Should I be able to use the central heating without it switching on the
hot water heater at the same time? It is a Potterton boiler about 7
years old.

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Loulou wrote:

Should I be able to use the central heating without it switching on
the hot water heater at the same time? It is a Potterton boiler
about 7 years old.

It depends on the system!

I presume that the boiler heats both the radiators and the hot water tank,
and there are occasions when you just want space heating?

If water to the boiler is pumped both to the radiators and to the hot water
tank, there will be one or more motorised valves which control the flow and
which, in turn, are controlled by the programmer and thermostats. In this
case, you should be able to have just space heating.

The alternative is that only the central heating is pumped, with water
travelling by gravity (convection) to the hot water cylinder. In this case,
it's almost certain that the hot water will get hot whenever the CH is on,
whether you want it to or not.
--
Cheers,
Roger
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Thank you Roger. How can I tell if the hot water is pumped seperately
or not??

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Loulou wrote:

Thank you Roger. How can I tell if the hot water is pumped seperately
or not??

Trace all the water pipes which connect to your boiler. If you have a
gravity hot water system, there will be 4 pipes (or possibily 3 if the
returns join together before connecting to the boiler). Two of them will be
large diameter (28mm) and will go to the coil in the hot water cylinder in
the airing cupboard. The other two will probably be 22mm and will go to the
radiators. One of these will have a pump installed in it - probably fairly
near to the boiler.

If it's a fully pumped system, there will only be two water pipes (plus a
gas pipe, of course) connected to the boiler. At some point after the pump,
these will split into two circuits - with one going to the coil in the hot
water cylinder, and the other going to the radiators. There will be one or
more motorised zone valves [either one 3-port valve (one inlet and 2
outlets) or two 2-port valves (one inlet and one outlet each)] and there
will be a tank thermostat strapped to the outside of the hot water cylinder.
--
Cheers,
Roger
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