It's a 20-year-old Buderus, originally I suspect run on fuel oil but converted to be fired by a gas burner. Power on causes burner to fire up, inner tank heated until it reaches a certain temperature, then pump kicks in to circulate the water.
I'm planning to install the Hive system to an old gas boiler in our house in France. No hot water involved, no valves.
I have a solid 2-pole power source (the original one) protected by a trip fuse close to the boiler.
My plan is to run a 3-lead cable from the trip fuse to the controller...