Worried about my boiler please help

Annhayton

I have been in my rented property for about a year and half and since day one we have had a problem with the boiler. before putting the heating on we took a reading and had the heating on for 2 hours after which we took another reading we were flabbergasted to find that it cost us £17, and this was given to us by the gas company. They told us to do the same again now the readings where up to date we did and this time £16.94. They advised to get the landlord to look at this as it appears that the boiler may not be cutting out and on constantly for the 2 hours. We did this one gas company who does the inspection condemned the boiler. The company that does all the repair work for the landlord came out and fitted a new pressure valve and then said the boiler was fine and the thermostat was working. Taking into account here that the the thermostat was turned down to 10 and the boiler was still not kicking off we where told that that the room was not getting to temperature that's why the thermostat was not turning off. We have up in the end and never put the heating on as it scared us that much. This year we had a leak somewhere as the boiler we have to top up twice a week with water otherwise no hot water. The same company came out to investigate and ask us to out the heating on to see if there where any damp patches appearing the boiler was on for 30 mins and never cut out the house was roasting apart from the room where the thermostat was and still did not cut out the boiler went straight up to 3 bar in the red. As they could find a leak they said the boiler was fine and so was the thermostat as it cut the boiler off when you operated the thermostat manually. Should I be worried. We have had someone look at the thermostat ourselves and heated the room which it is in and when the room hit the temperature that the thermostat was in the thermostat kicked in but the boiler didn't turn off. In the red after 5 minutes this time. Can anyone please help me I am getting worried and I am very cold Thanks

Ectophile

If it's a combi boiler, then losing pressure when cold and shooting up to the red when the system warms up is a classic sign of a failed expansion tank. I would hope that any gas-safe installer would know that (I'm not one, I just know it from having a clapped out boiler in the past). It shouldn't be left like that.

In the short term, every boiler I have ever used has had a big temperature knob on the front. Turn that down to low and see if it helps. If nothing else, it should use less gas and the heating should be more manageable. It may even reduce the over-pressuring.

Gloomendoom

Are you sure that you have read the meter and/or done the calculations properly?

Unless you have a gas leak or are on a exorbitant rate per unit, I doubt that your boiler could burn that much gas in two hours

Cardew

You are reading your meter incorrectly* or the meter is faulty.


£17 with gas at, say 3p/kWh, will be 566kWh. Even the biggest boiler has an output around 40kW and that output is only needed for hot water not heating.


Even so if it was using the full 40kW and the radiators could dissipate such heat, it would use 80kWh in that 2 hours and cost £2.40.


In practice even using 80kWh in two hours would be impossible because the water would boil.


I doubt many CH systems - even faulty - could use more than, say 30kWh in 2 hours.


Are you reading the meter correctly? The red No's are fractions of a cubic metre.


http://www.edfenergy.com/for-home/help-support/read-meter
Gas digital meter

Here's a typical gas digital meter: