Thought I'd try here to see if anyone had any ideas about a central
heating problem we're having.
We have a megaflo hot water tank and an Ideal Classic FF330 boiler. We
have noticed that the central heating does not appear to be coming on
and have tried turning the thermostat up to 28 dec and above with no
results. I can hear the thermostat click when it passes about 20 deg so
it seems to be able to sense the temp in the room but dosen't seem to
be switching the central heating on.

At the moment I have the heating and hot water both set to on all the
time and when I run any hot water and the hot water tank starts heating
up the radiators then become hot.

Grateful for any advice

Sandy

Sandeee wrote:
Thought I'd try here to see if anyone had any ideas about a central
heating problem we're having.
We have a megaflo hot water tank and an Ideal Classic FF330 boiler. We
have noticed that the central heating does not appear to be coming on
and have tried turning the thermostat up to 28 dec and above with no
results. I can hear the thermostat click when it passes about 20 deg so
it seems to be able to sense the temp in the room but dosen't seem to
be switching the central heating on.

At the moment I have the heating and hot water both set to on all the
time and when I run any hot water and the hot water tank starts heating
up the radiators then become hot.

Grateful for any advice

Sandy

Sounds like a motorised valve problem.

In general the thermostat drives a valve which opens up the rads and
also switches the boiler on.

Need to know more about the installation setup to pinpoint where to
start poking.

Since rads do get hot when HW is on, it may be a loose wire in the
electricals..sounds like the valve is opening anyway..can you confirm
that the thermostat switches off the heat when you have ut set to HW and
CH both?

Hi

Thanks for such a quick reply...

It sems like the thermostat (located in the hall) isn't having any
influence over the operation of the radiators. i.e. what I think is
happening is when the hot water tank needs to be heated the radiators
also get hot and when the hot water reaches required temp then it stops
heating and then the radiators go cold!! We are then unable to make the
radiators heat up using the thermostat control. I suspect turning the
thermostat down when the radiators are heating wouldn't work as it
seems like the need for the water tank to heat up is controlling the
radiators rather than the need to warm the house!!

Sandy

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Sandeee wrote:

Hi

Thanks for such a quick reply...

It sems like the thermostat (located in the hall) isn't having any
influence over the operation of the radiators. i.e. what I think is
happening is when the hot water tank needs to be heated the radiators
also get hot and when the hot water reaches required temp then it
stops heating and then the radiators go cold!! We are then unable to
make the radiators heat up using the thermostat control. I suspect
turning the thermostat down when the radiators are heating wouldn't
work as it seems like the need for the water tank to heat up is
controlling the radiators rather than the need to warm the house!!

Sandy

It's definitely a motorised valve problem. How many valves have you got -
and what type? You will almost certainly have either one 3-port valve or two
2-port valves. The diagnosis will be different depending on what you've
got - so please let us know about your setup.
--
Cheers,
Roger
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Many thanks for all the help so far...

I've had a dig around under the hot water tank today and there is a
honeywell two port valve and a drayton zone valve actuator.

When I switch on hot water and heating at the timer the two port valve
moves and I can hear the HW tank working. The zone valve actuator sits
at A when this happens. At this point the radiators heat up as well.
When I select heating only and move the room thermostat up to 30 the
ZVA moves to B but the two port valve dosen't move. I've tried manually
forcing it over and latching it but that has no effect. From watching
everything switching etc it looks like the two port valve and ZVA are
doing the right things. Do you think the problem might be the internal
parts of the two port valve?

Cheers

Sandy

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Sandeee wrote:

Many thanks for all the help so far...

I've had a dig around under the hot water tank today and there is a
honeywell two port valve and a drayton zone valve actuator.

When I switch on hot water and heating at the timer the two port valve
moves and I can hear the HW tank working. The zone valve actuator sits
at A when this happens. At this point the radiators heat up as well.
When I select heating only and move the room thermostat up to 30 the
ZVA moves to B but the two port valve dosen't move. I've tried
manually forcing it over and latching it but that has no effect. From
watching everything switching etc it looks like the two port valve
and ZVA are doing the right things. Do you think the problem might be
the internal parts of the two port valve?

Cheers

Sandy

I'm a bit confused by your terminology!

All 2 or 3 port zone valves are in two parts - the wet part which directs
the water, and the actuator (the electrical part which rotates the spindle
of the wet part to make it do its business). I presume that you've got two
complete valve/actuator assemblies - one Honeywell and one Drayton - rather
than the unlikely combination of a single Honeywell wet bit controlled by a
Drayton actuator?

If so, one valve will switch the HW flow, and the other one will switch the
CH flow. This is called an S-Plan system. The valves are opened by the
programmer and respective (room or tank) thermostats. Each valve has a set
of secondary "volt-free" contacts which close when the valve opens and
switch on the boiler and pump. It sounds as if the CH valve is opening -
allowing hot water to flow to the radiators when the HW is being heated -
but its secondary contacts are not working. Thus when *only* CH is required,
the boiler and pump are not being switched on.
--
Cheers,
Roger
______
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monitored.. Messages sent to it may not be read for several weeks.
PLEASE REPLY TO NEWSGROUP!

Roger

Thanks for that- The S Plan system you described sounds like what I
have with one honewell valve and a separate drayton actuator. What you
have suggested sounds right as when the drayton actuator moves to the
central heating position nothing else happens. I'll have a look into
replacing the actuator

Many thanks for your help

Sandy

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Sandeee wrote:

Roger

Thanks for that- The S Plan system you described sounds like what I
have with one honewell valve and a separate drayton actuator. What you
have suggested sounds right as when the drayton actuator moves to the
central heating position nothing else happens. I'll have a look into
replacing the actuator

Many thanks for your help

Sandy

If you look at the S-Plan wiring diagram in
http://content.honeywell.com/uk/homes/systems.htm you'll get a clue as to
how it's *supposed* to work.

When the CH zone valve is open, the volt-free(1) contacts should be closed,
connecting the orange wire to the permanently live grey wire - and thus
turning on the boiler and pump via pin 10 of the wiring centre.

The most likely cause of your problem is a duff microswitch - although a
wire *could* have dropped off. You *can* replace just the microswitch - but
it's a bit fiddly, and easier to replace the whole actuator - which you
should be able to remove from the wet part of the valve without any need to
drain the system.

(1) Volt-free in this context simply means that the switch is completely
isolated from the motor circuit - and can be used to switch anything which
needs switching on when the valve is closed.
--
Cheers,
Roger
______
Email address maintained for newsgroup use only, and not regularly
monitored.. Messages sent to it may not be read for several weeks.
PLEASE REPLY TO NEWSGROUP!