Worcester Bosch Boiler Question

[jaypay]

Hi,

I wonder if anyone can shed some light on a 'potential' problem that I have.

Recently had new central heating installed and had lots of problems with the plumber, but that's a side point. I wanted to check whether I have a problem with the new boiler, or whether it has been installed incorrectly.

I have a 3 story house, and each floor has its own independent thermostat. Each of these feed back to a non return valve (not sure of the correct name) which opens when the relevant thermostat calls for heat. The idea being that the whole house doesn't get heated needlessly and each area is zoned.

Now, the problem is that the guy forgot to do this at the start, and I have to point out he'd done it wrong. He then messed around with a few pipes and eventually put them in place. The problem, is that now I have a towel rail in a cloakroom which is before either of the three valves on the flow pipes. What this meant in the winter was irrespective of what zone was on, the towel rail heated. At the time, this didn't bother me as it was nice to have it warm

Anyway, with the warm weather we have been having, obviously the heat has been off, however the towel rail is constantly hot !

I have the temperature of the boiler set at approx 50 degrees and what appears to be happening is that the boiler is constantly keeping the water heated to that temp even though the valves are shut and it's not flowing to the rads.

Each of the thermostats has a wire going to the valve, which in turn has a wire going to a junction box. So I have a junction box with three wires going to it (the 3 valves) and one single wire going to the boiler controlling the on/off i guess.

Question is, is it a boiler fault that means the water is always hot (not very energy efficient) or is it a problem with the wiring from the junction box to the boiler in that it is telling the boiler to constantly heat the water?

As an aside, my gas bill have become HUGE so ideally wound this fixed asap. It doesn't effect the heating working, just things don't seem correct to me.

I have a picture that tries and illustrate what I have described above., however I'm not sure how to upload it.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Many Thanks

 

[D_Hailsham]

Do you have a combi (instant hot water) boiler?

 

[simond]

Sounds like your boiler has been wired with the Lr connector permanently live, or if you have cables in Ls and Lr, they're the wrong way round.

 

[D_Hailsham]

Sounds like your boiler has been wired with the Lr connector permanently live,

If that were true the boiler would run all the time, and the OP has not complained about that happening.

 

[AlanE]

What this meant in the winter was irrespective of what zone was on, the towel rail heated. At the time, this didn't bother me as it was nice to have it warm

That is ideally how towel rail should be installed.

 

[simond]

D_H

What does the OP mean by this comment, then?

I have the temperature of the boiler set at approx 50 degrees and what appears to be happening is that the boiler is constantly keeping the water heated to that temp even though the valves are shut and it's not flowing to the rads.

 

[transam]

Do you have a hot water cylinder ???

 

[D_Hailsham]

Do you have a hot water cylinder ???

or

Do you have a combi (instant hot water) boiler?

Take your pick.

However the OP seems to have disappeared.

 

[transam]

 

[D_Hailsham]

D_H
What does the OP mean by this comment, then?

I have the temperature of the boiler set at approx 50 degrees and what appears to be happening is that the boiler is constantly keeping the water heated to that temp even though the valves are shut and it's not flowing to the rads.

But the OP never mentions anything about the boiler running continuously when the heating is on. The problem seems to occur only when the heating is off.

If the OP has a hot water cylinder with cylinder stat set to 60 and the boiler stat set to 50 the cylinder stat will never reach temperature, so the boiler will run almost continuously. That's conjecture as we don't know if the OP has a cylinder or a combi boiler, but it could be the cause of the problem.

 

[simond]

I agree it could be the HW, but it would normally be via a timer and that timer would have to be set to 24hrs a day......which is somewhat unlikely.

I have to go out and fix these occasionally, and installer wiring is one of the most popular culprits, to be fair to Bosch.

 

[jaypay]

guys.

Thanks for the replies and sorry for the delay - got caught up at work and then football was on. What a joke !!
Anyway.

It's a combi boiler and the water is set to approx 3/4 on the dial. I though it only kicks in when the tap is on rather than continual heating water ?

Regarding the towel rail prob, the boiler intermitantly comes on to almost top up the temp, ie keep it constant even though the thermastats are not calling fir heat.
Does that make sense?

 

[ianniann]

Sounds like your installation has thermostats on the three zones, but none on the towel rail, and so no control at all on the towel rail. So the boiler is "on" all the time, pumping water just round the towel rail most of the time.

You need some form of control over the towel rail. A timer? A room thermostat? Perhaps you already have it and don't realise? Maybe a controller set in the boiler?

 

[jaypay]

Yep. That exactly what is happening. It's like the boiler is keeping the run of pipes constantly ready at the temp(it 54). Bas I'm stNing eatching it now, the temp light is going up (now at 68) but the green light that tells me the boiler is firing is not on !!! Now dropped back to 53
so will a boiler keep the water ready at the temp set, just in case, rather than heat it as we go along when needed.
Again, this is only on the heating as it's a combi

And you're right, three theremadtats for three zones, and the towel rail is betweenthe noiler and the point where the flow splits into 3

Cheers

 

[petit_pablo]

A towel rail on it's own cannot keep a boiler firing.
The installer has made a mistake with the wiring. He has possibly left a link in the Ls / Lr connection on the boiler, wired them the wrong way round or has made an error with the switch lives from the zone valves.