Heating - I just want to turn it off!

Blastiel

Afternoon all,

I've been literally pulling my hair out in regards to trying to find out how I can just turn my heating ON and OFF.

The house I moved into has a brandnew combi boiler in the loft, sadly the pipework ran around the outskirts of the rooms in a one pipe system. I've now moved the pipes so its going into the loft and opperates on a two pipe set up.

My problem is the boiler is controlled by a wireless device. A Siemens RDJ10RF.

I have worked out you can have a "timed" run which will turn the heating on and off two times during the day.

It also has an energy saving and comfort settings which keep the house heated at a specific temperature constantly.

There doesn't seem to be an on or off fully feature.

My previous boiler either worked off the timer, was off or was on constant.

Am I missing something? :mad::(

penrhyn

The On Off and reset switches along with the hot water and CH temperature controls are on the boiler control panel.
Looks like a trip into the loft is required.
Is there a switched spur that supplies power to the boiler?

PS Can't understand the trend to stick boilers in the loft, asking for trouble IMHO.

PPS If you want it off put it into standby mode. It will only fire up if the temperature falls bellow 5 c.

http://www.free-instruction-manuals.com/pdf/p4766388.pdf

lithopsian

This is standard for modern electronic controls, believe it or not. They are on all the time, just with different temperature settings for different times. "Off" is a lower temperature (eg. 14C) and "on" is a warmer temperature (eg. 21C).

Your particular device operates this way in automatic mode which is indicated by a clock symbol. It also has a "comfort" mode which is indicated by a symbol which I think is supposed to be the sun. In comfort mode the temperature is controlled by dial when the slider is at the comfort position. Similarly there is an "eco" mode (moon symbol) which is also controlled by the dial when the slider is in the eco position. The comfort or eco modes can be used to switch the heating on and off by adjusting the thermostat dial up and down. The final mode is the frost setting which you can use as an "off". This turns the thermostat down to a permanent low level which I think is 5C. All the modes are set using the horizontal slider at the bottom.

Next to the mode slider is an "advance" button which flicks the controller into the next program section. The idea is if you come home early you can kick it immediately into the evening warm period, or if you want to go to bed early you can knock it to the nighttime cool setting. It will resume normal operation at the next programmed time.

macman

I'd change the Siemens for a decent digital programmer, something like one of the Honeywell CM series. Available in both wired and wireless versions.

deshepherd

penrhyn wrote: »

PS Can't understand the trend to stick boilers in the loft, asking for trouble IMHO.

Probably comes when you "upgrade" to a condensor boiler and find that you have no avalable external wall in the "normal" places to install it that you can fit the vent through.

We live in a largish 1900-era house where, like many of that style, when central hearing was installed probably 30-40 years ago the obvious place to put the boiler was in the kitchen fireplace (where originally a coal burning range would probably have been) and vent up the existing chimney. If we "upgraded" to a condensor boiler (we did think about this a few years ago but a very helpful person from a local, ie non-BG, gas fitters took one look at our boiler and kitchen and strongly advised us to forget about it) then we'd almost certainly have to put the boiler in a different location and probably the "obvious" solution would be to move it 2 floors above where it is now in a storeroom off a top floor "bedroom" and vent through the roof so the rerouting of pipework would follow the same vertical path that the heat uses to get from the existing boiler to top floor radiators.

Blastiel

Thanks for the info guys :

The propery is actually a bungalow I have recently purchased. The old boiler used to be in the kitchen but when a new one was installed in 2010 it was fitted into the loft, just a shame no one thought to sort out the rest of the central heating / pipework.

From what you are saying am I right in thinking :

The far right of the bottom slider (power button icon) is referenced as Permanent Standby Mode : The unit is controlling continuously to the standby temp set point which is fixed at 5 degrees C

Does that therefore mean that no attempt at heating will be made unless the temperature drops below 5 or that it will simple heat to that low a level.

I'm just really concerned about how much gas I'm going to be burning through without actually realising it.

Andy_WSM

Blastiel wrote: »

The far right of the bottom slider (power button icon) is referenced as Permanent Standby Mode : The unit is controlling continuously to the standby temp set point which is fixed at 5 degrees C

Does that therefore mean that no attempt at heating will be made unless the temperature drops below 5 or that it will simple heat to that low a level.

I'm just really concerned about how much gas I'm going to be burning through without actually realising it.

The boiler won't burn any gas unless the temperature inside your house drops below 5C.

If it got that cold indoors I'd have thought you'd have plenty of other issues to worry about than the cost of gas

sm9ai

macman wrote: »

I'd change the Siemens for a decent digital programmer, something like one of the Honeywell CM series. Available in both wired and wireless versions.

I agree with Macman, seriously look into a decent room thermostat.

Read about the different types available - http://room-thermostat.co.uk or http://roomthermostat.org

They can be positioned in a useful location, and you get far more control than with boiler controls.

Mr_Ted

Its often the case that fancy controller and certain names can put people off!

Siemans for instance are what used to be Landis & Gyr, a well known and respected manufacturer of controls!

Having the user instructions and reading them is usually all that is required to understand how the actual control fully operates!

Gotta agree with boiler in loft spaces, not the best position for operation of servicability?????????????

lithopsian

FWIW, I hate the Honeywell CM series;) They do even more stupid things than this Siemens unit, which could easily annoy you too.

Your controller has an effective off (or two even, one fixed at 5C and one at a temperature you can choose and change) and and effective on (at a temperature you can choose and change) even if they aren't absolute. Remember that even a controller with an absolute on setting is usually wired through a thermostat that would turn the heating off at a set temperature. Your controller is no different, just all in one box.

On top of that you can have it on a timer. What more could anyone want? Perhaps more on and off settings, different for each day of the week, but believe me when I tell you that programming half a dozen different time periods for seven different days is more effort than it's worth. More expensive units will often have a "sleep" function which shuts everything down, but I think you would have to take the batteries out to do that.