150 Litre Potterton Powermax HE Condensing Boiler HW Timing Advice Please

Supa_Sava

Hiya,

I moved into a new flat in October and it's my first time ever using gas. I'm still trying to tweak my usage to get the cheapest and most efficient results. It's a large flat, over 2 floors, with 3 people, using gas showers.

I have a 150 Litre Potterton Powermax HE Condensing Boiler.

When I moved in the HW was set to always on. I've never changed it from that setting. From looking at my bills it seems that it's costing me around £50 per month for the HW. I don't really know if this is high or not because I've no experience but it certainly seems high.

I've read posts on this forum that recommend setting the HW to half an hour twice daily. The threads had some disputes and varying information regarding the boiler type which I found a little confusing. So if anyone knowledgable in this area could advise me on good timings for my boiler I'd really appreciate it.

Another thing is... my CH wasn't working, so my LL sent a guy round. He noticed there was no click in the thermostat, so he bypassed the it completely at the boiler, meaning the CH is now simply switched "On" or "Off" based on the timings I've set. Will this be costing me much more than if the problem was correctly fixed and the thermostat working? (There's only one thermostat and it's in the hall).

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Ian

ollski

The powermax is a thermal store so the whole tank of water needs to be up to temperature before you can get hot water from the tap. typically the tank will take 20 mins to heat up so if you know when you are likely to need hw just stick the timer on half hour before.
Having no room thermostat will definitely cost you plenty as the temperature can never be satisfied, if it was linked out due to a wiring fault the easiest solution would be to get a wireless stat fitted.

HappyMJ

Supa_Sava wrote: »

Hiya,

I moved into a new flat in October and it's my first time ever using gas. I'm still trying to tweak my usage to get the cheapest and most efficient results. It's a large flat, over 2 floors, with 3 people, using gas showers.

I have a 150 Litre Potterton Powermax HE Condensing Boiler.

When I moved in the HW was set to always on. I've never changed it from that setting. From looking at my bills it seems that it's costing me around £50 per month for the HW. I don't really know if this is high or not because I've no experience but it certainly seems high.

I've read posts on this forum that recommend setting the HW to half an hour twice daily. The threads had some disputes and varying information regarding the boiler type which I found a little confusing. So if anyone knowledgable in this area could advise me on good timings for my boiler I'd really appreciate it.

Another thing is... my CH wasn't working, so my LL sent a guy round. He noticed there was no click in the thermostat, so he bypassed the it completely at the boiler, meaning the CH is now simply switched "On" or "Off" based on the timings I've set. Will this be costing me much more than if the problem was correctly fixed and the thermostat working? (There's only one thermostat and it's in the hall).

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Ian

I'd leave it on 24/7 so that I had hot water available at any time. 150 litres isn't really a huge amount of water for 3 people so as soon as someone has a bath the water in the cylinder will now be cool and you have to wait for the water to reheat before running another bath. The boiler has the capacity to reheat the water in the same time it takes to have a bath. Is the water thermostat set too high? Try turning it down a few degrees. The water from the taps should run no less than 50 degrees (you'll need a thermometer-50 degrees is hand hot so that your hands won't burn but almost too hot that you want to remove your hands from the water). Some thermostats that I have seen have been set at 40 degrees when the taps are running at a scorching 60 degrees so the thermostat on your cylinder may not be too accurate.

southcoastrgi

OP either leave the hot water on 24/7 or put it on once (on the timer) & set the on time for an hr before you want hotwater in the morning & off at the normal bedtime (so eg 6am- 11pm)

Supa_Sava

Thanks all for your helpful replies and sorry for my late response, this is my first time getting a chance to read the replies.

I've decided to turn off my CH completely and use the heat from the flats below, so now the only gas I use is purely to heat my hot water.

Could you please give me a rough idea of how much I should expect to pay per day, assuming that I were to have the HW timed to be on from 6am to 11am as suggested by southcoastrgi

Unfortunately my flatmate screwed up my logs because he put on the CH the other day. Apart from that it seems that having the HW on for three one-hour bursts throughout the day has been costing me around £1.30 a day. It have no idea if this is high or low. This is with the HW stat turned to half full, less than that runs cold too quickly.

Thanks a lot.

HappyMJ

Supa_Sava wrote: »

Thanks all for your helpful replies and sorry for my late response, this is my first time getting a chance to read the replies.

I've decided to turn off my CH completely and use the heat from the flats below, so now the only gas I use is purely to heat my hot water.

Could you please give me a rough idea of how much I should expect to pay per day, assuming that I were to have the HW timed to be on from 6am to 11am as suggested by southcoastrgi

Unfortunately my flatmate screwed up my logs because he put on the CH the other day. Apart from that it seems that having the HW on for three one-hour bursts throughout the day has been costing me around £1.30 a day. It have no idea if this is high or low. This is with the HW stat turned to half full, less than that runs cold too quickly.

Thanks a lot.

Could be anything....It depends much more on how many litres of hot water you use and much less on the number of hours it's timed for. Timing the hot water does save a little but it really doesn't save much. The standing losses if you use no hot water at all are about 5kWh per day. You can work out the exact number by reading the gas meter 24 hours apart after using no hot water at all.

southcoastrgi

& good luck using someone elses heating to keep warm i hope you have plenty of jumpers

gas4you

The Powermax HE150 that you have is not a thermal store.

It is a standard condensing heat engine, fitted on top of an unvented cylinder, all in one metal box.

I would suggest the landlord gets a new room stat fitted, so it works properly and set your HW times to suit your usage.

The times for heating and hot water are set as for any normal heating system.

It was the very old and dangerous Range Powermax that was a thermal store.