Energy & Gas Consumpion on a Semi Detached house

markin

Is that the annual gas estimate from last year? What was the last bills date and usage, And was it actual reading or Estimates?

Haydenlm1

markin said:

Is that the annual gas estimate from last year? What was the last bills date and usage, And was it actual reading or Estimates?

Actual readings, we have been charged around £450 for gas and electric last month..

markin

So was the middle switch On? It would seem to be the Immersion, I would guess the tank acts as a heat store and would allow hot water if the combi broke down.

What is the label on the 3rd?

victor2

Haydenlm1 said:

Alnat1 said:

On the boiler, is the left dial normally at the ON position or PREHEAT?

The second and third dials control the temperature of the water, 2nd to taps, 3rd in radiators. You would probably manage if they were both around "12 o'clock", the water would be cooler and the boiler wouldn't have to work so hard.

Alnat1 said:

Can't quite see from your pic, what is the Logic boiler's model type?

It is always on the OFF and never on the preheat or ON.
If we turn the radiator ones to 12 oclock, our radiators not even picking any heat up, its almost pointless..

It is a Logic Combi 30 , been replaced to that one 6 years ago.

I'm no expert, but it looks to me like the Honeywell timer is redundant for hot water, and left over from the previous boiler. The power for the combi boiler comes from the same switch that turns the Honeywell timer on or off, so that needs to be on for the boiler to operate at all. The boiler Preheat switch on the left wants to remain in the off position.
I don't know why a heating engineer couldn't figure it out, but it seems to be that you have a hot water tank heated only by electricity, and that supplies hot water to at least one bathroom and shower? Hence the high electricity usage. If the immersion heater is only controlled by a switch, and not a timer, then getting a timer for it should reduce the electricity bill.
You can find out which taps the combi supplies by trying each one, with the boiler on, and checking which one causes the boiler to fire up when used.
The boiler is capable of timed heating operation - maybe the Honeywell heating timer still controls that?
It needs a heating engineer who knows his stuff to figure it out. It won't be rocket science, but does look confusing to a layman!

merchcon55

Was your older boiler a gravity fed system (with a cold water tank in the loft)? I ask because your hot water tank and dual channel (HW and CH) timer look similar to what we have - which is a very very very old system. 

Is it somehow possible that when you got your new Combi boiler - which would not require a HW tank - that a part of the "old system" was still left in tact?

But somehow when you turn the switch on for your boiler (the one marked CLOCK) - that somehow AT THE SAME TIME - it is also turning on the immersion switch in the HW tank?

Our timer for the boiler can be completely off - and if we want, we can manually turn on the immersion switch, to heat Hot Water via Electricity. In the summer months, this is exactly how we heat our HW and give our boiler a few months time off.

So I am thinking that somehow when you are turning ON the CLOCK SWITCH (which you say you need to have ON to run your boiler) - AT THE SAME TIME - you are also turning on the Immersion Switch.

Does it sound crazy? YES - but could that be the answer??

Spoonie_Turtle

BrainDrained said:

 Would also reiterate that a high-end gaming computer system can add up to a fair bit when used a lot.  Every little helps   

Can confirm - my brother's PC is reasonably high-end from a few years ago.  It supplements the heating in the lounge, and when he had to have it in his bedroom for a few weeks last year the room was *uncomfortably warm* even without heating on!

youravinalarrrf

My guess (and it is a guess) is that the immersion heater has been left permanently switched on somewhere which is causing the majority of your high electricty usage/cost.

Trace the wire coming out of the top of the immersion heater in that tank and my guess is it will probably lead back to a switch socket has been left permanently turned on. This has probably been left connected for emergency use only for short periods if ever your boiler packs up.

You will probably find the other tank in your loft will be a cold water header tank which refills your cylinder with the immersion heater in it as the water gets used.

BUFF

markin said:

What is the label on the 3rd?

I think that it sasy "PUMP"

Haydenlm1

merchcon55 said:

Was your older boiler a gravity fed system (with a cold water tank in the loft)? I ask because your hot water tank and dual channel (HW and CH) timer look similar to what we have - which is a very very very old system. 

Is it somehow possible that when you got your new Combi boiler - which would not require a HW tank - that a part of the "old system" was still left in tact?

But somehow when you turn the switch on for your boiler (the one marked CLOCK) - that somehow AT THE SAME TIME - it is also turning on the immersion switch in the HW tank?

Our timer for the boiler can be completely off - and if we want, we can manually turn on the immersion switch, to heat Hot Water via Electricity. In the summer months, this is exactly how we heat our HW and give our boiler a few months time off.

So I am thinking that somehow when you are turning ON the CLOCK SWITCH (which you say you need to have ON to run your boiler) - AT THE SAME TIME - you are also turning on the Immersion Switch.

Does it sound crazy? YES - but could that be the answer??

We are running some tests now, we have emptied the tank until the water is completely cold, all the switches are off and leaving it for 30 minutes to see if anything gets warm again.
I will then turn on the CLOCK switch and see if the immersion heater turns as well.

If that is the answer, what can I do about it ? Its just eating up my electricity for no reason .. 

youravinalarrrf said:

My guess (and it is a guess) is that the immersion heater has been left permanently switched on somewhere which is causing the majority of your high electricty usage/cost.

Trace the wire coming out of the top of the immersion heater in that tank and my guess is it will probably lead back to a switch socket has been left permanently turned on. This has probably been left connected for emergency use only for short periods if ever your boiler packs up.

You will probably find the other tank in your loft will be a cold water header tank which refills your cylinder with the immersion heater in it as the water gets used.

I have traced the wire from the immersion heater which goes to the middle switch on the wall on the picture.
There is a header tank in the loft as well yeah, but we have never been up there since we bought the property, but i will get up there and check it tomorrow.

BUFF said:

markin said:

What is the label on the 3rd?

I think that it sasy "PUMP"

I do believe the last switch says PUMP yeah, not sure what it does exactly or what it is pumping..im assuming water from the tank in the left to the tank in the bathroom?

markin

I would guess a shower pump then, the would have been no pressure from the tank. is it still needed?