Drayton Tempus 3 central heating control gone a bit mad

[Simon Finnigan]

Hi all, I`ve got a Drayton Tempus Three controller running my combi boiler, and have an issue with it. Whenever the hot water is turned on, turning the thermostat up results in the heating coming on.

As it stands we don`t have any hot water tank, it is heated on demand (we use very little hot water), so we need the hot water to always be ready to go. This happens whether the hot water is set to turn on once, twice or be on continuously. We only really need the heating to come on for an hour or so first thing in the morning to take the chill off - after that there are people and pets moving about, and electric stuff turned on, that combined with the good insulation in the house keep the house more than warm enough.

Any suggestions, anyone know where to source a manual for this controller (I`ve tried google, but everything I turn up seems to be a source for newer controllers, which I don`t really want to buy unless I can`t fixc the problem I have).

Thanks in advance for any help you can give!

[ricardianno]

Try Tempus 1 and 2 are there but not 3!!

[Simon Finnigan]

It is deffinately a tempus THREE (marked as three, not 3) on the front. it doesn`t look like any of the other models I can find on that site.

Anyone ever heard of the tempus three, or know if it`d be easy enough to replace with another model that was more useful - that didn`t insist on turning the CH on 24/7 :-)

[ARWadsworth]

You either have a faulty boiler or a wiring problem. The programmer is not to blame.

Adam

[Simon Finnigan]

Does anyone else disagree with this opinion? The CH seems to be always on, despite what the controller says. And if people do agree, can anyone think of a simple way to test which component is faulty? :-)

[ARWadsworth]

Sorry mate for the very short and rather short non helpfull reply earlier, I was very busy.

I too cannot find a Tempus 3 programmer on the net.

Two questions for you

Is the programmer a 2 channel programmer (ie hot water and central heating)?

What is the make and model of the combi boiler?

This could be easy to solve.

Adam

[Simon Finnigan]

Yeah it`s got 2 channels - HW and CH. Each can be set to on, once, twice or off, and there is an override for the CH too. The thermostat is in a different room (but obviously connected). The combi boiler is an Ideal Response 100. No matter the setting on the HW or CH, the CH will come on with the thermostat, unless both HW and CH are set to off.It`s annoying - I`m on earlies at the moment and would the house nice and toasty warm at 4AM when I get out of bed, but sensibly cool when i`m getting to sleep - nothing worse than getting up to a cold house in the middle of the night :-)

[ARWadsworth]

You do not need a two channel programmer for a combi. Combi boilers are hot water on demand not timed. The HW setting should do nothing in this setup. It should be left in the off position forever and you will still get hot water when you turn a tap on. You then use the CH settings to control your heating times.

Try it and see what happens.

This is really the wrong programmer for a combi and is either the remnants of an old system or the person who fitted the system had a free programmer and used it to save money and wired it up incorrectly.

Adam

[Simon Finnigan]

When the new boiler was fitted in the house, there was essentially no free money at all - it needed doing right away, and it needed doing as cheaply as humanly possible :-) Not by us, but we know the previous owners very well (well, it was owned by my parents since just before I was born, and I grew up in the house before buying it :-) ).

You where right, but it took a LOT to convince the controller to leave the HW off while still having the CH on for a set period of time. Switching one off turned the other on, and then adjusting the other one turned the first back on! It`s finally sorted, the g/f has been given strict instrucitons to never ever ever touch it or I`ll never get it working again :-) I suppose switching the control round is another job to be added to the list, but since it`s working now (and yes, the HW does still come on when needed ;-) ) it will be going near the bottom.

The joys of owning a house! ;-)

[ARWadsworth]

If g/f messes then just set the HW and CH to come on and off at the same time as each other as the combi will not know any difference (the main point being that the HW setting only affects your CH not the HW). I am still annoyed that I cannot find a manual for a Tempus 3.

Adam

[Simon Finnigan]

You`d think that wouldn`t you, but you`d actually be wrong! It`s almost impossible to get the HW and CH both set to the same thing, as changing one setting will alter the other! A right pain in the proverbial!

And if you do manage to dig out a manual, i`d love to know where! i`ve tried everywhere I can think of!

[malcolm.white]

I was wondering why you were using the HW side of the controller with a combi. One thing that occurred to me is that on some systems eg. gravity HW systems the controller has a switch that ensures the HW comes on when CH is called for and the HW switch feeds the boiler, CH is just used to feed the room stat and the pump. Perhaps yours is set up in a similar manner?

I did find this

is for the Tempus 6 which is backwards compatible

[Simon Finnigan]

As I say, it was fitted when the old boiler released the expensive magic smoke :-) To be fair it`s done a good 10 years work now, and seems to be going strong. God only knows why the fitter (British Gas if I recall correctly) used the controller they did. I`ll certainly be making sure it`s done properly next time the boiler is replaced :-)

Then again, with cavity wall insulation, double glazing and a well insulated roof, along with a 6 stone mental puppy running round constantly, it`s rare for the house to be cool enough for the heating to kick in, even now. Throw a few PC`s into the equation and the house is quite well heated electrically ;-)