Will this damage my boiler?

MEGANJODELLE

I've recently bought a new home and obviously don't want to do anything that could cost me big money in the long run or affect my ability to sell again. However, with a tight budget I do want to do everything I can to save money.

I have a modern gas boiler (2004) and have been switching it off when I'm not at home. I appreciate that this is more of a summer activity, but I feel it is a waste to leave it burning gas when I'm away for a weekend or a whole day at work. My shower is electric so I only really need the gas to heat water for washing up until winter arrives.

Does anyone else do this? Could it damage my boiler in any way? Ultimately, am I fooling myself about how much money I may or may not be saving?

Any comments/advice would be appreciated.


Thanks

pcwilkins

No, turning a boiler off does not damage it! Easiest way to do it is to turn it off on the hot water timer switch, if you have one --- which I'm pretty sure you must have somewhere. What do you have the timer switch set on? You could set it so that hot water was only on during the evenings, then you wouldn't have to worry about turning boiler off when you went to work.

I usually turn hot water off when we're away for more than a couple of days.

Peter

Canucklehead

MEGANJODELLE wrote: »

I've recently bought a new home and obviously don't want to do anything that could cost me big money in the long run or affect my ability to sell again. However, with a tight budget I do want to do everything I can to save money.

I have a modern gas boiler (2004) and have been switching it off when I'm not at home. I appreciate that this is more of a summer activity, but I feel it is a waste to leave it burning gas when I'm away for a weekend or a whole day at work. My shower is electric so I only really need the gas to heat water for washing up until winter arrives.

Does anyone else do this? Could it damage my boiler in any way? Ultimately, am I fooling myself about how much money I may or may not be saving?

Any comments/advice would be appreciated.


Thanks

Good afternoon: Couple of questions...how are you 'turning off' the boiler, how is your hot water heated in the summer (e.g. combination boiler, immersion heater/cylinder), and what central heating controls were installed ? The Energy Saving Trust has more info on controls here
http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/uploads/documents/housingbuildings/ce30.pdf

Canucklehead

MEGANJODELLE

Hi,

Thanks for your replies. My boiler has no hot water tank to heat up, it's all done by the boiler. Without meaning to sound too blonde, the control I'm switching on and off is on the actual boiler and is literally marked as the "on/off switch".

I will have another look at the instruction booklet I have now though.

Thanks again.

pcwilkins

MEGANJODELLE wrote: »

Hi,

Thanks for your replies. My boiler has no hot water tank to heat up, it's all done by the boiler. Without meaning to sound too blonde, the control I'm switching on and off is on the actual boiler and is literally marked as the "on/off switch".

I will have another look at the instruction booklet I have now though.

Thanks again.

It sounds like your boiler only heats up water when you ask for hot water --- so if you're not running the hot tap and you've got the central heating off, the boiler shouldn't be coming on. If that's the case you don't need to turn off the switch when you go out, but it won't do any harm.

Peter

Canucklehead

MEGANJODELLE wrote: »

Hi,

Thanks for your replies. My boiler has no hot water tank to heat up, it's all done by the boiler. Without meaning to sound too blonde, the control I'm switching on and off is on the actual boiler and is literally marked as the "on/off switch".

I will have another look at the instruction booklet I have now though.

Thanks again.

Good evening: Sounds as if you have a combination boiler... under most circumstances there is no need to use the power switch on the boiler. This subject was discussed recently on this thread http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=5512268&postcount=8

If your CH system doesn't have a programmer than it was an installation done on the cheap even for 2004! Consult with your CORGI engineer when the boiler has its annual service.

HTH

Canucklehead

Snow_Dog

If there is no external hot water tank then its a combi boiler, however chances are it will have a small internal tank that it keeps hot (not all combis like this though). You will occasionally hear boilers like this fire up for about 5-10 seconds as this tank cools and the boiler will reheat it.

The amount of gas this uses is going to be very little, if you went away for a week in the summer I wouldn't have thought it would fire up more than a couple of times per day, maybe a couple of pence per day.

Personally I would leave this on in this case as the most common failure for electrical systems is at power on. The most common example of this is in light bulbs, they almost always fail when you turn them on, this is due to thermal shock. The longest running light bulb I once read was in a fire station in the US and it had never been turned off.

For the sake of a few pence per day if that I would leave the power on and keep exercising the system.

MEGANJODELLE

Hi all,

Thanks for the additional posts/comments.

Snowdog - yes that's exactly what my boiler does, I hear it fire up now and then, but I take your point about the additional risk of things breaking when being switched on. I'll leave it on in future, unless I'm away for a few days.

Thanks again.