Boilers and heating

quag

Hi all,
Just wondering if anyone else is having this problem. Should it really be necessary to have the heating on in order to have hot water??
We're in a 2 bed th in the Park and this is what we were told by the foreman a couple of months ago.
Basically, we have no hot water unless the heating is on. If the heating is on for, say, a half hour, there wont be any hot water a couple of hours later, even if none has been used in the meantime.
I would have thought that having the immersion(sic?) meant that there was no need to keep the heating on.
I could be completely wrong here but something doesn't seem right with this. It's going to make the gas bill sky high i reckon. Also, I dont want to have to put the heating on during the summer, when its warm enough without the heating on, just so I can have a shower. Anyone else having any issues with this?
Thanks

Fitzini

Had a similar issue except the foreman told me that you must have the immersion on to heat the water...so I asked him if I wanted hot water in the morning I'd need to get up 2 hours early and put the immersion on...needless to say he was talking rubbish...
He's wrong, the immersion heats the water as well, and if properly insulated will stay hot. As far as I can see the plumbing work is shoddy at best.

On another note, does anyone know who I should contact about the heat, the gas boiler is not working anymore, I'm in C.Wood?

Plenty

Hi Fitzini!

We had our gas boiler serviced by Bord Gáis last week. According to the service guy, the boliers we have (as I too am in C. Wood) are cheap and nasty. They are renowned for dying if the water pressure plummets to zero.

The only way to remedy this is, in the hot press there is a red tap like valve in front of the tank. If turned anti-clockwise for 5 turns, the valve is fully opened. Turn clock-wise for 2-3 turns, it is partially open. This will heat the rads and the water as well as increasing the water pressure in the gas boiler (you may have to wait a short while for the pressure to adjust). This is usually a two man job as well as trial and error. I won't lie to you, I had to do this on my own.

I hope I haven't blinded you with science. You can PM me if you want more info.

Eoin

We've had very similar problems;

Only enough water for a very quick shower for up to 2/3 hours after the central heating goes off. I don't know what it is about the apartments, but they get seriously warm without the central heating so really don't want to have to leave it on during the summer just to have a shower.

Also, our water pressure has dropped a few times (down to about 0.3 bars according to the display on the boiler by the front door). We get around this by doing the valve thing that Plenty is talking about. The plumber said that this was just due to air in the pipes.

Plenty

Sorry quag, I didn't mean to digress slightly from your issue. You're right in thinking the immersion can be switched on instead of the gas boiler, but from my own personal experience, the immersion heats up the water much more slowly than the gas (and the immersion eats up electricity, so you're not saving any money). Your set up is slightly different to mine. I can put on my gas for 15-30 mins and have boiling hot water even ½ hour after the heating has gone off. Don't ask me why, if it aint broke, I'm aint touching it!

quag

Mine is very similar to yours Plenty, but it's gonna be pretty awful during the summer if its boiling hot outside and you have to add to it by turning on your heating to have a shower.

I am completely clueless about plumbing so this is probably really stupid but can I leave the immersion off all the time, if the gas is heating the water?

Plenty

So was I until I had to find out on my own! On each of the Radiators there are two valves. If one looks like a thermostat, then just turn them down to 0. If not, just like my previous thread, if the valve is open (you may see the word open on one of these valves), turn it clock-wise and this will close the valve in the Rad and not heat up the water in the Rad only. This will have to be done on all Rad's, so the heating can be switched on and the house/apartment isn't stifling anf yet have hot water for showers!

I don't use the immersion at all! In the summer I have the heating one twice a day. In the morning for ½ hour and in the evening for 1 hour and that's enough for us. I hope this helps

quag

Thanks plenty

NewHome

I was shown by one of the plumbers how to heat the water without heating the rads. Basically leave the rads as they are, don't close the valves. (this will work but it's the long way of doing things). Then go to the thermostat in your house. We're in a two bed and the thermostat is on the landing wall beside the upsatirs bathroom. Turn it down all the way to the symbol that looks like a shining sun (best i can describe it). That way the boiler will heat the water in the tank for showers etc but will not go to the rads.

That said I haven't tried it yet

Plenty

Our Thermostat is very tempermental, so I leave well alone. It works now and I'm not changing it (ours is outside our downstairs loo). If memory serves me correct, if adjusted, it will alter the temperature of hot water in both the tank and the Rad's. That's why I suggested turning off all the rad's on the off chance that the hot water in the tank cools as well. I'm not dismissing the idea, anything goes!

FirstIn

I am also in a 2 bed townhouse in C.Wood. My understanding was that the thermostat beside the doorstairs loo controlled the rads downstairs. They don't have the temp. adjusting mechanism on them so I reckon the stat downstiars controls downstairs rads.

As for the water pressure, is the red tap in the hot press the one down low beside the tank?

hc

I'm living in the Court, and we were sick of having to get up early to turn the immersion on if we wanted to have a shower in the morning! So I asked the plumber, and he told us to set our heating to come on as usual, using the timer, but to turn our thermostat down so that it was off.

This works perfectly, our water still heats up, but our radiators don't come on. And we don't have to get up early!! Obviously things might be different in the different parts of Charlesland. We live in a two bed house, and our thermostat is outside our downstairs loo.

We also had a problem with our boiler when the pressure dropped too low (due to me bleeding a radiator). The boiler wouldn't work so I rang a plumber and he sorted it in less than 5 minutes, and showed me how to let more water into the system to top up the pressure. It's a two person job (one needs to watch the boiler) but it's dead simple. If anyone needs instructions, pm me!

The Fog

It is a simple matter of setting the thermostat (by your bathroom wall _ to * symbol (or another words off) and then leave you boiler on. This will mean you have hot water but do not have the heating on. Hope this helps.

mikedragon32

The plumbing is nuts in Charlesland Wood. The first phase was built (and plumbed) before the water mains were connected and the plumbers never tested the water system before we got our keys. As a result for the first week in our house, the downstairs loo flushed with hot water!

Was odd seeing steam rise from the toilet bowl, but at least it was very clean!

loyatemu

definitely use the gas to heat your water rather than the immersion. the immersion is like a big kettle and it eats electricity

massage

We had heaps of problems until recently since we moved into the Court (last Novemeber). We were told by foreman we could heat water only with termostat turned down using gas but it took nearly 1.30 for it just to get warm!We had many visits from plumbers scratching their heads trying to work out problem. In the end I demanded that the water heater was to be replaced, thankfully it's all working now..around 40 mins to heat it up on timer in mornings...phew!:)

Fitzini

Ok, cheers for the advice on trying to get the boiler back on line, no joy though.

Anyone know of any good plumbers in the area that will come round and fix a jacks and a boiler? By good plumber I mean, someone who knows his stuff and doesn't try to rip you off...

bloggj

Hi ya

I am in one of the 2 bed houses and cannot get the water working.
Immersion is fine, it heats up quite quickly and u might get 2 showers
max out of it. But the boiler and thermostat thing just cant get working.
Turned the thermostat down to o and the radiators still heated up.....
to boiling and no difference in the water heat. Do you need to leave the
radiator left hand red light off on the timer and just turn on the water one on the right hand side of the timer by the front dooe with the switch/tap on the boiler. I am getting really peeved off at having to get up in the morning just to turn on immersion. Also my esb bills arent the best either !

Plenty

Hi bloggj,

I'm in a similar house to you and I've had problems with Thermostat in my house. At the moment, it's working and the rads come on when the gas timer kicks in. What I have done in the passed was turn all the rads off individually. It's a pain, but it works. So even if there's a cool evening, we can switch on a Rad in one room (or the fire for ½ hour in the sitting room) and you're grand as the therostat has not been adjusted.

If I adjusted the thermostat to 0 and then adjusted it to roughly a degree at a time, the rads wouldn't heat up at all. So mine is set to roughly 23 degrees and that heats up the rads perfectly, so I haven't touched the dial since!