Educate me on what sort of setup I've got?

[Mrdini]

Hello all,

Recently, I moved into this flat. After about a month, I was rather surprised to find out that in a little under a month and half, I seem to have used 112 metric units for a one bedroom flat and according to another forum, this seems to be a little excessive. However, because I don't understand the system, I'm not sure if I'm using the system wrong

Attached are photos of the boiler cupboard. In the kitchen, I have a Glowworm Micron. The shower is an electric shower - you can see the red switch with light at the back of the cupboard. The second picture with the dial thing - I have frankly no idea what this is - this seems to be part of the big tank next to the red pressure vessel (I think)

I asked my landlord how to use the system, & was basically told "Blah blah. The rest is backup stuff. Don't worry about these". But if I seem to be using a lot of gas, I can't help but think I'm doing something wrong :-s

Thanks in advance for any explanation about the setup I've got!

View media item 40939
View media item 40940
View media item 40941
View media item 40942
View media item 40943

 

[bhm1712]

well from those pics you appear to have a roomstat, cylinder stat and a landis and gyr RWB2 programmer (these are sometimes branded as glowworm mastermind or equivalent.)

one would assume that the system is an S plan with 2 zone valves but you have not posted any pics of motorised valves. do you know if you have 1 or 2?

It looks like the controls are old, but the system appears to be a sealed system on the Micron and so the boiler may have been upgraded at some point as the controls are 1980's

112 metres cubed is 1248Kwh approx and i wouldnt say this is alot, on my tariff that would cost me £60 which for 6 ish weeks isnt bad. However i live in a 3 bed house. i suppose its all down to how much HW you use and how often the heating is on. Is your roomstat set so low normally??

 

[bhm1712]

another thing i notice is the pressure gauge is either reading zero or full scale, or its broken. What is it reading as i cant 100% tell?

 

[Mrdini]

well from those pics you appear to have a roomstat, cylinder stat and a landis and gyr RWB2 programmer (these are sometimes branded as glowworm mastermind or equivalent.)

Sorry! I forgot to mention the programmer and you're spot on correct that it is a Landis & Gyr RWB2.

one would assume that the system is an S plan with 2 zone valves but you have not posted any pics of motorised valves. do you know if you have 1 or 2?

Er.... What? *looks more carefully* Oh!!!

There's two "thingy" - see new pics. Are these what you meant? The 3rd pic is to show the valves(?) in relation to the rest of the system.

View media item 40946
View media item 40947
View media item 40948

It looks like the controls are old, but the system appears to be a sealed system on the Micron and so the boiler may have been upgraded at some point as the controls are 1980's

112 metres cubed is 1248Kwh approx and i wouldnt say this is alot, on my tariff that would cost me £60 which for 6 ish weeks isnt bad. However i live in a 3 bed house. i suppose its all down to how much HW you use and how often the heating is on. Is your roomstat set so low normally??

I think the roomstat internals is broken or something as if I set it to "normal" temperature i.e. 18C or thereabout, it's t-shirt & shorts time Hence having it set apparently ridiculously low! I hardly use hot water (apart from CH) - only for washing up, as the shower is an electric shower. As I remarked in the linked forum thread, when I have CH on, the gas meter starts whizzing around like mad

The pressure gauge is actually at an angle - it's reading 1.5 bar.

Thanks!

 

[bhm1712]

well the blue item is the pump and the white one is the valve. So you have a Y plan by the looks of it. It seems odd though that the flow from the pump seems to be going to the wrong port on the valve. can you get a picture of that valve from above as best you can, rather than looking at the valve head? might be difficult for access with a cam though.

If you see the CH sticker on the valve, you can also see that the pump flow looks like its connected to that rather than the bottom inlet port

 

[Dan Robinson]

if you are in Herts, that many hot water tank is going to be nicely scaled up too.

 

[ALEC1]

lets not forget that the boiler is only about 60% efficient, so the op probably doesn't use the heating that much....

 

[mickyg]

It seems odd though that the flow from the pump seems to be going to the wrong port on the valve. can you get a picture of that valve from above as best you can, rather than looking at the valve head? might be difficult for access with a cam though.

Its normal on those valves, there's loads of those setups in B.Stortford so wonder if thats where the op is. They're a nuisance too cos they are wired weirdly into a relay box, and use a CH off instead of HW. Far too much of my time as a TSM at BG was spent re-wiring these damn things...name will come to me.....

 

[matt1e]

Far too much of my time as a TSM at BG was spent re-wiring these damn things...name will come to me.....

Acl Drayton TA/M4 series, Micky

Matt

 

[Mrdini]

well the blue item is the pump and the white one is the valve. So you have a Y plan by the looks of it. It seems odd though that the flow from the pump seems to be going to the wrong port on the valve. can you get a picture of that valve from above as best you can, rather than looking at the valve head? might be difficult for access with a cam though.

If you see the CH sticker on the valve, you can also see that the pump flow looks like its connected to that rather than the bottom inlet port

It's a bit tricky to get a decent picture of the valve. If you can give me an idea of what you're hoping to see, then I could do my best to take a picture or describe...

To the other posters - close I'm in St Albans, and yes, the water's rather hard here!

Regarding the two power switches to the side of the cupboard and the cylinder stat, what should I be setting them to? On or off? (I left them as I found them when I moved in so...)

One more thing - since I notice that the RWB2 backplate is pretty much an industry standard, is it worth me considering buying a more modern programmer, that I could later take with me when I move out? Or is the roomstat so ancient that it'll probably be of no benefit at all? (I had a look at the roomstat, but couldn't figure out what model it was so bit doubtful if it can be easily swapped out on a temporary basis).

Thanks!

 

[Dan Robinson]

The power switches are fine as they are - the bottom one is you immersion heater for hot water backup.

The timer is also probably not worth changing, although the cylinder and room stats might be worth a look.

Would be £30 well spent assuming you do it yourself.

 

[Mrdini]

The power switches are fine as they are - the bottom one is you immersion heater for hot water backup.

The timer is also probably not worth changing, although the cylinder and room stats might be worth a look.

Would be £30 well spent assuming you do it yourself.

I don't want to touch the cylinder stat - it's in an awkward location. (it's actually inside the wall, in a tiny alcove(!)).

I don't mind considering swapping the Drayton RTC roomstat - only concern is that I've been unable to determine which model it is on account of being so ancient. As a result, I have no idea what modern roomstat would be easily swappable for this.

For what it's worth, I took off the frontplate & have determined that heating, cooling, line & earth are wired up, if that helps...

All that said, my #1 concern is that any replacement I do must be easily swappable back for the original roomstat and the replacement be hopefully somewhat universal enough for my future use.

Can I check though whether a modern (digital?) roomstat would definitely help keep my gas CH under control?

Thanks!

 

[Dan Robinson]

as mentioned by others, you may need to have a heating "off" switch as part of the circuit and modern digital ones don't all have that.