Ethos 54C boiler - Strange Setup

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Warwickshire
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Hi Guys,

I really need some advice:

I have a strange domestic heating and central heating setup. I have two boilers installed 1 is a Ethos 54c which supplies hot water and central heating to the downstairs of my property and I have a Heatline Vizo 24kwh which supplies the hot water and heating upstairs. The heatline is also set up to take over supply, downstairs should the ethos fail and vice versa. I was advised by a gas engineer that this would be the best way to supply my house - before ethos boiler broke down - the ethos WAS initially supplying the whole house..

I am now having a few problems - firstly the amount of gas used at my property is extremely high - having to pay around £250 a month. I had an EON gass engineer around the other day to do a service and he advised that this could be attributed to the two boilers running at the same time.

Also when the ethos starts to heat water - ocassionaly our gas fire goes out - i have had transco out but the have not found a leak or issues with the supply pipe. The EON engineer advised that the gas pipe i have running from the meter to the boiler should be 32 mm and reduced down to 15mm near the boiler (ethos), he also advised that we needed to have the 32 mm tee'd off to supply gas to the other boiler. Currently the 15 mm pipe supplying the ethos is split to supply the heatline..Is this ok? should the setup be different and was the eon engineer advice sound? I currently have a 28mm supply pipe coming off the gas metre.

The eon engineer made another recomendation , he advised that the ethos boiler should be able to supply all the radiators in my house - i have 8 x 1200x 600 double radiators upstairs, 2x 800 towel radiator and 2x 1000x 600 single radiators upstairs.

I have 3 x 1600 x 600 double radiators, 7 x 1000x 600 double radiators, 1x 800x600 single radiator and 2 x 600 towel warmers downstairs. Would the ethos be able to cope with this?

the eon engineer advised that I should have a hot water tank installed which, together with the ethos should be able to cope with the high demand of hot water in my house. He advised to not use the heatline vizo and keep it as just a backup system. Would this be possible? I have three thermostaic showers and three baths two can be in use at any one time. What size tank would i need.

I would really appreciate your advice - I hope i havent confused anyone. :?:

Thanks in advance for your help
 
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It seems the gas supply to your boilers is seriously undersized. But then you have been told that but dont seem to be doing anything about it.

You apparently have a large house and £250 per month might be correct if you dont control the heating properly. A house I went to last week was not excessively large but they dont control the heating and their gas bill is about £4000-£5000 and they dont seem very bothered ( but then he is a banker ).

I would suggest you get someone competent to examine the problem and put his recommendations into practice. It sounds as if the undersized gas pipe could be dangerous if the gas fire goes out when a boiler starts.

You are paying for gas to heat your property. It does not matter how many boilers you are using as its the heat produced which is consuming gas.

Tony
 
It seems the gas supply to your boilers is seriously undersized. But then you have been told that but dont seem to be doing anything about it.

You apparently have a large house and £250 per month might be correct if you dont control the heating properly. A house I went to last week was not excessively large but they dont control the heating and their gas bill is about £4000-£5000 and they dont seem very bothered ( but then he is a banker ).

I would suggest you get someone competent to examine the problem and put his recommendations into practice. It sounds as if the undersized gas pipe could be dangerous if the gas fire goes out when a boiler starts.

You are paying for gas to heat your property. It does not matter how many boilers you are using as its the heat produced which is consuming gas.

Tony

Tony what about the hot water tank attached to a combi? Would you recommend him doing that? Would that cut down on the bills?
 
How he obtains his hot water will make little difference to the cost of heating it.

If he wants to reduce his gas bill he needs to control the time and temperatures and improve insulation.

There is no point anyone reconfiguring a system JUST to the reduce the gas consumption as any savings will be very small.

Save up and visit the Bengal Delight ! The Castle Balti in Warwick is not bad either with good size portions and I can take my own wine!

Tony
 
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Thank you for your reply tony.

I am always looking to save money and I have a two zone heating setup due to the two boilers. i have digital thermostats with timers - the heating is on 5:30am -7am in the morning upstairs - set at a temp of 17.5.
The heat will then turn on again at 9:30 - 11:00pm @ a temp of 17.5 again.
Downstairs the heat is set to turn on at 6:30am - 8:00am with the thermostat set @ 18. the heating remains off during the day and then turns on 6:30 - 8:30pm again temp is set to 18. The house is extremely well insulated - cvity wall insulation. The roof insulation is more then recomended requirement. I have secondary heating gas fire - which is a flueless plasma heater then remains on the low setting during the day - Only if it is cold.The heating is only on during the winter months.

I have a larger family - hot water is always in demand so I presume this is where the gas is being used.

I had the eon engineer around just yesterday and so I will look to get the gas pipe changed ASAP.

Other then saving on gas - is it possible to have a water tank installed and having the whole house heated by just the one boiler?

once again thank you for your help
 
That sounds very unusual because the house should be energy efficient and the loft and cavity insulation and timed and temperature controlled heating sounds well above average. What about the windows and how big is the house?

Usually hot water is only 15% of the total bill. How many do you have living there are do you have profligate showers and oversize film star baths?

Are you telling us the annual cost of gas based on actual meter readings or is it just one gas bill or an Eon monthly debit based not on true readings but their get rich cash flow preferences? They once started charging me £1000 per month for a two bed house! It took me an hour with a supervisor to convince her that a house like that could not actually use that amount of gas.

Have you monitored the gas meter to see if the consumption is correct? Have they changed the meter? Are they recovering a debt?

There are lots of things that need checking!

What was the annual gas consumption last year and the year before in units rather than money as the unit rate changes?

Tony
 

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