"Roger Mills" wrote in message
...

"manoman" wrote in message
...
First off... thanks for helping me out and appreciating I know
absolutely
nothing about my system. This coupled together with the nice lady who
offered to take her trolley back with hers at Asda today reminds me how
many
genuinely decent people there are out in this sometimes weird world.

To answer your questions as best I can... here goes...

1) Can't actually see my boiler, its all hidden in the wall behind the
fire
on my chimney breast. I think to get to see all of this would mean some
deconstruction of the fire on the front?

2) Whenever the heating is on, the hot water is on. There is no option
on
the programmer to have heating on without it.

3) (hangs head in shame) I don't know where my pump is either, although
I
assume there is one somewhere. Just when I moved in I had the heating on
for
a while to test it and the pump screamed for a while, but it was in the
morning and it stopped after 5 mins before I woke up to find it.

4) I am not aware of any zone valves.

I basically think its the oldest, simplest form of CH/HW there is. Its
reliable though, keeps the house at whatever temperature I ask, and
makes
lots of nice hot water for my new power shower, bless it.

Is this any use at all?

Thanks again for your continued interest, if you're anywhere near
Rotherham
I owe you a pint.

Phil



I suspect that you've got a gravity hot water and pumped heating system -
quite common in the 60's and 70's. If you could get to your boiler, you'd
find 4 water pipes connected to it. The 2 on the one side would be fat
ones - 1" or 28mm - and would go to the indirect coil of the hot water
cylinder - probably in the airing cupboard. Water circulates round this
circuit by gravity (convection) whenever the boiler is running, and the
hot
water will eventually get very (probably too) hot, depending on the boiler
thermostat setting.

The other pair of pipes would be smaller (3/4" or 22mm) and would
circulate
hot water to the radiators whenever the boiler AND pump are running. The
room stat would switch the pump on and off as required.

This sort of system is wasteful because:
a) there is no control of domestic hot water temperature, so it gets too
hot
b) the boiler is on whenever the timer calls for hot water or heating -
and
keeps cycling unnecessarily to keep itself warm even when both demands are
satisfied

This can be improved quite dramatically by installing a zone valve in the
gravity circuit - controlled by a thermostat on the hot water cylinder -
and
wired in such a way that the boiler only comes on when one or both demands
are unsatisfied. The parts required to do this can be bought for a few
tens
of pounds - and the cost would be repaid very rapidly. Even if you pay a
plumber to do it, the payback should still be fairly quick.

Have a look at the C-plan on
http://content.honeywell.com/uk/homes/systems.htm and you'll get an idea
of
waht is involved.

HTH,
Roger



Roger,

Thanks for that description, again in nice easy terms for me to understand.
It certainly sounds like the system I have, and is something worth
considering starting as I decorate through the house, to make sure the
additional wiring is all nicely tucked away. Will probably make it a gradual
job through summer to next winter when it will be most useful and save me
the most money.

Thanks again Roger,

Right... I am definately going to the pub now

Phil S.