Worcester Heatslave 9.24 BF - Using 8 m3/hour instead of 2.9

[Siftah]

Hello,

I've been worried by the amount of Gas my boilers using and started to monitor it, by taking regular readings off the Gas meter I've noticed that I use anywhere between 4.5 cubic metres an hour and up to 8 cubic metres an hour of Gas when running my boiler on central heating only. (ie: with no hot water taps open during the monitoring period of around 2 hours).

Nothing else in my house uses Gas, so I believe these figures to be correct. I've also tried turning the boiler off and monitoring the gas usage, with the boiler off the gas usage is zero, so I don't believe I have a leak anywhere.

Looking at the specs on the boiler and the details printed on it's front panel, it looks like the boiler should only require 2.95m3/hour of Gas.

Is it normal for this to be using much more than the printed spec's? Is there anything obvious I should look for in order to reduce the gas usage?

To complicate things... I only seem to get hot water when the central heating is turned on - after copious Googling and searching I stumbled across this forum which has helped me diagnose my boiler as having a dodgy diverter valve, which I believe to be the cause of this problem. I can see that the pin on the diaphragm doesn't raise when a hot water tap is opened, nor does it ever activate the microswitch. When I manually push the microswitch with a screwdriver the boiler fires into life and it appears to do something (however, I still don't get much hot water from it, but that's presumably yet another problem?).

Many thanks for any replies, after having a whopping great Gas bill from our friends at BG I'm really hoping I can sort this out and have more money for beer, rather than spending it all on Gas

 

[fitz1]

guessing your gas meter is a u6 or an e6. it will only supply 6cu/m per hour. what type of meter is it.

 

[Gasguru]

Your reading the meter incorrectly or its accuracy is way out (but unlikely). At 8 meters an hour the boiler would be history. Time in seconds the time for one revolution of the meter test dial and post back. If its a digital meter time the readings over 2 minutes and post back the results.

Replace the diverter valve to sort out the DHW demand problem.

 

[doitall]

May I suggest you have the sums wrong.

Time how many unit are used in 2mins and post the answer.

Meter type, U6 will record 1-2 or 3 ft/hr which is yours or do you have the digital meteric meter

 

[Mike4]

This indicates either

1) Your boiler gas consumption WAY above safe levels
2) Your gas meter is WAY out of callibration
3) You have a whopping gas leak

None seems very likely but one must be the case. My money is on 3).

Turn your gas off and call Transco for a free check. The number is 0800 111999. They'll turn up in half an hour I bet.

Cheers, Mike

 

[scatmanjohn]

This indicates either

1) Your boiler gas consumption WAY above safe levels
2) Your gas meter is WAY out of callibration
3) You have a whopping gas leak

None seems very likely but one must be the case. My money is on 3).

Turn your gas off and call Transco for a free check. The number is 0800 111999. They'll turn up in half an hour I bet.

Cheers, Mike

Don't you think that someone might of caught a slight wiff of gas by now.

 

[Siftah]

Hmmm, having read your response I revisited my figures and rechecked the calculations, in retrospect I think I'm completely mis-reading...

These are the readings I took recently, the figure includes the last 3 digits on the meter...

The above three figures are taken with different settings, the first 1 is with the boiler on full temperature and all radiators turned on to their maximum setting.

The second reading was taken with the boiler set to minimum temperature and only 2 radiators on, then with about 4 radiators turned on and the temperature set to lowest still for the last setting.

The meter itself is a digital type, I think I was mis-calculating the last three digits, presumably they are millimetres cubed of gas - when I first did my calculations I was thinking they were Centimetres cubed of Gas, which in retrospect was a bit stupid of me

Thanks for so many responses - and so quickly too - very much appreciated

I think my next step is to get the boiler fixed and then talk to my gas company about the amount I'm being charged, am I right in thinking the boiler (assuming the figures are now correct) is using about the right amount of Gas?

Thanks all - this came about because they tried to up my monthy payments to 100quid a month. Being a single bloke living alone with only my gas and central heating powered by Gas, this seemed a bit steep, I provide regular gas readings too, so it's not like they can't estimate it properly...

 

[Siftah]

None seems very likely but one must be the case. My money is on 3).

Turn your gas off and call Transco for a free check. The number is 0800 111999. They'll turn up in half an hour I bet.

Cheers, Mike

Mike,

I thought this too at first, but I wandered round the house with a naked flame and I didn't get blown up even once, so it can't be that.

Ok, I turned off the boiler and recorded the meter reading, then again 24 hours later and it hadn't moved, it was a cold day but I think that probably showed that there was no leak. I presume that's a reasonable test as the gas pipes in the house would still have been under pressure, even with the boiler switched off?

Thanks

 

[Gasguru]

The readings appear perfectly normal - an average of 9.2Kw, 4.6 Kw and 6 Kw.

You can only assess the true gas consumption once you have the diverter working correctly since the boiler will probably only produce its maximum output with a hot water draw off. For test measurements the readings would only be taken over a 2 minute time period.

 

[Agile]

If its a digital meter time the readings over 2 minutes and post back the results.

I can tell you the answer to that! Its "two minutes" !!!

Tony