Grrrrrr - damn central heating

[Reid Malenfant]

:steam:

Why the hell does something always go wrong with central heating when it's bloody freezing :steam:

I have had the central heating on all day to keep the place warm, but having eaten i came back into the hifi room & thought it was kind of chilly :scratch: A quick check of the radiator revealed it was stone cold, i then checked the boiler but it was running... WTF????

Took the cover off the top of the pump to check if the motor had either burnt out or something else... No power - now what??? Followed the cable to the wall switch & fuse etc & have a peak inside, WTF is all this wiring :steam:

For some reason there is a 4 way cable going upstairs into where the hot water tank is & something up there switches the power to the pump??? :mental:

I'll have to have a chat with my mate who's a plumber :)

Meanwhile the pump is spinning again as i bypassed whatever the hell it was that messed things up & the old place is warming up once more :cool:

[Beechwoods]

That's good Mark...

I had my bloody car broken into last week. The night before I had to travel to my brother's wedding. After we sorted it with the insurance, and got the window 'secured' by Autoglass, I made it to the meal just after everyone had sat down.

These things are sent to test us :)

[Rare Bird]

get a combi boiler mark

[Ali Tait]

No, get a condenser boiler. They are a lot more expensive but you make your money back as they are more economical to run,and are more reliable. At least, that's what a plumber friend told me.

[Reid Malenfant]

That's good Mark...

I had my bloody car broken into last week. The night before I had to travel to my brother's wedding. After we sorted it with the insurance, and got the window 'secured' by Autoglass, I made it to the meal just after everyone had sat down.

These things are sent to test us :)
Indeed they are :doh: If i had been joe average then it'd have been a call out to a plumber & a hefty bill & callout fee...

As it is i still need to investigate why there is some kind of switch that can cut the pump out up in the airing cupboard :scratch: It doesn't make a lot of sense in my way of thinking as the thing is gravity fed, heat travels up & warms the water & cooler water decends on the water tank circuit. If the water tank got too hot then cutting out the pump will only make things worse as the boiler will only be feeding the water tank :scratch:

No idea :eyebrows:

I'll sort it when things get a little warmer in the spring ;)

Pleased you made the meal Nick, where there's a will there is a way :) Just a shame there are scumbags about that mess peoples lives about, perhaps they could do with a damn good kicking as well ;)

:lolsign:

[Rare Bird]

Aye owt where you can get rid of that hot water staorage tank..probably the thermostat

on it thats gone..

[Reid Malenfant]

get a combi boiler mark


No, get a condenser boiler. They are a lot more expensive but you make your money back as they are more economical to run,and are more reliable. At least, that's what a plumber friend told me.
:lolsign: This boiler runs fine thanks :) It's just this oddity with the feed to the pump that needs sorting out..

Yes it may not be quite as efficient as a modern one but it isn't broken & i'll get to the bottom of it for less than a few quid. In fact it's running fine now & cost nothing to fix :eyebrows:

[Reid Malenfant]

Aye owt where you can get rid of that hot water staorage tank..probably the thermostat

on it thats gone..
If that's the case i'll probably be able to get one for either naff all or cost price :)

[Jonboy]

Sometimes the pumps get stuck and won't turn, so you can give them a gentle tap with a hammer, there is a small screw/bolt in the middle if you undo this you can see if it is turning but be warned it has water in it, as i understand it you have a three way valve that will divert the water to either the hot water or to the central heating all controlled by a room stat and a cylinder stat, but the pump will run all the time its fed live from the timer/controller, there may be a bypass in the system to pass it around the rads and not back to the boiler when the boilers not firing.


There you go clear as mud, i'm not a plumber though

PS combis are cheaper to run but are no good if you require lots of hot water

[Reid Malenfant]

Cheers for the reply Jon :) Yes i can see the screw thing to turn it but it wasn't stuck, it simply had no power fed to it :mental:

Like i say, i'll sort it properly when spring comes round & i don't need the central heating :eyebrows:

[DSJR]

A previous Christmas morning when our son was nearly one year old, the pump spun up for half an hour, just enough to heat the water and then jammed. This was in a six year old house and the system had no inhibitor in it when we arrived. We were lucky, a local plummer was a widower and came to sort us out on the way to his daughter for Christmas lunch.

[Marco]

Feck yer central heating and install one of these in every room instead:


http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/1764/img0111fj.jpg (http://img402.imageshack.us/i/img0111fj.jpg/)


:)

Marco.

[DSJR]

Well this cat's got real taste with a pair of working monitors (thanks to Denis Blackham for posting this pic on his site www.skeyemastering.com )

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q8/DSJR_photos/f0f03285.jpg

[Rare Bird]

believe me i'd have the below if i didnt live in a w*nk hole

Open fire
cast iron radiators in other rooms
aga
full granite worktops
proper open staircase
stainglass in the entrance hall

[DSJR]

We have one working fireplace, in the sitting room. It must be us, but we're so bloomin' shattered all the time the thought of preparing and maintaining a really blazing fire in it makes us cringe, no matter how lovely it would be. Hope some of the stress will ease next year and we can chill out a little.

[anthonyTD]

hi all,
i have heard many people complaining about boilers failing this winter, most seem to be modern combi or condensor types, aparently some breakdowns are caused because of the flu's freezing,others have fault codes and error messages coming up etc,and i do feel for those who have been left in the cold by these suposedly superior designs, however,,,hearing about these woe's i am just glad i decided to hang onto my simple old combi back boiler for a while longer!
Anthony,TD...

[Dave Hewitt]

Hi probably a diverter valve in the airing cupboard that switches from domestic hot water to central heating via pump that is stuck.
Dave.

[Ali Tait]

Feck yer central heating and install one of these in every room instead:


http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/1764/img0111fj.jpg (http://img402.imageshack.us/i/img0111fj.jpg/)


:)

Marco.

Aye you can't beat the real thing!

[Spectral Morn]

We have one working fireplace, in the sitting room. It must be us, but we're so bloomin' shattered all the time the thought of preparing and maintaining a really blazing fire in it makes us cringe, no matter how lovely it would be. Hope some of the stress will ease next year and we can chill out a little.

We only have an open fire for heat.

The back boiler feeds the radiators via a pump or just as the hot water works round the system....great in power-cut.....though the bathroom stays cold with out the pump being on.

Open fires nice to look at but its a dirty hole that requires a lot of hard work and there are days I hate the thing.....however overall I think it still works out cheaper to run than oil or gas. I don't know how you guys who run oil afford £500 to £800 bills to put oil in the tank :eek:

Must say the rise in temp here in NI is a welcome thing, I just hope the very extreme cold does not return. At its worst the inside windows froze (totally) over with frozen condensation both upstairs and downstairs. Never seen that before.

In Belfast the river Lagan had a layer of ice on it.....never seen that before either.


Hope your heating gets sorted out Mark.


Regards Neil

[Dave Hewitt]

We dont all have a butler to stoke up for us.;)
Dave.

[Reid Malenfant]

Hope your heating gets sorted out Mark.


Regards Neil
Cheers Neil, i'm warm & toasty once more :eyebrows: Like i say, i bypassed whatever shut the pump down & it's happily pumping water to all the radiators again :) Funny thing is the pump only got replaced a few years back so it had me fretting a tad :doh:


Yes i love open fires to, but keeping a whole house warm would require some work & frankly i'm a lazy git :eyebrows: Besides which there are only two chimneys so it'd require a backboiler as Neil pointed out, me & a friend have had fun & games with one of those in the past :eek: Think near explosion :lol:

Another thing, i think i live in a smoke free zone so open fires may well be a bit of a no no :doh:

[anthonyTD]

hi mark,
i think dave is right about the divertor valve, i have one in my system,[in the airing cupboard] its basicaly a gear'd mains motor on top of a valve, from time to time it gets stuck and the heating wont kick in, i have had to take it apart and re-oil it with light oil a few times, always works fine again for a while, i hope its a similar fault in your case as its a relitively easy fix for a man of your skills.:)
Anthony,TD...

[Spectral Morn]

Smokeless Coal Mark ;)


It burns very hot and eats the grates up every other year...they just start to crumble and fall into the dust pan.

Its the dirt and having to man handle 25kg bags of coal into the back yard etc....this is an Edwardian house (1903) and we still heat as they did.....heck I can even light it via oil lamps if needed.

The +s of all this are only ever seen when there is a power-cut.....thankfully a rare event...



Regards D S D L

[anthonyTD]

Smokeless Coal Mark ;)


It burns very hot and eats the grates up every other year...they just start to crumble and fall into the dust pan.

Its the dirt and having to man handle 25kg bags of coal into the back yard etc....this is an Edwardian house (1903) and we still heat as they did.....heck I can even light it via oil lamps if needed.

The +s of all this are only ever seen when there is a power-cut.....thankfully a rare event....



Regards D S D L

hi neil,
my dad still has a coal fired system as he wont have Gas in the house!
A...

[Spectral Morn]

hi neil,
my dad still has a coal fired system as he wont have Gas in the house!
A...


Me neither.....way too dangerous.


Regards D S D L

[Marco]

Glad you've got your heating sorted out now, Mark!

Hi Neil,


Its the dirt and having to man handle 25kg bags of coal into the back yard etc....


Lol! Don't you have what's called a 'coalman'? You know, one of those nice men who deliver your coal in a big lorry and empty it into your coal bunker for you, in return for some of the folding stuff? ;)

We certainly do - the only 'sack' I man-handle is....... (Answers on a post card)! :eyebrows: :lol:

Also, Del's uncle delivers big bags of chopped sticks to us (from a mate of his who has a farm) to light the fire with, and also logs, which we get for next to bugger all... The cost of the coal is the only real expense.

As for it being 'lots of hard work' to maintain a coal fire, well I suppose it's more work than simply switching on the central heating (or whatever), but it only takes Del about 5 mins every morning to scrape the old coal and ash into the tray below (for me to empty later when it's cool) and then set the fire with paper, sticks and coal for me to light before she comes back from work.

During the day when I get another 5 mins, I bring in some more coal and logs from outside in the yard to keep us going for the evening, and Bob's yer auntie, that's it! So for about 10 mins 'hard work' every day, we've got a lovely roaring real fire to comfort us every night (or whenever we light it). We wouldn't swap it for anything! :cool:

We have full central heating too, which we also use, but it dries the air and makes the room too stuffy for me, whereas the coal fire doesn't - it seems to give a 'fresher', more natural heat. It makes a great bin, too, to burn all your rubbish. The ultimate way of recycling!! :)

Marco.

[DSJR]

Oh absolutely :)