cold weather.

Hi: possible frozen condensate waste..see here. .. or here.

HTH

Canucklehead

supermoneysaving2008

I arranged a plumber for monday with british gas , and tried the boiler again, and it now seems to be working fine,touch wood its been on for about 30mins with no noise, is it possible that the pipes have unfreezed themselves with the temperture rising, also my pipes go under the floor and are not on the outside of the house surely this makes it impossible to unfreeze them ?