Central heating too hot and no hot water when switched off

[Stu666]

I am living in a rented house with a Worcester 24i boiler fitted. There is a thermostat downstairs and one on the boiler itself.

It seems that no matter what we have the thermostats set to, the central heating comes on red hot before going off after a short while.

This happens regardless of the TRV thermostat settings on the radiators, although we can completely shut them off.

On the downstairs thermostat, you hear it click when moved past a certain point, but there seems to be no accuracy or consistency.

If it's a warm day and we turn the thermostat down, it stays off, but we then find that we have no hot water in the house.

Does this sound faulty? If so, we would like to know as our landlord is duty-bound to sort it out, but he keeps fobbing us off.

 

[Agile]

It sounds as if you should turn the boiler heating control knob down from maximum. ( Why do tenants turn everything up to maximum? )

Then the DHW demand switch in the boiler seems to have failed. But it could be something else and obviously needs to be repaired! You dont want to be running the heating in the summer just to get hot water.

A landlord who is duty bound!!!

Tony

 

[Stu666]

Hi Agile, the problem seems to occur regardless of how high the boiler heating control is set. In fact I have tried it on all of the settings.

 

[mogget]

If it's a warm day and we turn the thermostat down, it stays off, but we then find that we have no hot water in the house.

When you turn the thermostat down, are there any lights at all showing on the boiler? Does the mains indicator light stay on?

 

[Stu666]

If it's a warm day and we turn the thermostat down, it stays off, but we then find that we have no hot water in the house.

When you turn the thermostat down, are there any lights at all showing on the boiler? Does the mains indicator light stay on?

Yes, the orange mains light stays on. There does not appear to be a viewing hole for a pilot light, just the orange light.

 

[mogget]

Could you confirm, is this a combi boiler or do you have a hot water cylinder?

 

[Stu666]

Could you confirm, is this a combi boiler or do you have a hot water cylinder?

I assume it's a combi as there is no hot water cylinder in the house.

 

[mogget]

It does sound like a fault then. I don't have enough technical knowledge to diagnose it with any certainty, but the hot water on a combi should be completely independent of the heating.

 

[Softus]

Why do tenants turn everything up to maximum?

Because landlords and their agents rarely explain how things work.

 

[Agile]

I had a call today from a lady who is a qualified nurse.

I must have been there at least four times over the last six years and every time I tell her how to top up her boiler yet she does not bother and telephones me to say its not working.

When I ask she says the pressure is on zero!

Tony

 

[bengasman]

if it is a combi, turning it off immediately stops the hot water.
a trv does not, contrary to common believes, reduce the temperature of the radiator.
if all the trv's are turned down, you are likely to overheat the boiler.
the 24 i has one combined control for heating and hot water; hot water less hot means rads less hot.
could well be there are other problems; this is the cheapest boiler wb make and therefore not as good as the more expensive models and on top of that it is a model favoured by cowboys. as far as i can remember, i have NEVER seen one that was installed properly

 

[gavinda]

I had a call today from a lady who is a qualified nurse.

I must have been there at least four times over the last six years and every time I tell her how to top up her boiler yet she does not bother and telephones me to say its not working.

When I ask she says the pressure is on zero!

Tony

simple solution. start charging. i find that keeps the memory very well refreshed

 

[Stu666]

a trv does not, contrary to common believes, reduce the temperature of the radiator.

What do they do then?

if all the trv's are turned down, you are likely to overheat the boiler.

Does this mean I should be using the wall-mounted thermostat to control the central heating temp? i.e. turn it right down to switch central heating off?

I do think there is something not right with the central heating as it comes on briefly, as I say, red hot, then goes off and back on again, probably every 20 mins. At our last place (had a water tank, so don't think it was a combi) we set the thermostat and the radiators just stayed on and constantly maintained the set temp.

I'm begining to wonder now, is it a fault or just a rubbish system?

 

[bengasman]

They work as a switch; warm enough in the room, rad off, too cold, rad comes on.

The roomstat should indeed be used as the central control to get the boiler on and off.

You CAN control the temperature of the rads, just not individually; for this you use the boilerstat.

 

[Aquaheat]

the 24 i has one combined control for heating and hot water; hot water less hot means rads less hot.

The 24i has only one user accessible control for the heating but adjusting this has no impact on the temperature of the DHW. This is factory set and works on demand required and modulates the gas valve accordingly.

You can set the heating to 0/1/2/3/4 and you will still achievethe same DHW temperature.