Apologies for the length of this...but it's been going on for ages and it's a bit complicated now.
I have an ongoing problem with my Economy 7 electric water boiler (no gas) which my plumber (who's a good guy) is completely stumped by but has cost me hundreds of pounds so far...
It's a Protea water boiler (fitted in 2000) with two immersion elements: a top booster one and a bottom overnight one.
Originally each immersion element was wired separately to my electricity board in the flat and both were controlled by separate on/off wall switches next to the boiler.
The overnight (Economy 7, bottom immersion) wall switch was left on permanently (but only came on overnight, presumeably there's some timer on the electric board switch but I can't see it) and the booster switch (top immersion) I only switched on when the tank needed a topup.
My original problem was that the booster switch had stopped working (there a charge coming from the electricity board but no charge from the wall switch). And there was a small but constant drip coming from the lower (overnight) element. The bottom immersion worked fine - loads of hot water.
The plumber changed the lower (overnight) element to stop the drip and suggested that I have a Horstman Quartz Economy 7 timer box fitted which would mean that both elements could be wired into the one working wall switch, which he did.
He also found that after draining the tank and refilling it my expansion chamber had lost its charge, so he recharged that.
Now: the booster switch on the timer works fine - I get a quarter of a tank of very hot water in an hour (enough for a short shower but not a bath and expensive to run) but now NOTHING from the overnight charge.
So far my plumber has:
- checked the charge going into the lower immersion when the timer comes on - that's fine, although there was a problem with earthing it which he fixed.
- checked that the lower immersion actually heats up
- checked the thermostats are at the right temperature
- pumped up the expansion chamber again (it lost it's charge a second time).
He's stumped. Something's cutting out the bottom immersion. The only thing he can think of now is to replace the expansion chamber. However, I'm not sure this is the reason the bottom immersion thermostat is cutting out (if it's not cutting the top immersion thermostat which gets the top part of the boiler hot - so the hot water must be expanding up into the chamber...so therefore it's working to an extent???).
So:
- Is it the expansion chamber cutting off the lower immersion thermostat (even though it doesn't seem to cut off the top immersion thermostat which heats up nicely)???
- Is it the timer box?? Why would it cut out (the light certainly comes on and stays on the entire time it's set to)...??
- Is it because he rewired both immersions into one timer box and wired that into the original water heater switch on my electric board dedicated to Economy Seven heating???
ANY ideas??? It's been icy cold showers for almost three weeks now. Thanks!!
I have an ongoing problem with my Economy 7 electric water boiler (no gas) which my plumber (who's a good guy) is completely stumped by but has cost me hundreds of pounds so far...
It's a Protea water boiler (fitted in 2000) with two immersion elements: a top booster one and a bottom overnight one.
Originally each immersion element was wired separately to my electricity board in the flat and both were controlled by separate on/off wall switches next to the boiler.
The overnight (Economy 7, bottom immersion) wall switch was left on permanently (but only came on overnight, presumeably there's some timer on the electric board switch but I can't see it) and the booster switch (top immersion) I only switched on when the tank needed a topup.
My original problem was that the booster switch had stopped working (there a charge coming from the electricity board but no charge from the wall switch). And there was a small but constant drip coming from the lower (overnight) element. The bottom immersion worked fine - loads of hot water.
The plumber changed the lower (overnight) element to stop the drip and suggested that I have a Horstman Quartz Economy 7 timer box fitted which would mean that both elements could be wired into the one working wall switch, which he did.
He also found that after draining the tank and refilling it my expansion chamber had lost its charge, so he recharged that.
Now: the booster switch on the timer works fine - I get a quarter of a tank of very hot water in an hour (enough for a short shower but not a bath and expensive to run) but now NOTHING from the overnight charge.
So far my plumber has:
- checked the charge going into the lower immersion when the timer comes on - that's fine, although there was a problem with earthing it which he fixed.
- checked that the lower immersion actually heats up
- checked the thermostats are at the right temperature
- pumped up the expansion chamber again (it lost it's charge a second time).
He's stumped. Something's cutting out the bottom immersion. The only thing he can think of now is to replace the expansion chamber. However, I'm not sure this is the reason the bottom immersion thermostat is cutting out (if it's not cutting the top immersion thermostat which gets the top part of the boiler hot - so the hot water must be expanding up into the chamber...so therefore it's working to an extent???).
So:
- Is it the expansion chamber cutting off the lower immersion thermostat (even though it doesn't seem to cut off the top immersion thermostat which heats up nicely)???
- Is it the timer box?? Why would it cut out (the light certainly comes on and stays on the entire time it's set to)...??
- Is it because he rewired both immersions into one timer box and wired that into the original water heater switch on my electric board dedicated to Economy Seven heating???
ANY ideas??? It's been icy cold showers for almost three weeks now. Thanks!!
