House is freezing, no idea how to warm it up!

ElixiaDragmire

Yeah we opened the lock sheild values because with the system on full, all TRVs on full, only a handful of radiators are hot, the rest were lukewarm or stone cold. After we did that they became hot.

Were going to call around tomorrow to get a heating engineer too look at it.

The boiler was serviced last year by the previous owners but I've signed up to homesrve and waiting for the free service from them, might give them a poke.

TadleyBaggie

A 20 year old boiler is probably struggling. Ours was around 25 years old and the house was taking an age to warm up, eventually if failed and was replaced. I have a internal thermometer and can see how long the house took to warm up every morning, pre boiler change it was taking about 1 hour to heat up 1 degree C, now it is around 3 times faster. When the boiler was replaced, it was discovered that the old system was plumbed backwards.

Ectophile

A couple of thoughts on the boiler cycling on and off..

1. If the hot water and central heating have to be on together, then perhaps there's a thermostat on the hot water tank that's turning off the boiler when it's up to temperature.
2. Have you checked the water temperature control on the boiler? The boiler will shut down for a while if it thinks the water being circulated round the system is hot enough.

Edit: I'd second tacpot12's comment on balancing the system. My radiators used to take hours to warm up properly. I discovered that the lockshield valve on the kitchen radiator was fully open. It was stealing all the hot water, so very little was getting to the other radiators.

kinger101

Balancing the radiators will help - best get a heating engineer to do this as they'll have the digital thermometer to get the right temperature drop across the radiator. Changing the control unit so that hot water and heating can be used independently also sounds like a good idea (if this is economical).

Wouldn't worry about the age of the boiler too much. If it works, it will never be economical to replace it with another.

SuzieSue

kinger101 wrote: »

Wouldn't worry about the age of the boiler too much. If it works, it will never be economical to replace it with another.

I've also got an Ideal Classic which was installed in 1997 and so is the same age as the OP's. All the reviews I've read say that they are very good boilers. I don't have to have the hot water on when I have the CH on.

kinger101

SuzieSue wrote: »

I've also got an Ideal Classic which was installed in 1997 and so is the same age as the OP's. All the reviews I've read say that they are very good boilers. I don't have to have the hot water on when I have the CH on.

Same here. An FF270. My plumber says only things that ever seem to fail on them are the fan and ignition, and these are still available. Not familiar with OP's boiler, but I'm guessing it's a cheap timer problem rather than something inherent in the boiler.

SuzieSue

kinger101 wrote: »

Same here. An FF270. My plumber says only things that ever seem to fail on them are the fan and ignition, and these are still available. Not familiar with OP's boiler, but I'm guessing it's a cheap timer problem rather than something inherent in the boiler.

Yes, I replaced the fan a couple of years ago just in case. My neighbour also has the same boiler and he had to have the gas valve solenoid replaced last month (I'm not sure if that is the same as the ignition).

ElixiaDragmire

We would rather not replace the boiler right now if we can help it. We found out from a local plumber and neighbour that the house builders wired it so that the CH/HT came on the same time. I will admit it stuck me as odd since all other houses I've owned have been combi boiler and I've never had issues with them.
This system hasn't really worked since we moved in. Half the radiators didn't turn on! I'll try again to get an engineer out to see it. I'll send a picture of the boiler reg since I could find it's manual online either

Loanranger

What floor covering have you got?
I bought a new house in 1990 and the floor was just bare concrete, no thermoplastic tiles , just concrete. We had underlay and fitted carpet installed but it always felt very cold around the floor.

trailingspouse

Our house has been cold - radiators painfully hot, house not so much. We had the heating coming on at 5 (I get up at 6) until 10am and then on again at 4 until 10pm. Never felt warm.

Three days ago it was particularly cold - trying to snow and thoroughly miserable. I swore loudly and turned the heating to continuous. And I haven't put it back to timed since. However - I've turned the temperature down three times as the house was getting too hot!!

So maybe you do just need to put more warmth into the house. And once the whole house is thoroughly warm, the cold spots will be easier to find (you might not notice how cold the hall is if the whole house is cold, but if the rest of the house is warm it will be more obvious - does that make sense?)