Hi Today we had a smart meter installed. This evening the boiler is running co ntinuously but the radiators are only warm not hot. Boiler indicates water temperature of 50C, while it is normally 65C. I know the weather is cold bu t the boiler normally copes fine. Could the smart meter installation have c aused this? David
Could smart meter reduce boiler output?
Dec 11, 2017
15 Replies
The meter should make no difference, but check the main gas tap has been turned fully back on again.
Only if the boiler was storing up a problem for the next time it happened to be switched off
It couldn't directly affect it but if the boiler hadn't been shut down by using it's built in "Off" switch before the mains was turned off for the meter swap then perhaps some setting of the boiler controls might have reverted to "factory default" on restoration of power.
Thanks for your replies. It's strange because condensate is coming nicely out of the flu, the water temperature control on the boiler is near max but the water temperature is barely 50C.
If you are saying that the gas meter has been changed could it be that the gas supply to the boiler is now restricted? Is the main valve turned on properly?
I am not familiar with gas valves. Ours has a lever and its position is parallel to the inlet pipe.
That would typically be "on". 90 Degree rotation to off.
The only way to know for sure if its a gas rate problem would be to do a dynamic pressure test while the boiler is running. There is a test point on or near the meter where you can remove a cap and attach a manometer, and see what the pressure is *while the boiler is running*. If you are seeing around 21 mBar at the meter, then you can eliminate a pressure drop as a result of the meter change.
(You can also test at the burner in the boiler - the boiler's install manual will tell you what the acceptable range is. Note the boiler may include its own governor which will feed the burner at a lower pressure that that supplied to the appliance (which should be ~20mBar)).
I think in this case it would be worth contacting the people who changed the meter and highlighting the issue you are having - get them to come test it.
I don't see how it could. its either on or its off, it certainly is not a power control or anything like that. As far as I am aware the same goes for gas as Electric. its just a valve. Of course maybe the bore is different but I've never heard of anything lie that before and many have been fitted even if they will all need changing in a couple of years time. Brian
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Many boilers would show a fault and shut down if gas pressure was low.
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We had some works done in the road to the gas supply. A few neighbours then had boiler problems - their governors in the meter cubboard needed a slight tweak.
Michael Chare brought next idea :
Easy to check, if there are other gas appliances...
When the boiler is running flat out, turn another appliance on and see if its flame height varies when the boiler is and isn't in operation. If it does, there is a flow restriction.
continuously but the radiators are only warm not hot. Boiler indicates wate r temperature of 50C, while it is normally 65C. I know the weather is cold but the boiler normally copes fine. Could the smart meter installation have caused this?
Modern boilers have options on power output, sounds like its set too low to keep up.
NT
When we had our meter changed to a smart meter they wanted to change the governor as well*, if they did maybe the new one is "sticky" or calibrated a little differently from the previous one?
*In the end he didn't as it was pretty much seized on the pipe and he didn't want to risk damaging the "street" side of the connection...
I think, since they introduced the flexible 'anaconda' regulators, they change them as a matter of course whenever the meter is changed.
On many older gas valves the lever can be put on in various positions. If you look at the end of the stem of the valve there is a mark that should be parallel to the pipe when open. Similar to this. But smaller.
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