Mystery always on towel rails

TELLIT01

Ajmason42 said:

I’m going to guess plumbed into the hot water system and not the heating circuit if the rest of the rads are cold in the day and the towel warmers are hot. 

That would be my guess too.  The survey said " "Hot water is provided by the gas boiler and is stored within an unvented, steel cylinder in the utility room. " so even without the boiler on there will always be a supply of hot water as the cylinder also has an immersion heater.

fezster

OP - you should have 2+ zone valves (silver boxes with small levers on them) - one for the HW (the unvented cylinder) and one or more for your radiators. If the HW or radiator circuits are "on", the levers will freely move fully - you can use this to check if the zone is calling for heat or not.

More than likely, the towel radiators are plumbed into your HW circuit so they warm up when the cylinder is heated. You need to check your HW schedule if you find the towel rads are always warm. Ideally, you have it come on once in the morning, which should meet your HW demands for the entire day, with a boost function to top up intraday if and when needed.  

Belenus

Oniongirl, do you have any means of contacting the previous owners via the estate agent or, if you are renting, the previous tenants or the landlord?

They may have the answers.

oniongirl

coffeehound said:

Is the hot tank on the ground floor, OP?

Yes, boiler and tank and controls all downstairs in the utility which was converted from the garage. Another novelty for me as I'd always known hot water tanks to be upstairs.

oniongirl

I want to say a massive thanks for all the helpful suggestions! I'm going to experiment when the hubby goes off to his allotment as currently me fiddling with stuff in the utility room then running around touching towels rails is apparently really annoying. I will post some pictures of the boiler shortly. 

oniongirl

Belenus said:

Oniongirl, do you have any means of contacting the previous owners via the estate agent or, if you are renting, the previous tenants or the landlord?

They may have the answers.

They almost definitely do - we had to ask them where the main internet connection was as we tried THREE other fibre connections we found around the house to no avail. Ended up being in a cupboard in the box room which they'd been using as an office. 

I don't reeeeally want to ask for fear of being annoying and I reckon you learn by doing. 

oniongirl

fezster said:

OP - you should have 2+ zone valves (silver boxes with small levers on them) - one for the HW (the unvented cylinder) and one or more for your radiators. If the HW or radiator circuits are "on", the levers will freely move fully - you can use this to check if the zone is calling for heat or not.

More than likely, the towel radiators are plumbed into your HW circuit so they warm up when the cylinder is heated. You need to check your HW schedule if you find the towel rads are always warm. Ideally, you have it come on once in the morning, which should meet your HW demands for the entire day, with a boost function to top up intraday if and when needed.  

Yes, I've rejigged the schedule already as they had the hot water coming on for three hours at 5am and then again at 3pm until 11pm! I really though I'd sussed it changing the schedule, but nope. 

coffeehound

oniongirl said:

coffeehound said:

Is the hot tank on the ground floor, OP?

Yes, boiler and tank and controls all downstairs in the utility which was converted from the garage. Another novelty for me as I'd always known hot water tanks to be upstairs.

That would be consistent with (as the police say) a convection effect -- heat rising from the hot water tank to the TRs.

Where you say the boiler whirrs while switched off -- does this stop if you turn down the wall thermostat?  If so it's the pump running.

theoretica

What are you using to control the heating and turn it on/off?  This could happen if something is turning off all the other radiators individually, but not getting the message to the main system.  'Smart' controls on the radiators with a not-smart-enough set up for instance.

oniongirl

coffeehound said:

oniongirl said:

coffeehound said:

Is the hot tank on the ground floor, OP?

Yes, boiler and tank and controls all downstairs in the utility which was converted from the garage. Another novelty for me as I'd always known hot water tanks to be upstairs.

That would be consistent with (as the police say) a convection effect -- heat rising from the hot water tank to the TRs.

Where you say the boiler whirrs while switched off -- does this stop if you turn down the wall thermostat?  If so it's the pump running.

Ahhh yes the symbol for the pump running is lit as well as the symbols that day both hot water and heating are being called for. I don't know why the pump is running at 3am though, not why it's saying something is calling for heat/hot water.

theoretica said:

What are you using to control the heating and turn it on/off?  This could happen if something is turning off all the other radiators individually, but not getting the message to the main system.  'Smart' controls on the radiators with a not-smart-enough set up for instance.

There is a thermostat in the hallway which beams to the programmable bit by the boiler. This bit looks to be working correctly. If I turn the temperature up, the programmable bit has a light that comes on to say it's asking the boiler for heat.

There's no smart stuff in this house. For now. I can't believe I've gone from telling my heating to turn on from the train to not being able to schedule something different for a weekday vs a weekend.