Electric Boiler - confused

csswiift

I have an electric boiler which is housed in the cellar. There’s a timer facility on the boiler but I’ve never used it. When I want the central heating on, I go around each radiator and turn up the heat.

Am I being charged for essentially using heating even when the radiators are at zero? A plumber friend mentioned that the boiler is still heating and circulating around the pipes but just not into the radiators so still ‘being used’.

Help..

marcia_

 The boiler so still on, you should use the timer switch 

Reed_Richards

If all the radiators are off but the pump in the boiler is still running either:

1. You wear out the pump very quickly indeed.
2.  A bypass loop operates so the water has somewhere to go.  Since the hot water has nothing to heat it will rapidly get too hot and force the boiler and the pump to turn off for a while.  But whilst the boiler and the pump are running you are wasting energy.

csswiift

Ok thanks for the comments.

second question. We’ve just had a log burner installed so don’t use the central heating in any of the rooms, should I switch it off completely then? How does this effect the hot water?

QrizB

If you have a conventional S- or Y-plan central heating system, you should be able to turn off the central heating but leave the hot water on.

Can you give details of your boiler (make and model) and of any timer or programmer?

csswiift

Ok so here’s a picture of what I have - excuse the mess! The tank etc is in our locked cellar outside the property.

sorry for the mass of questions, I’ve no idea about this stuff so any guidance is appreciated.

QrizB

Looking at that photo, the white box in the middle with the buttons and display is your central heating programmer. Other versions of the same device will also control hot water, but yours doesn't.

To the left of the photo, the Aztec device is a flow boiler. It makes water hot. However it doesn't seem to be connect in any way to your hot water tank (the Gledhill Stainlesslite plus) on the right of the photo.

I can also see two grey switches in the lower centre of the photo with white cables leading in the direction of the water tank. This makes me think that your got water is heated in the tank by a pair of immersion heaters, and does not involve your electric boiler.

Can you confirm where those two cables go? Do they connect into the HW tank?

csswiift

Yeah those both run into the HW tank.. another picture for you?

QrizB

Yes, it looks to me like your hot water coms from those two immersion heaters and does not involve your electric boiler. You can turn the boiler off without affecting your hot water.

markin

The lagging is terrible, i presume it get below 0c in there at times, set it to 35c or drain it down.

The is no 3-way valve but im not certain the boiler is not heating the tank, they seem connected.

But i would presume it would be useful to have a short blast at 6am, also are all the rads set to frost symbol at 6c or actually Off?


You don't want to be on E7 tariff with this set up.

Reed_Richards

QrizB said:

Looking at that photo, the white box in the middle with the buttons and display is your central heating programmer. Other versions of the same device will also control hot water, but yours doesn't.

A close-up picture of that white box would help a lot but I think I read that it is set to On.  In which case your electric boiler is indeed on all the time.  It would be much better (and quicker, I imagine) to set it to Off when you want your heating off.  Or you could set it to Timed and program times when it is on and off.