Combi boiler reducing house value?

espresso

Thanks for the update. Surely a decent electrician would not have left you without heating or hot water while waiting for a replacement RCD!

Roundabouts

Final Update hopefully:;)

The Electrician called and fitted the replacement RCD. It made no difference.

So then a 2nd Gledhill Engineer called, stayed for 4 hours and identified the problem as being an electrical one. There is a short circuit between neutral and earth wires in the cable supplying power to the thermal store from the downstairs isolating switch (see 3 wires enclosed in red insulating tape at the bottom left hand corner of photo). He created a temporary power supply to the thermal store by bypassing these wires - he got a flex, connected the live , neutral and earth wires to the terminal block of the thermal store, put a plug on the other end of the flex and plugged it into a wall socket. The whole system worked fine.

So the first electrician who stated that there was no electrical fault was incompetent. I've got a different electrician (a competent one this time) to call around to quote for the work. A rewire of the cable would be problematic and expensive so the simple solution is to get a fused spur from the immersion heater switch beside the thermal store to provide power to the unit. This'll be done in the new year and will cost less than £100.

Thanks to everyone who gave advice and followed the saga.

DominicJ_2

I do wonder about "hi-flow" boilers.
I cant really run two cold taps, never mind two hot ones.

I'd go for the combi.

Roundabouts

DominicJ wrote: »

I'd go for the combi.

I did think about that. However, the advice I received seemed to suggest that a combi boiler is not suitable for a 'family home' and would make the house more difficult to sell and so reduce its value. Thankfully, I have (eventually) managed to get the current set-up up and running again so don't have to consider that option for the moment at least. :T

espresso

Roundabouts wrote: »

Final Update hopefully:;)

The Electrician called and fitted the replacement RCD. It made no difference.

So then a 2nd Gledhill Engineer called, stayed for 4 hours and identified the problem as being an electrical one. There is a short circuit between neutral and earth wires in the cable supplying power to the thermal store from the downstairs isolating switch (see 3 wires enclosed in red insulating tape at the bottom left hand corner of photo)..............

This just proves what a lot of us already know. This is a good example that demonstrates that having the relevant certificate to work on electric or gas installations does not necessarily mean that they are fit to charge people for the pathetic services provided - several so called qualified tradesmen but could not locate this very simple fault.