Central heating help

[alanthomaswatson]

All

Trying to get my head around a central heating system, and need some help please.

My parents have moved into a temporary let, which has a system boiler. There is an oil fired boiler in the kitchen, hot water tank and header tank in the bedroom cupboard above and oil tank outside.

The query I have is that there is no oil in the tank outside, which is actually full of water as one of the caps has been left off it, so what is providing the hot water?

There is an immersion switch (which works) but hasn't been used other than to check if it works. The heating hasn't been on apart from firing it up using the heat advance button. However, there is plenty of hot water.

Forgive my ignorance, but where does the hot water supply in this type of set up come from? I understand that the hot water passes through the boiler but I can't understand where the heating of it takes place?

Obviously oil will be needed for the heating - will it be necessary to have the system flushed? Obviously, after the cap is replaced. Would the company who fill up the tank do this or would a heating engineer be needed?

Thanks in advance

 

[matt1e]

are you sure there is just one immersion heater?
There may be another one at the bottom of the cylinder fed via off peak electricity

Matt

 

[alanthomaswatson]

Thanks for the reply.

No second immersion that I could see (and only one MCB for one on the board).

The strange thing is that there is a temperature control on the boiler and when Dad turned it up the hot water became hotter shortly after.

When running hot water the boiler pump seems to kick in but no noise from the flue. If you switch the heating advance on, the boiler kicks in and flue gases come out.

Grateful for any advice.

 

[MANDATE]

Hope you don't want me to believe you have a oil boiler running of a tank full with water.
If you have flue gases coming out then there's oil fuel present.
Maybe the tank you mention is redundant Look for second tank maybe next doors, or maybe it just using up what bit of oil is left in the pipework.
Are you sure it's a oil boiler
As you know any oil left in the tank would float on top of any water, so what's happen to that? overflowed over the side of the tank.
Just thinking how long it would take my tank to fill to the top with rain if I left the filling cap off? Are you sure it's water?
I look forward to the true explanation

 

[alanthomaswatson]

Hello

I'm not trying to make you believe it, just trying to figure it out myself. Not being a heating engineer I'm confused.

To be fair saying the tank is full of water is over-egging it - there's about a foot of water in the bottom of the tank. We dipped a stick in it and water with a very faint smell of oil came off. As I understand it the last occupier moved out more than a year ago and drained the tank before she went.

It is definitely an oil boiler, although it looks pretty old. The village is off the gas network and there is no gas bottle anywhere (very small garden). Taking the cover off the boiler also reveals a big sticker saying 'oil fired boiler'.

When the heat advance button is pressed a light on the boiler comes on noting 'mains'. This doesn't happen when the hot water is drawn off.

Hence my question regarding where the heating of the water takes place - could this be from another, non-gas-fired, source?

The only other thing I can think of is that the tank in the garden is some distance from the house so it may be that the fuel in the pipe hasn't run out yet. The heating hasn't been on and shower is electric so no great demand for HW other than washing hands.