Advice on how to reduce costs without the expense of having boiler replaced!

[rwiddowson]

Could do with a tin of paint also

I'll have a painting party too if you like and you're invited!!!

 

[gasmanstu72]

sounds like you could have gravity fed hot water, state of the art for 1970 but not terribly efficient, can you turn on your heating on its own, or does the hot water come on with it?
need some pictures please

This may sound stupid but I am not sure if I can turn them on independently and with he impending cold snap this week I cannot afford to let the fabric cool down!

I don't believe it can be controlled separately despite the programmer having the facility.

I have now uploaded some photos. If there are any specific photos needed, please let me know.

when you slide the heating control over the hot water will go over with it, when you put the hot water on on its own then you will be able to move that slider without the heating one moving.

you have gravity hot water, this means that whenever you put you heating on your hot water will be on too, thats why you have scalding hot water, there's nothing you can do to control it at the minute apart from turn down the boiler thermostat, but that will in turn affect the heating too.
its very old fashioned and inefficient, you can convert it to fully pumped, thats not cheap either, my advise would be to insulate your house better, and get a new boiler and upgrade the controls to fully pumped (or get a combi)
you're going to have to spend some money on upgrades or just keep paying your high gas bills from what i can see.

 

[Daveydub]

One thing that you could do is fit a cylinder stat. It will not do anything for you at this time of year but in the summer, when on hw only, it will switch boiler off when cylinder is up to temp.This would be a fairly inexpensive upgrade while you are saving towards your replacement boiler

 

[Agile]

Have you ever considered getting your boiler serviced and ask the engineer what controls you have?

For us to properly appraise your system you would need to say how many bedrooms and reception rooms and tell us the wall construction and loft insulation.

A typical three bed semi usually costs about £1000 in gas per annum as a very rough guide.

Tony

 

[rwiddowson]

Have you ever considered getting your boiler serviced and ask the engineer what controls you have?

For us to properly appraise your system you would need to say how many bedrooms and reception rooms and tell us the wall construction and loft insulation.

A typical three bed semi usually costs about £1000 in gas per annum as a very rough guide.

Tony

I have today replaced the backplate in the EP6002 as I wanted to tidy the wires up. What fun that turned out to be!

The panel wouldn't come alive at first and then when I rechecked / tightened the connections, a relay in the boiler started sparking rapidly.

It turned out that the fused spur outlet was fizzing despite not being touched. I could hear it so I unscrewed the cover and plugged it away and the boiler started fine. Got an electrician mate round at short notice and am happy it's safe now and more importantly running!

Whilst rewiring the back panel, I found manual for EP6002 and it states that B-4 should be linked if no room stat and C-3 should be linked if no cylinder stat. But I do not understand why because A,B,C and D are shown as Spare Terminals on the programmer. Why would these links achieve?

In answer to your question, it's 3 reasonable sized bedrooms at 190 sq. ft each, 3 reception rooms same size. 200 sq ft kitchen.

Hall although not a room is 20 ft high double height space.

9" thick brick solid walls. Cavity wall to kitchen extension (1984). Windows generally 6' x 3'. Lounge has 3 windows this size. 1 bedroom has 3 windows this size. Loft insulation. Not enough. Probably 2-4"?

 

[rwiddowson]

Looks like gravity hot water. I think The 2port must be to stop gravity circulation to the upstairs rads. Get some quotes to convert the system to fully pumped

Agree. Conversion to fully pumped will give considerable savings.

I really appreciate everyone's help so far.

Got to say I think I've learnt quite a bit from reading up.

Could do with getting the RF room stat up and running then I assume I could crank up the boiler and rely on the room stat switching the boiler off.

I was given a Sunvic TLX 1206 by my electrician mate though can't quite understand the wiring diagram and how I would wire it into the EP6002?

 

[WabbitPoo]

OP you haven't really told us how you use the system you have to heat your home.....is it on 24/7? Do you heat every room to 25deg regardless of if they are used or not? Do you have insulation in the loft , double glazing etc? TRVs on rads?

 

[bernardgreen]

I'll have a painting party too if you like and you're invited!!!

Paint first, booze later......

A german friend did it the other way, his kids loved the psychodelic paint job, his wife didn't. Took him months to put it right

 

[rwiddowson]

OP you haven't really told us how you use the system you have to heat your home.....is it on 24/7? Do you heat every room to 25deg regardless of if they are used or not? Do you have insulation in the loft , double glazing etc? TRVs on rads?

I used to run it 24/7 in winter but now it is in from 0600-1200 hours and 1800-2200 hours so 10 hours a day 7 days a week. Just about to probably infill from 1200-1800 hours this week though because it is getting unbearable by 1800 hours.

I dial is just below 1 on the boiler. It is comfortable or should I say bearable... from the cold end of the spectrum!

14 out of the 16 rads are running. No heat is applied to rooms we don't use.

Some rads not all have TRV's.

As before, nsulation 50-100mm in loft i.e. Nowhere near enough but I can sort that easily enough and fully double glazed (1983) bar 4 windows out the 23 windows. Please see previous post for sizes.

Read the meter the other day. I've used 238 units in 45 days. Entered it into my spreadsheet and that equates to approx. £321!!!!