Central Heating problem

[dctek]

Hi All,

I hope someone might be able to point out whats wrong!

I'm currently living in a rental property which has been refurbed 1 month ago.

It has a new Glowworm CX30 Combi boiler, Iflo (Drayton LP711 clone?) timeswitch and no room stat, just TRV's on the rads.

HW works fine, but I cannot for the life of me get the CH to work, the programs seem to work, the light comes on ok, but I get nothing from the boiler.

Looking at the connections has me a bit concerned though, does this look right to anyone knowledgeable?

Timeswitch

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• dctek
• 23 Sep 2014
• 1

Boiler

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• dctek
• 23 Sep 2014
• 1

I've read through the manuals for both, and other post on the forum and I cannot see how wiring it like that could possibly work.

Boiler manual - http://www.glow-worm.co.uk/stepone/data/downloads_sd/dd/00/00/flexicom-cx-instn.pdf

Timeswitch manual - http://www.draytoncontrols.co.uk/homeownerzone/products/timecontrol/LP711timeswitch/

Unfortunately the landlord is away and not contactable

Any pointers appreciated

Dctek

 

[stardanny]

Can you please take a pic of back of time switch, there should be a label with model no and maybe a wiring diagram.

Daniel.

 

[flameport]

On the programmer plate, black wire should be in 3.
A link is required between L and 1.

A room thermostat should be fitted as well.

 

[dctek]

Thanks both for the replies!

The original installer came out today (I guess the Landlord managed to get our messages) and fixed it.

The wiring was incorrect, and then the timeswitch itself was faulty.

both of those changed and we have heating

I have no room stats, just TRV's - I mentioned it to the LL when we moved in but he said thats how it was meant to be.

dctek

 

[flameport]

I have no room stats, just TRV's - I mentioned it to the LL when we moved in but he said thats how it was meant to be.

Landlord is wrong. A room thermostat is required.

The TRVs close off each radiator when the room temperature reaches a certain level. The boiler will continue to heat the water regardless, and if all/most TRVs are closed it will cycle on and off continuously, wasting gas and shortening the life of the boiler.

The room thermostat turns the boiler off when the desired temperature is obtained - and it stays off until more heat is actually needed.

 

[stem]

There's not always a suitable location for a single room thermostat controlling the whole system. Here's a plan of my mums bungalow.

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• stem
• 26 Sep 2014
• 1

Where would you put one that would work properly?

In the lounge, north facing but where there is a used fireplace?
In the kitchen where there is often cooking / baking taking place?
In the bathroom where there is an electric towel rail providing additional heat?
In the sunny bedrooms where the rads are rarely turned on?
In a passageway that does not have a radiator but being internal is kept warm by the cylinder and boiler in the airing cupboard?

 

[Agile]

The passageway will be ideal as being central it will monitor the average temperature.

The cylinder should give minimal heating output IF its a modern foam insulated type AND the hot pipes are insulated as current regulations require!

Tony

 

[stem]

That's where it was, but in the morning the heating came on and stayed permanently on as the temperature in the passage didn't rise as there was no rad in there.

Then in the evening the reverse was true it stayed warm in there because of having the airing cupboard and no external walls or windows, therefore when the outer rooms cooled down the heating didn't come on. The pipes and cylinder are insulated but the pump and the by-pass for pump overun aren't. It doesn't give out a lot of heat but enough for an small internal space.

 

[Agile]

Yes, but was it a modern electronic one with a diff of 0.5 C ?

Or an old bi-metal strip type with a large diff?

Or even worse a bi-metal one without the heating anticipator connected?

Tony

 

[stem]

It's a few years since it was removed, but it was a mechanical type with an accelerator (Honeywell) but it wouldn't have made any difference. Here's why

In the morning a digital thermostat (Built by me as part of an ONC project) showed the passage to be at 18 degrees, so any thermostat (even one at +/- 0.5 degree) set at 20 would switch on. The rest of the rooms with radiators then heated up quite quickly, but even after a few hours, the radiator less passage was still less than 20 degrees so the heating stayed on.

In the evening the thermometer showed the passage to be 21 to 22 degrees and so being set at 20 the thermostat didn't turn on, meanwhile the other rooms with exterior walls, airbricks and windows were cooling nicely.

So, we resorted to setting the thermostat to 19 degrees when we went to bed (if we remembered) and turning it up to 23 or more in the evening. Sometimes, when all of the cooking and bathing was completed we kept the internal doors open which helped a bit.

 

[stem]

Sorry didn't mean to hijack this thread I was just commenting on the OP's comment about not having a room thermostat.

 

[Agile]

OK then, it needs a programable thermostat set to 20 C in the morning and 18 C in the evening!

But better still a wireless stat with a portable room unit to be carried round to where the occupant is.

I reluctantly fitted one ( at the daughter's request ) for a 91 y.o. lady.

Very surprised but she loved it and as far as I could see used it exactly as it should be.

I had been worried before fitting a new boiler because she had been turning the old boiler on/off manually every 10-20 min.

 

[stem]

At the time wireless stats were not available and there were 3 of us living there, so because of there not being one suitable location, what we actually did, because it was a small property with few rooms, was remove the single thermostat from the passage and convert the system to an 'SSS' Plan (6 motorised valves) with a room thermostat and a motorised valve for every room with a radiator. It works a treat. Every room is at the perfect temperature and it provides the required 'boiler interlock' not available with only TRV's. A set of 5 switches in the kitchen allows each room to be individually selected to 'on' 'off' or 'timed'.

 

[Agile]

A hardware intensive solution.

I think that now you can get all that in intelligent transmitting TRVs!