Intergas Xclusive 36 - repeating status 1

[wizbongre]

Hi All,

Since I discovered I can turn the display of the boiler on so it shows what it's up to all the time, I've noticed that now we are moving back into cooler days and it's being used on the odd occasion, it shows a status of 1 quite a lot.

In the attached image you can see the set temp is down to 41 thanks to weather comp, and the burner is off with status 1 showing. It appears to cycle to this more often than I think is ideal.

Any ideas what this means, and more importantly if it is a problem or not?

 

[muggles]

It's bound to cycle more with a low setpoint on a high output boiler. What's the pump overrun period set to?

 

[wizbongre]

I'll check again later but pretty sure virtually all of the parameters are at default from installation...

 

[ianmcd]

I'll check again later but pretty sure virtually all of the parameters are at default from installation...

The installer is supposed to set the parameters for your individual installation , the default is factory set, if you have a small heating demand , setting the parameters properly will solve your problem

 

[wizbongre]

Yeah, I did wonder about that... I'm not so convinced our installer had any interest in the subtleties of tuning the system after install. It's coming up to its first service - I may get Intergas out themselves to do it, unless anyone on here can be recommended who both knows Intergas well and covers the Liverpool area?

 

[nwgs]

What sort of thermostat do you have, is it opentherm ? Our evohome works well and the boiler modulates down to about 4kw ish

I’ve got mine at home set up and we have a lot of radiators on 4 floors. I’ve set it to 50% heating load which is about 18kw. Still might be slightly too high

They come set at 70% which as Ian suggests can be quite high and will cause it to cycle

 

[wizbongre]

Not openthem, no - we already had Hive running and I didn't want to add additional expense to move to something else, especially as Hive runs more than just the heating in the house.

We have a biggish semi but due to the layout and construction method (all solid walls, all but 1 room has 3 external walls) it hemorrhages heat out. Thanks to intelligence gained on these forums, I've been adjusting the sizing of radiators in most of the house targeting a lower Delta-T overall.

As it stands, it is indeed set at default 70% output.

Anyone experience with getting Intergas direct to do a service? Chances they will also be able to fine-tune the system at the same time?

 

[ianmcd]

while I agree with your line of thinking , be carefull, like all manus, being an accredited installer means you install the min amount of boilers for them every year , it does not mean that they actually know anything about the product, they just install loads, I have tagged @Razor900 he works for them and hopefully can recommend someone for you, if not he will be able to advise you how to adjust your parameters

 

[muggles]

Intergas will happily service it for you, but they're not going to have the time or the experience to work out your system requirements and set up the parameters for optimum performance - that's not their job.

 

[Razor900]

Intergas will happily service it for you, but they're not going to have the time or the experience to work out your system requirements and set up the parameters for optimum performance - that's not their job.

I agree with half of your post........

Of course it is every gas fitters job to set a boiler up properly during a service especially given how long it takes if you know what you're doing.

Sadly with around a dozen engineers to cover the whole UK together with the fact they have already started making redundancies it would appear that Intergas UK are making the move back to service agents rather than all direct engineers. Personally I doubt many of these will have the knowledge to set the boiler up.

The problem is not the boiler output it's the WC dragging the flow temp down. If you set the flow to 70 degrees the radiators will only become that hot if the outside temp is lower than minus 9 degrees. Anything warmer than that and the calculated flow temp will start to drop.

If it's around 16 degrees outside at the moment the flow temp with a 70 degree setting will indeed be around 40 degrees. It's all in the manual if your installer bothers to read it.

Condensing boilers are designed to run at lower flow temps but if it spends most of it's time around that output you will get excessive erosion of the fins in the heat exchanger, I've seen them very heavily worn at 4 years old where 10 year old ones run at 80 degrees are fine.

You will find that the property will take forever to get up to temp from cold and if your heat loss is that bad you'll be lucky to get it warm enough internally.

My advice is for you to get the boiler properly serviced and set up but then to change over to an Opentherm compatible thermostat and ditch the WC.

OT will run the boiler at the heating setpoint, (say 65 degrees) until it gets within 1 1/2 degrees or so of your thermostat setting then it will settle down to cruise control. You get a much faster initial warmup followed by efficient heating.

Bet you wish you hadn't tagged me now @ianmcd

 

[ianmcd]

I agree with half of your post........

Of course it is every gas fitters job to set a boiler up properly during a service especially given how long it takes if you know what you're doing.

Sadly with around a dozen engineers to cover the whole UK together with the fact they have already started making redundancies it would appear that Intergas UK are making the move back to service agents rather than all direct engineers. Personally I doubt many of these will have the knowledge to set the boiler up.

The problem is not the boiler output it's the WC dragging the flow temp down. If you set the flow to 70 degrees the radiators will only become that hot if the outside temp is lower than minus 9 degrees. Anything warmer than that and the calculated flow temp will start to drop.

If it's around 16 degrees outside at the moment the flow temp with a 70 degree setting will indeed be around 40 degrees. It's all in the manual if your installer bothers to read it.

Condensing boilers are designed to run at lower flow temps but if it spends most of it's time around that output you will get excessive erosion of the fins in the heat exchanger, I've seen them very heavily worn at 4 years old where 10 year old ones run at 80 degrees are fine.

You will find that the property will take forever to get up to temp from cold and if your heat loss is that bad you'll be lucky to get it warm enough internally.

My advice is for you to get the boiler properly serviced and set up but then to change over to an Opentherm compatible thermostat and ditch the WC.

OT will run the boiler at the heating setpoint, (say 65 degrees) until it gets within 1 1/2 degrees or so of your thermostat setting then it will settle down to cruise control. You get a much faster initial warmup followed by efficient heating.

Bet you wish you hadn't tagged me now @ianmcd

Not at all @Razor900 , I knew you were the guy to ask and would give the best advice

 

[nwgs]

I agree with half of your post........

Of course it is every gas fitters job to set a boiler up properly during a service especially given how long it takes if you know what you're doing.

Sadly with around a dozen engineers to cover the whole UK together with the fact they have already started making redundancies it would appear that Intergas UK are making the move back to service agents rather than all direct engineers. Personally I doubt many of these will have the knowledge to set the boiler up.

The problem is not the boiler output it's the WC dragging the flow temp down. If you set the flow to 70 degrees the radiators will only become that hot if the outside temp is lower than minus 9 degrees. Anything warmer than that and the calculated flow temp will start to drop.

If it's around 16 degrees outside at the moment the flow temp with a 70 degree setting will indeed be around 40 degrees. It's all in the manual if your installer bothers to read it.

Condensing boilers are designed to run at lower flow temps but if it spends most of it's time around that output you will get excessive erosion of the fins in the heat exchanger, I've seen them very heavily worn at 4 years old where 10 year old ones run at 80 degrees are fine.

You will find that the property will take forever to get up to temp from cold and if your heat loss is that bad you'll be lucky to get it warm enough internally.

My advice is for you to get the boiler properly serviced and set up but then to change over to an Opentherm compatible thermostat and ditch the WC.

OT will run the boiler at the heating setpoint, (say 65 degrees) until it gets within 1 1/2 degrees or so of your thermostat setting then it will settle down to cruise control. You get a much faster initial warmup followed by efficient heating.

Bet you wish you hadn't tagged me now @ianmcd

I’ve got OT and WC, someone in the CC said don’t bother with WC but my radiators and heating seem to work fine and are hotter when on than you mention.

Is OT leading the show and WC not doing much @Razor900

I’ve got flow set to 60.

 

[Razor900]

Depends on the boiler but most either ignore WC or just use it as a reference input when running OT.

IG pretty much ignores it all together

 

[nwgs]

Depends on the boiler but most either ignore WC or just use it as a reference input when running OT.

IG pretty much ignores it all together

It’s a hre 36/30. I thought WC must be being overlooked.

 

[bernardgreen]

Condensing boilers are designed to run at lower flow temps but if it spends most of it's time around that output you will get excessive erosion of the fins in the heat exchanger, I've seen them very heavily worn at 4 years old where 10 year old ones run at 80 degrees are fine.

It isn't known how old this boiler is but the corrosion of the aluminium heat exchanger appears to have created debris.

If boilers are cooling their combustion products below the dew point while they are still in contact with aluminium then significant corrosion / erosion of the aluminium is un-avoidable.

Cast iron is also corroded where as good quality stainless steel is not significantly corroded.