No heat tonight, Worcester, Greenstar 18Ri, smart meters, Octopus Energy D/D

bagand96

Frozen condensate drain causing the boiler to shut down? 

https://www.worcester-bosch.co.uk/heating-advice/frozen-condensate

There's plenty of potential snags with the boiler/heating system before suspecting a faulty meter. 

WiserMiser

Grumpy_chap said:

Faulty smart meter would not affect actual gas flow.

Nope.  Every gas smart meter has a Shut Off Valve (SOV).  If the boiler heats up for any length of time then that suggests the meter is not the source of the problem.

If the pump hasn't been used since last spring it may have seized up.  Give it a few sharp taps and see what happens.  If the pump's input pipe is hot but it's output pipe is cool or cold then the pump isn't working.

Heedtheadvice

I would hope your heating engineer could diagnose the area that is the cause. You have obviously ruled out some of the following ( I may have missed something )

Power to/in the control units ( thermostat, programmer, zone valves ) or failure of them.

Circulation failure ( pump, zone valves not working properly, blockages/filter clogged)

No boiler heat ( lack of gas, not getting control signals, boiler failure)

Radiator issues ( needing bleeded, thermostatic valves wrongly set) or programmer/thermostat not properly set

A competent engineer should soon find the cause.

If it turns out to be a boiler failure out of guarantee then be aware that Worcester Bosch do a low price repair by one of their trained engineers. We'll worth considering if you have had your boiler for a few years. It used to be a fixed price ( last I used it) but it seems some components might cost a bit more if they are the problem. Currently £368 Inc vat. Details at https://www.worcester-bosch.co.uk/support/boiler-repair/out-of-guarantee-repair

Last fault I used them and it was a great service and my Ri boiler ( like yours) ended up like new.

Beware that you need to be sure that it is a boiler ( or Worcester controls - they are covered too) problem as it is a non returnable cost. 

SirFreddy

Hello MSE'rs A quick update before I jump in front of a bus.
I put two new batteries in the DT90E stat but no luck on improving things.
I spoke to OE and they said they would send an engineer out to have a look at the meter, this is in a north west facing wall, I tell you this because the engineer said our meter was waterlogged and needed replacing. It first played up last Friday when we were being battered by Storm Claudio, so that made sense.
However, the new meter worked till the engineer went up the road so from 8-30pm we had no heat, although I did try a reset. This morning the CH came on at it's usual time but only lasted about 80 minutes.
I had a look at Worcester Boch's recommended engineers for my area and my engineer is actually on the list, so I have just given him a call and he is coming round in about 3 hours.

Without seeing things he told me that the only fault it could be with the blue light remaining on all the time was a printed circuit board fault, whether Claudia could have damaged that, then time will tell.

Swipe

During that storm on Friday, the wind and driving rain was coming from the North East

SirFreddy

I bow to your superior knowledge Swipe, unfortunately my personal windsock was a victim of the strong winds.

born_again

SirFreddy said:

Hello MSE'rs A quick update before I jump in front of a bus.
I put two new batteries in the DT90E stat but no luck on improving things.
I spoke to OE and they said they would send an engineer out to have a look at the meter, this is in a north west facing wall, I tell you this because the engineer said our meter was waterlogged and needed replacing. It first played up last Friday when we were being battered by Storm Claudio, so that made sense.
However, the new meter worked till the engineer went up the road so from 8-30pm we had no heat, although I did try a reset. This morning the CH came on at it's usual time but only lasted about 80 minutes.
I had a look at Worcester Boch's recommended engineers for my area and my engineer is actually on the list, so I have just given him a call and he is coming round in about 3 hours.

Without seeing things he told me that the only fault it could be with the blue light remaining on all the time was a printed circuit board fault, whether Claudia could have damaged that, then time will tell.

Is the meter not in a box?

SirFreddy

The heating engineer has just left the building, he has diagnosed the problem as the old favourite, of the electronic box attached to the brass valve in the airing cupboard. ( I forget the valve's name).
We have had a couple of these replaced over the past 15 years or so, I think ours is the 28mm one.
I can now recall sliding the little lever over when it has tripped back in the day, perhaps that is something I will have to do until the engineer finds time to fit the valve.

bagand96

SirFreddy said:

The heating engineer has just left the building, he has diagnosed the problem as the old favourite, of the electronic box attached to the brass valve in the airing cupboard. ( I forget the valve's name).
We have had a couple of these replaced over the past 15 years or so, I think ours is the 28mm one.
I can now recall sliding the little lever over when it has tripped back in the day, perhaps that is something I will have to do until the engineer finds time to fit the valve.

Sorry if I've mis-understood, did you get Octopus to change the meter before the central heating engineer came to identify the fault with the valve on your CH?

If so, amazing service from Octopus 😂

WiserMiser

It's just a motorised valve.  No electronics.