What to do with my Combi Boiler?

MissHunt

Firstly, I'm completely new to this. All of it. Living alone and independently, financing, bills, utilities and boilers. I got thrown in the deep end just after turning 18 and a year later I'm figuring things out as I go as nobody really helps much... So if I seem like I don't know what I am talking about, it's because I don't... My apologies for it.
Second, I apologize for the long post. I wanted to give enough info so people don't need to ask questions and wait for answers.

Anyway, what I want to know is, what do I do with a combi boiler? It took me 3, 4 months to actually notice that that's what my boiler is. I live in a rented house, and the landlord didn't even know!
The boiler is kept in a cupboard attached to the front of the house, outside (And I think that's a really bad place for it because it's freezing in there most of they year, and I can't see that being very good for conserving heat and gas!) and I got no manual or instructions with it. There's a dial next to a tap symbol and another with a radiator one. I assume this is for temperature. There's an on/off dial, a 'light switch' type switch in there (But not for a light?) and a little led interface thing that tells me the temperature. And some buttons under it that I don't understand so don't touch.

Usage:
I only use hot water 2 times per week. Ever. I don't need to wash with hot water much and don't eat or drink a lot either, so don't need to wash up often. 2 timer per week is plenty. I also never use my heating. I've lived here about a year and much prefer to bundle up with cozie blankets and jumpers than to use my heating system as it's loud and not so great for the earth. It's never effective when I want it to be either. When I have the boiler on, the heating will usually turn on without being told. Summer, winter, doesn't matter. I have a weird digital interface indoors for heating only, but it's like the boiler rebels and ignores it for the most part.

Should I turn the boiler off when I an finished with the hot water? Or will that just use more gas. I use it maybe 6 hours per week, tops. Also, what do I do about this could cupboard deal? Is that fine? Should I try to insulate it? Or will it then get too hot?

Any info on this would be great, and if anyone has any more advise on gas use for me, that would be greatly appreciated too.

molerat

There are 2 types of combi. One has a small store of hot water inside and one only heats water on demand. If the first type you need to set the timer to only heat water when you need it, the second you need to do nothing as it will only heat the water (& use gas) when you turn a tap on. You should not really turn an outside boiler completely off as it should have frost protection which will turn it on for short bursts when outside is below freezing.

HappyMJ

As above don't turn it off. It should have frost protection and may be the reason why it is ignoring the thermostat. If the boiler gets too cold it will come on no matter what your thermostat is asking for as it's trying to protect itself from freezing.

If you have turned it off and the internal pipes freeze expanding, breaking the boiler you could find yourself negligent and liable for it's replacement even though you are renting the property.

Don't insulate the cupboard. The boiler requires some airflow around it so avoid putting anything around the boiler. The boiler itself doesn't lose much heat.

As the boiler is outside you might find it comes on for quite a while in the winter without heat being requested. There isn't much you can do about that apart from bringing it inside which the LL is unlikely to do.

Smiley_Dan

Insulation has little to do with airflow, other than encouraging the stack effect. In fact you could get more airflow by insulating, if you open the top of the cupboard.