Please Help! - Boiler constantly firing.

[Joanne15]

Hi!

Im in desperate need of some advice...

I moved into a new build property last year and noticed the bolier was constantly firing up even when the programmer on the wall was switched to off. I raised this at the time with the building company who told me it was perfectly normal. (1-Is it? )

Since moving in our gas bills have been astronomical - we have permanently had the CH switched off in fear that the gas bill would get even higher and have struggled by on the WH being on for 1-2hrs a day to get what little hot water we need to get by on....despite this, our last quarterly bill came in at 600 quid...I have no shame in saying I broke down.

I spoke with the neighbours to find out what their bills were like (couldn't believe the WH being on for only 1-2hrs a day would result in such an extortionate bill)...and I found out that they'd had the same problem when they moved in - only in their case the building company had fixed it!!

In the meantime, we've struggled by with a newborn who's had three respiratory illnesses since being born, more than likely as a result of no heating on over the winter (we thought we couldn't afford to have it switched on given we couldn't afford the gas bill we were getting just for the water being on 1-2hrs per day).

Anyway - I've spoken with the building company who are now arranging for a plumber to come out to check what the issue is and I want to be well informed beforehand. The neighbours said it had something to do with the wiring but, they didn't know the technicalities beyond that.

So 2 - Does anyone know what the problem could be?

What would cause a boiler to fire up and use gas even when the programmer is switched off and isn't even being used for CH/WH?

And 3 - any ideas what units/kwh's having the WH on for 1-2hrs per day should have resulted in on a quarterly bill?

Many thanks in advance - sorry for such a lengthy post!

Jo.

 

[seco services]

out of all that info you have given us none tells us anything about the boiler or system you have.

 

[Aquaheat]

If possible could you provide details of your boiler? There should be some badges knocking about on the casing somewhere.

It does sound as if the boiler could be wired incorrectly and is getting a constant call from the DHW side.

It could be a faulty programmer that is not resting in NO position.

What is bothering me is that you say the boiler fires constantly but you still have limited hot water AND the radiators stay cold. The heat must be going somewhere.

Are you sure that the cylinder only provides you with very little hot water or do you just use it carefully and have never noticed?

If you can give us the details of the boiler we should be able to help you a little further.

 

[Aquaheat]

Sorry seco, i really should stop typing long posts!!

 

[Joanne15]

out of all that info you have given us none tells us anything about the boiler or system you have.

Sorry - Boiler has ICOS HE15 on it and programmer is a Myson one. You'll have to firgive me for not being 'with it' on this one - if you need more details just let me know.

Many thanks!

Jo

 

[Joanne15]

If possible could you provide details of your boiler? There should be some badges knocking about on the casing somewhere.

It does sound as if the boiler could be wired incorrectly and is getting a constant call from the DHW side.

It could be a faulty programmer that is not resting in NO position.

What is bothering me is that you say the boiler fires constantly but you still have limited hot water AND the radiators stay cold. The heat must be going somewhere.

Are you sure that the cylinder only provides you with very little hot water or do you just use it carefully and have never noticed?

If you can give us the details of the boiler we should be able to help you a little further.

Thanks - hopefully the below should help explain further...

All radiators are turned to the frost setting with the exception of one (it doesn't have a temperature valve on it at all). We keep the thermostat right down to try and ensure that that particular radiator doesn't come on either - it occasionally does though when the temperature gets low enough.

The WH is timed to come on daily for those couple of hours - some days we run it right to cold when everyone has a shower/bath (as well as the newborn we have an eight yr old), other days there's probably some left over cause it doesn't run down. We switched the timed WH off on Saturday just to see what happenned and we ran out of hot water Sunday lunchtime)


Jo.

 

[seco services]

bit confused here.

so if your boiler is constantly firing up wheres the heat going ?
you say you ran out of hw.
do the rads get hot if its constantly firing up ?

 

[Aquaheat]

Ok that could help alot.

Sounds as if the heating is running constantly regardless of the programmer position and the only control you have is turning the TRV's down. Do the pipes leading to the radiators get hot even though the programmer says its off?


This could be down to one of two things. Programmer or 3 port valve. Get these two items checked for correct functionality first.

 

[Joanne15]

bit confused here.

so if your boiler is constantly firing up wheres the heat going ?
you say you ran out of hw.
do the rads get hot if its constantly firing up ?

Beats me - I have no idea - it feels like the gas is just burning for no reason....

You can hear it firing up and when it does it says 'c' on the front of the boiler and the 'burner' light flashes but, all the radiators are on frost and stay permanently cold with the exception of that one without any temperature control on it.

Thanks,

Jo.

 

[Joanne15]

Ok that could help alot.

Sounds as if the heating is running constantly regardless of the programmer position and the only control you have is turning the TRV's down. Do the pipes leading to the radiators get hot even though the programmer says its off?


This could be down to one of two things. Programmer or 3 port valve. Get these two items checked for correct functionality first.

Thanks - I will do, that's really helpful.

Sounds right - the programmer is never on for CH, yet the radiators would all automatically get hot if we turned the temperature valves up.

Jo

 

[Agile]

As its a new build then it could well be an incorrectly wired up system.

Even so the heat has to go somewhere and its not obvious to me where its going to.

£600 for just one quarter is a lot of gas and a new property is going to be very well insulated.

However, there are some strange things about what you are saying because anyone else would have turned off the boiler when its not needed for heating the water or radiators whereas you seem to be leaving it on all the time.

As £600 seems a very high bill, have you got a normal credit meter and pay every three months? You often get a better price with a monthly direct debit. Did you read the meter when you moved in?

A smaller new house should use about £1000 of gas a year but obviously most during the winter months.

Tony

 

[Joanne15]

As its a new build then it could well be an incorrectly wired up system.

Even so the heat has to go somewhere and its not obvious to me where its going to.

£600 for just one quarter is a lot of gas and a new property is going to be very well insulated.

However, there are some strange things about what you are saying because anyone else would have turned off the boiler when its not needed for heating the water or radiators whereas you seem to be leaving it on all the time.

As £600 seems a very high bill, have you got a normal credit meter and pay every three months? You often get a better price with a monthly direct debit. Did you read the meter when you moved in?

A smaller new house should use about £1000 of gas a year but obviously most during the winter months.

Tony

Thanks - yes the boiler has been constantly on. We had the programmer set to the 1-2hours of WH that we wanted but the boiler seems to do what it likes regardless of that. Yes, it could have been switched it off at the mains (as could the gas supply) but, we were told by the building company that the boiler was performing as it should do, and we were therefore under the impression that we shouldn't have to switch off the mains in order to control it - we thought that the programmer was doing this and that it was our 1-2hrs usage that was racking up the bills - naive I know but, we put our trust in the people who signed off to say it was installed correctly.

As mentioned, there's one radiator that I can't control with a temperature valve - could all the heat be going there/the pipework?

We have a normal meter and all meter readings have been correct since moving in.

Thanks,

Jo.

 

[seco services]

have you 1 of these

or 2 of these

in the airing cupboard.

 

[Agile]

Just one rad will not cost £600 for a quarter of heat!

I still find all this strange because you imply that you lived all winter with freezing temperatures outside with only one radiator heating the house!

Heating a standard cylinder will use about 5-10 kWH

Tony

 

[Joanne15]

you say you keep the wall stat down to its lowest
and you say this keeps the rad cold till the house temp drops over night.

so with the wall stat down and rad cold, i take it the boilers not firing up.

I switched the wall stat down to zero today (it was previously sat at 10) and fingers crossed, the boiler hasn't fired up yet, yes.

Jo.