Two small problems with my central heating/hot water:
1) When the switch is set to "hot water only", the bathroom radiator gets hot.2) The dial for the boiler (under the gas fire in the lounge) is only set at 1, but the tap water still gets very hot - I measured it at 57 celsius.
Are these fixable by someone with basic d-i-y competence? If not, how much should I expect to pay someone to fix them?
Thanks in advance,
- guy
In message , Guy Snape writes
This is quite common. Often the rads in bathrooms are (were - I have a feeling it's not so common nowadays?) plumbed into the HW circuit so that they get warm irrespective of the heating being on (for drying damp towels etc. I guess)
If it is problem in the summer turn it off (in the winter I can't see problem - if it gets too hot in there turn the rad down a bit, or you can fit a TRV - thermostatic rad valve.
Otherwise you would have to replumb it into the heating system
This is the temp of the water leaving the boiler, even on the lower settings it's going to be hotter than 60 degrees C. The temp of the hot water is normally controlled by a thermostat on the side of the hot water tank (though some old systems may not have one) Actually 57 is about the recommended temp, for ensuring that bacteria such as that causing Legionnaires can't breed.
You can adjust the temp on the thermostat though.
>
Let me guess, you've got a Baxi Bermuda back boiler with gas fire at the front. The boiler has separate hot water and central heating circuits - with HW using gravity circulation and CH being pumped. There is no thermostat on the hot water cylinder. Right so far?
The trouble with this arrangement is that you can't control HW and CH independently. Whenever the boiler is on for CH the HW gets hot whether you want it or not. If you turn up the boiler stat so that the radiators get decently hot, the HW gets *dangerously* hot.
The *proper* solution is to replace the boiler with a new - much more efficient - one in a different location, and convert the pipework to be fully pumped. However, there are much cheaper options which - whilst not being ideal - will vastly improve the current setup.
The cheapest option is to convert your system to C-Plan - see
The radiator in the bathroom gets hot for one of two reasons. The most likely one is that it was designed that way - and was plumbed into the HW rather than CH circuit in order to heat the towels throughout the year. If this is the case, you'll need to move it to the CH circuit - particularly if you convert to a C-Plan - otherwise you'll have a cold bathroom in the winter!
The other possibility is that *some* gravity circulation is occurring in the pumped CH circuit even when the pump isn't running. If this is a problem, you can install an anti-gravity check-valve in the pipework. This requires a small pressure before it opens - which the pump can happily provide but convection can't.
Spot on.
OK, I'll look into that. Thanks for the quick response.
- guy
It was very common when solid fuel roomheaters were selected as the central heating source. As solid fuel fires don't switch off an on rapidly a heat dump radiator was needed - the bathroom radiator being the usual choice. Swapping the solid fuel boiler to gas back boilers was usually a straight swap and the heat dump left in place.
It sounds more and more like an upgraded solid fuel jobby. The real likelihood is that there won't be a cylinder control. It would be relatively easy to change over to a "C plan" with the addition of a bit of cabling and a motorised valve located between the rising DHW circulating pipe/vent and the cylinder connection immediately at the side of the cylinder.
When its been added
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