Combi boiler - how to set up hot water for max efficiency

Kat78MFW

We have a Worcester Bosch Greenstar 30 Si Combi boiler. We are very lucky to be on a fixed deal with Ovo until June 23 so are protected from the current energy price hikes. However, I am still keen to get our boiler running at max efficiency to reduce our gas consumption. I have turned down the radiator temperature to try to ensure it's running in condensing mode but I am unclear about how to set up the hot water. 

I have never turned on the water heater part of the boiler because, even with it off, it has always just fired up when we run the hot tap. But now I'm wondering if this is an inefficient way to run this type of boiler. I've googled but can't find the answer. 

Can anyone help? 

Kat78MFW

Here is a photo of the control panel

cynic-al2

The control panel also works for a system with a boiler and the right hand lcd controls are redundant, because your hot water is heated on demand. 

So you don't need to do anything 

Kat78MFW

Oh super - that's great to know.  I thought I might have been using it inefficiently these past 10 years!

sysadmin

I have a similar boiler. I was told by the engineer that installed it, is that the section on the water control on the right keeps a small amount of water "always warm" so that when you run the tap, you get hot water quicker and therefore waste less water. 

The disadvantage of that is that it uses more energy to keep that water always warm/hot.. 

Personally, I have this feature off. 

northernstar007

i also have a worcester bosch (34cdi) i also have my hot water on eco mode, but what i do is take it out of eco mode when i need hot water, takes 30secs and yes its using a bit of gas but saves on water coming out of tap waiting it for it to warm up, at least when you open your tap its already hot, and then when finished put it back into eco mode

BobT36

SysAdmin, that's the "eco" button. in the screenshot it's "on", which means it's ONLY heated on demand. 
With Eco off, it's always warm yeah. Unless a really high demand, not needed. 

northernstar007

when its in eco mode the hot water dosnt get warmed up at all, even in winter, had mine 5 years and a excellent investment