Room thermostat query - help much appreciated!

[amybee]

I recently had my room thermostat removed from the wall in order to plaster underneath it, and when it was replaced, found that the central heating programmer was completely dead.

On calling the gas man out, he replaced the programmer which promptly blew again straight away.

He investigated further and then took the room thermostat off the wall, said it had been incorrectly wired when replaced and this had caused both the old and new programmers to blow fuses. He replaced the room thermostat, wired it up properly and then replaced the fuse in the new programmer and everything now works fine.

My question is, is it possible that the room thermostat being incorrectly wired back would have caused the programmer to break?

If not, are there any other possibilties? If the programmer was fine before the thermostat was removed and broken after it was replaced, then surely the two must be related?? Both programmer and thermostat were Honeywell.

Many thanks for any help - much appreciated!

 

[cider]

 

[amybee]

I KNOW I sound really thick but I am in a bit of a tricky situation here and would really appreciate some help!

 

[Aquaheat]

I KNOW I sound really thick but I am in a bit of a tricky situation here and would really appreciate some help!

What tricky situation? The engineer has been out, diagnosed the fault and rectified the problem.

As you say everything is now working correctly following the work and you have pretty much aswered all of your own questions in the first post.

Oh and yes faulty wiring can blow almost any of your other controls without prejudice.

 

[mogget]

My question is, is it possible that the room thermostat being incorrectly wired back would have caused the programmer to break

Yes, it is. If for example the output of the programmer was connected directly to neutral, this would be a short circuit, and could easily take out the programmer and even the boiler. There are fuses for safety, but sensitive electronic equipment can easily die before the fuse blows. Fortunately it's been fixed with one new programmer and a fuse, so it's a close escape, it could have been much worse.

 

[amybee]

Thank you all for your help.

The tricky situation is, the plasterer caused the damage and he is telling me that even if he had wired the thermostat wrongly it wouldn't have caused the programmer to break, i.e. it wasn't his fault. So I am left with a bill for a couple of hundred pounds...

 

[ChrisR]

he is telling me that even if he had wired the thermostat wrongly it wouldn't have caused the programmer to break

That's wrong. He shouldn't be touching electrics unless he knows what he's doing. Electrical faults do not always only blow fuses.

Plumbers aren't necessarily electricians, but if a typical plumber had made the same error he would have been able to sort it out, for a lot less than a couple of hundred pounds.
Lucky it was only the programmer, it could just as easily been a circuit board in a boiler.

Ask him what he thinks of plumbers' plastering!

 

[D_Hailsham]

My question is, is it possible that the room thermostat being incorrectly wired back would have caused the programmer to break?

An unequivocal YES.

If the programmer was fine before the thermostat was removed and broken after it was replaced, then surely the two must be related??

If we discount coincidence then, yes, the two are related.

the plasterer caused the damage and he is telling me that even if he had wired the thermostat wrongly it wouldn't have caused the programmer to break

So he is an electrician and a heating engineer as well as a plasterer?

He is talking nonsense.

Have you paid his bill yet? If not, deduct the cost of the new programmer and the plumber's fee from the plasterer's bill and pay him the balance.

If you have paid his bill, go to Trading Standards and ask their advice.

 

[bengasman]

a couple of little problems.

you can not prove it was wired up correctly before.
the majority of room stats i have seen were wired incorrectly, using the cpc (what you would call the earth) as a live conductor.
as the fault has been repaired, all evidence is gone.
you do not need to be a qualified electrician to replace like for like thermostats, so taking one off and putting it back is unlikely to qualify as illegal work.
see if you can bluff him into a settlement, if not, forget it.