Can anyone please give me some advice/help?

[Gilly53]

My son has recently moved into a rental property (2 bedroomed terraced property). The central heating and hot water are run by a Biasi M90E combination boiler which is situated in the cellar.

I have noticed that the boiler is plugged into an electric socket via a three pin plug, is this right? Also, there appears to be no thermostat to be able to adjust the heating, does this mean that this particular boiler has its own thermostat to control the central heating?

I have also noticed that it appears to be using an awful lot of gas (e.g. 6 hours on 4 units of gas used). Is this normal? The problem is that the radiators are only warm not hot and it doesnt appear to be heating the house properly.

Has anyone out there got any sound advice or help they can give me please. Would be very grateful.

Gilly

 

[tryitandsee]

Not the best time of year for your son to be experiencing his first gas heating costs. (Tell him it doesn't get any better the older he gets) With these recent cold days, if found watching the gas meter spinning round, it's likely to cause a heart attack. DON'T WATCH. You must remember, the gas bill will be averaged over the year and the summer months will obviously be lower.

If the house is reasonably insulated, always debatable, but I would suggest he leave it on for longer but lower, avoiding the house getting so cold between heating times.

Make sure he is getting the dual fuel rates and not pre-paid meters that most landlords put in. Your son has the right to change them over if he wants, after all, he is paying the bill.


4 units works out to be £1.39 divided by 6 hrs = £0.23p hr,

Put another way, packet of cigarettes @ £5.00 = 0.25p each.

Gas looks reasonable.

Easy Christmas presents for you to buy this year, Long johns, or better still, credit his gas account with a few quid.

 

[simond]

Just to answer your other question - the first has been excellently addressed above.

Powering a boiler from a 3 pin plug is not electrically unsafe and this does provide a good means of certain isolation for maintenance. It is considered better practice to use a fused connection unit but assuming the boiler is permanently earthed (and correctly fused) there is no electrical advantage in either method.

A room thermostat is going to be slightly more efficient and convenient, you might wish to consider fitting one, it will prevent the boiler firing unnecessarily. If the boiler is in the cellar a radio linked one would be a good idea, we like the Honeywell CMT927.

 

[gas4you]

He needs to make sure the ch boiler stat is turned up about 3/4 round the dial.

It's ok to connect with plug, but socket should be unswitched if this is the case.

 

[bengasman]

If it is a rental house, the only thing he should do is call the landlord

 

[JohnD]

no room thermostat? well I hope it has a timer