Help me understand my HW system

[Dedekind]

Hi

I have a gravity fed system. Standard boiler downstairs, hot water cylinder in first floor, cold water tank in loft.

I want to understand how to control the temperature of the water used for different purposes. The boiler has a dial (no temperature settings just dial min 1 2 .. max), the cylinder has a thermostat about 1/4th height from the floor.

This thermostat was at 50 and I just put it a 60 after reading recommended values. Where is this water going? Surely the taps and shower, what about the radiators? There is a pump in the cylinder cupboard which I guess pumps water to the radiators but my question is: does it take it from the HW cylinder or from the boiler?

The pump started to make noises yesterday all of a sudden.. kind of like "sucking water from the loft" noise so I could hear noises there too. Not rattling but annoying, as well as a few gurgling noises in the pipes below the pump. It was set to III (45w) I changed it to II roughly 11w and it's better now. Radiators are still hot today so that should be enough.

The cupboard for the cylinder also has two white boxes with a metal lever currently set to "MAN", the other option being "AUTO". No idea what these are.

Finally there is an old dial timer in the cupboard with two controls one for HW and one for CH. They can be programmed/set to constant independently.

Should I control the water temperature for central heating from the boiler itself?

Also our bathroom sink tap has a perfectly nice mix of hot/cold in the mixer tap. Will raising from 50 to 60 alter this much? My kitchen tap is super hot (almost scalding) with 50, so I mix it with cold but it's a separate tap.. kind of annoying and still a bit scalding. Would imagine it goes even worse after putting the cylinder on 60.


Sorry for all the silly questions I really want to understand this since I lived all my life with a combi boiler.

 

[terryplumb]

Boiler heats water ,pump circulates it around radiators ,and thru a coil in your hot water cylinder ,thus heating the water around it which is what comes out your taps. The water from boiler does not mix with that in your cylinder.
The cylinder stat ( 60 degr .c is OK) controls the water temp for taps.
The boiler stat controls temperature of water from the boiler.
The two white box's with levers divert the flow of hot water to radiators or cylinder ,or both ,depending on which you require.
Do you have a wall thermostat ,in hall way ( or elsewhere)? If you do that will sense air temperature and control the boiler to maintain the temperature that you select.

 

[Dedekind]

No wall thermostat just timer. Mind you this is a temporary set up, since next year we will replace with another system. But winter is coming so want to understand it well.

So to confirm: the water in the cylinder only goes to the taps, right? If I want to increase water temperature to the radiators then I increase the dial in the boiler, right?

Also how do I know if the HE cylinder is getting to 60 degrees indeed, given that the boiler only has a dial and not a thermostat?

 

[terryplumb]

If you increase the boiler stat your rads will get hotter ,and your fuel bills higher. So the lower you have it ,whilst keeping comfortable temp in the property ,the better.
Yes the cylinder water is domestic hot water for taps / showers. You would need a thermometer to establish the temperature of the domestic hot water ,which would be a few degrees less at the tap than what's in the cylinder.