Nightmare boiler setup, please help.

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If anybody could offer some insight into what the previous owners did to this central heating system I’d be grateful. Have just moved in and cannot figure it out.
How can I fix this mess and just have hot water and heating separated, as they should be? Anyone have a clue what is happening here?

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Wow!

The best thing you can do right now is to trace all the cables let us know what goes where and does what , take plenty of pics of the wiring centre , back of the summer switch , back of the heating/hot water controller

Then hopefully someone will be able to shed some insight on it all for you
 
Thanks for the quick reply!
Ok, here goes...


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Streth ... unfortunately you are going to need someone on site to unpick all of that properly.

The plumbing needs to be understood, i.e. what's going where and then the wiring can be sorted out. From the looks of it the HW is fed by the gravity circuit. One pump feeds to the downstairs rads and that circuit/switch on the programmer controls the boiler on and off. The switch above is able to shut the power off to the 1st pump so the boiler still runs but the pump doesn't and then the upstairs radiators are fed by the other pump but that doesn't switch the boiler on and off.

Certainly a bit of a mash up.
 
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Some buffoon has fitted an inappropriate programmer, and then attempted to make it work by adding more switches.
In the end, it will be quicker to scrap all of those controls and wiring and start again.
 
Just get a new boiler installed as it will be easier for you and more effecient
 
yep, twin programmer trying to act as a 3 channel programmer. As above, do yourself a favour and just get rid of that lot.
 
Just get a new boiler installed as it will be easier for you and more effecient
A new boiler won't fix the control issues, and is highly unlikely to ever pay for itself in efficiency savings over what the OP has now. It's the controls that need fixing here, not the boiler
 
It seems similar to what I found when I bought this house, some one thought it seems you could split the house into two zones by using two pumps, that's what had been tried here, flat and main house, one pump for each, unfortunately it did not work, which ever pump ran, it would push water around the other zone backwards, so I had to get plumbers to fit zone valves.

In fact mine was worst than yours, as it seems some one had tried to fix it, and the fix was three independent FCU's and a pump on a 13A plug and socket.

Likely there is no way of having central heating without domestic hot water, if the boiler is running you have domestic hot water, however it is likely wired so you can have domestic hot water (DHW) without central heating (CH) the idea is if pump does not run, then no CH, however this is a bit hit and miss, once the CH is warm thermo syphon will likely keep it running at least upstairs, the plumber and oil heating engineer I got in scratched their heads and hadn't a clue, I did not care, I designed the wiring from scratch.

However plumbing is not perfect in my case, as no by-pass valves. The pumps you have seem quite modern even if an old boiler, I don't know enough about those pumps to help, however I can say what happened to me.

Although I fitted to motorised valves, in hind sight I could have got away without it, I also fitted new thermostatic radiator valve bases, and electronic heads on them all, and they do shut off fully, so that would stop thermo syphon, what I don't know, is what the pumps will do if all TRV's close, will they be damaged, may be some one else can answer that? So with a wall thermostat and a TRV head running same schedule placed in the same room it all could work as it is?

My pumps are on the return, so could not fit by-pass so I was told, your pumps may not need a by-pass either, I don't know, but with lock down it will be hard to find some one with the skill to fix it, so if you have TRV already fitted, easy way may be £10 electronic heads so you can program each room, big question which I can't answer is would you need by pass valves.
 
A new boiler won't fix the control issues, and is highly unlikely to ever pay for itself in efficiency savings over what the OP has now. It's the controls that need fixing here, not the boiler

It would because it would be corrected at the install obviously!
 
It would because it would be corrected at the install obviously!
Or they could just get the controls sorted, and not waste money on a new boiler that isn't needed. If you really are a gas plumber, I fear for your customers, I really do... trying to sell people things they don't actually need is something that gives the whole trade a bad reputation
 
Or they could just get the controls sorted, and not waste money on a new boiler that isn't needed. If you really are a gas plumber, I fear for your customers, I really do... trying to sell people things they don't actually need is something that gives the whole trade a bad reputation

I don’t sell anyone anything they don’t need. I give people options! All the options and let the customer make there mind up.

that job need a 3 chance programmer and sorting out prob £300ish
Then a service and probably will find other issues given the state of it.

that’s why I said what I said.

you sound like the type of guy muggles who lets customers pump money in to things that ain’t worth it
 
But the OP isn’t having problems with the boiler is he? Whatever happens, he needs the system sorted first then if at a later date the boiler is beyond repair, it will just be a straightforward boiler change.
 

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