New rental property - Boiler in Garage, no indoor controls?

EdajOvor

Hi,

We moved into a new rented property yesterday. We were told by the Letting Agents before moving in that the controls were in the house (upon moving in we realised they were confusing the British Gas Smart Meter Unit with controls).

The boiler is in the garage (not connected directly to house, you have to leave house, walk round and unlock the garage to enter). The heating / hot water controls are on the boiler. (Ferroli HE Boiler)

Apart from a Siemens RAA20 thermostat indoors, there appears to be no way whatsoever of controlling the heating / hot water from the house (turning it on off / timer etc)

It seems bizarre and completely impractical to me that every time we want to put the heating or hot water on we will have to go outside and open up the garage and do it from there? Especially in the winter

Am I missing something? Should I bring this up to the Letting Agent?

I know we can use timers, but we are very strict with our Gas Usage. We only usually turn our water / heating on when actually using it, in warmer months we usually have it completely turned off, unless actively using the water.

Also, as me and my partner are on completely different work schedules we can’t really set timers for when we are home.

macman

Since the boiler uses no gas when it is not firing, and minimal electricity, why don't you just use the system as intended and let it come on as determined by the thermostat and timer?
If you don't want it to come on automatically in response to a drop in temp, simply set the thermostat down to a lower target temp.
How do you heat your water in the summer? If you are using a back up immersion heater, the it's about 300% more expensive than gas.

Talldave

It's the sort of thing I would have asked about during a viewing - although in my experience when letting agents don't know the answer they simply lie, so perhaps you would only have known it was a peculiar setup.

If you replace the thermostat with a fully programmable one and set the boiler's control for heating to permanently on, then you effectively move control of the heating indoors.

Is there a hot water tank? If so, you'll have to set some times to cover your hot water needs and grin and bear it?

EdajOvor

I think the boiler is a Combi Boiler, for both the Hot Water and Heating. We did ask prior to moving in, as the boiler was in the garage, were there controls inside? and they told us the heating/hot water controls were on a little unit in the kitchen (which upon moving in turned out to be the smart meter unit)

In the winter we only turn on the heating if needed when one or both of us is home (with our work shifts, this changes day to day and week to week so timers would have to be changed almost daily), we are quite strict so we only tend to have radiators turned on in rooms that we are in.

In general all Year Round, we only have the hot water on if we are using it and then we turn it off again after using it. In our last rental we had an electric shower so we only ever turned the hot water on when we did the washing up.

I suppose for the heating, we could use the room thermostat and just turn it off/right down when we are not home. Although the Thermostat is located in the hallway by the front door, which most likely isn't the most ideal place for it.

I'm unsure to be honest on how the hot water works, in terms of the thermostat, or if this is related at all. This would be more important as we don't need the hot water on all of the time, it would be handy to have the controls in the house.

Takmon

EdajOvor wrote: »

I think the boiler is a Combi Boiler, for both the Hot Water and Heating. We did ask prior to moving in, as the boiler was in the garage, were there controls inside? and they told us the heating/hot water controls were on a little unit in the kitchen (which upon moving in turned out to be the smart meter unit)

In the winter we only turn on the heating if needed when one or both of us is home (with our work shifts, this changes day to day and week to week so timers would have to be changed almost daily), we are quite strict so we only tend to have radiators turned on in rooms that we are in.

In general all Year Round, we only have the hot water on if we are using it and then we turn it off again after using it. In our last rental we had an electric shower so we only ever turned the hot water on when we did the washing up.

I suppose for the heating, we could use the room thermostat and just turn it off/right down when we are not home. Although the Thermostat is located in the hallway by the front door, which most likely isn't the most ideal place for it.

I'm unsure to be honest on how the hot water works, in terms of the thermostat, or if this is related at all. This would be more important as we don't need the hot water on all of the time, it would be handy to have the controls in the house.

If it's a Combi Boiler then the water will only be heated when the hot tap is turned on. So if you don't turn on the hot taps then you won't use gas to heat the water. Some Combi Boilers do occasionally fire to keep it from getting too cold but this gas usage will be very small. So it's pointless turning the water dial on and off on a Combi Boiler.

Controlling the heating with a thermostat is a pretty normal way of doing it. I have a smart thermostat and that controls the heating fully and i never adjust the boiler controls. You could get a smart thermostat fitted if your not happy with the current one.

EdajOvor

Ah that clears things up a bit then, seems I've been going overkill trying to save money on hot water.

I'll give using the Thermostat a go then.

Just a quick question, would I need the heating ON on the actual boiler, or would the thermostat control this on and off depending on internal temperature?

PasturesNew

I leave mine on all the time - as it uses nothing of note.

When I want the heating on I simply twist the wall thermostat until I hear it click. Ditto to turn it down.

anniecave

EdajOvor wrote: »

Ah that clears things up a bit then, seems I've been going overkill trying to save money on hot water.

I'll give using the Thermostat a go then.

Just a quick question, would I need the heating ON on the actual boiler, or would the thermostat control this on and off depending on internal temperature?

If you set the boiler to come on at times when you want it, then set the thermostats in each room to your desired temperature.

You can turn the thermostats down in rooms you don't need.

If it's a combi for hot water then that's easy, as the water will just come on when you run the taps as you need it.

anniecave

I leave my heating off overnight.

Depending on the insulation of your home, you might find that if you have it on for say a couple of hours in the morning, you may not really need it on during the day unless it's really cold, and you can set it to come on during late afternoon and through the evenings as needed.

Mister_G

anniecave wrote: »

You can turn the thermostats down in rooms you don't need.

Assuming they have TRVs in each room:)

RelievedSheff

As others have said you shouldn't really need to touch the controls on the combi boiler.

During the warmer months leave it switched to hot water only and in the winter switch it over to hot water and heat. A combi boiler will only heat water on demand so you are not saving anything by switching it off.

Control the heat from the house with the thermostat. Turn it right down to stop it coming in when you don't want it too. Then turn it up when you have a need for some heat.