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Central Heating and Hot Water

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  • 05-11-2009 1:17am
    #1
    rash0001
    Closed Accounts Posts: 291 ✭✭


    Hi,

    Moved into the current house a month ago and all well so far. The house is quite old with an oil fired central heating system. My problem is that the radiators work fine but we weren't getting hot water. There is a burner out which can be controlled with a thermostat in the house. The thermostat turns on automatically late nights and early mornings and also has constant or boost controls. But this only heats the radiators and not the hot water. Outside the bathroom there is one cylinder kind of thing and has a switch with a timer on the wall. The switch says sink or bath. I changed this to bath and turned that on and we got hot water after about an hour. All was well till I happened to check the electricity meter which was moving as though it was going crazy! Can it be possible that the hot water works on electricity? So what exactly is oil central heating?

    After using it like this for a month I'm not looking forward to the electricity bill!


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    #2
    dlambirl
    Registered Users Posts: 2,062 ✭✭✭dlambirl


    Change your immersion back to SINK. Switching it to bath makes the tank heat more water than what is necessary, hence the ESB metre going crazy.


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    #3
    rash0001
    Closed Accounts Posts: 291 ✭✭rash0001


    But can't I get hot water heated by oil instead of electricity? If its on sink it still uses electricity isn't it? Today I kept the central heating on constant and the water is luke warm. The immersion is off. I don't know how these things work... :confused: There should be an easier way to get hot water using oil. If I put it on SINK do I need to leave it on constantly? This is only the first time I rented a place before this the hot water, bills etc were not my problem!


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    #4
    JamesM
    Registered Users Posts: 1,775 ✭✭✭JamesM


    It would seem that there is not enough water in the heating system, the hot water is often the first to suffer.
    It also could be that a valve is shut off. Check for recent posts on the subject.
    Jim.


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    #5
    wing52
    Registered Users Posts: 277 ✭✭wing52


    Turn off your rads for about an 1-1.5 hours see if that

    forces the boiler to heat the cylinder.

    What temp is the boiler set to? a temp of 60c or 150f

    is about enough.(depend on the rads though)


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    #6
    rash0001
    Closed Accounts Posts: 291 ✭✭rash0001


    I'll check the temp tomorrow. I think it was 60c. The house is quite big so I don't know if this is enough. 4 bedrooms with a TV lounge,2 living rooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen and a long passage. All have one radiator but 1 living room has 2 huge ones. I'll try turning them all off tomorrow and see how I get on.

    It would seem that there is not enough water in the heating system
    Doesn't water enter the system directly from the cylinder?


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    #7
    JamesM
    Registered Users Posts: 1,775 ✭✭✭JamesM


    The water in the cylinder (and comes out your taps) does not go near the central heating boiler. The water that is in the rads and coil in the cylinder comes from either a small tank in the attic or a filler valve, which can be in the attic, hot press, or somewhere else in the system.
    Jim.


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    #8
    makfli
    Registered Users Posts: 157 ✭✭makfli


    Could be your c/h system doesnt heat the water in the cylinder. For the c/h system to heat the water in the cylinder need a cylinder with a coil in the cyl directly linked to the boiler feed ( indirect cylinder). Count the pipes going in and out of the cylinder, if you have 4 then it is prob designed to heat the water. If you determine you have an indirect look for a valve on the pipe which may be closed off thus not allowing hot water to circulate through the loop in the cylinder.


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    #9
    JamesM
    Registered Users Posts: 1,775 ✭✭✭JamesM


    If you are renting, you should ask the landlord to send a plumber to check the system.
    Jim.


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    #10
    rash0001
    Closed Accounts Posts: 291 ✭✭rash0001


    Had a plumber come over and it was the main valve which was 70% closed. Now I have hot waters so its fine but takes at least an hour to heat.

    Another question - what is better to heat the water, is it using the oil fired central heating system or immersion (electricity)?

    The oil fired central heating system is kerosene and takes at least an hour to heat the water. For the water to be really hot to use it takes around 2 hours so we can never use hot water unless the heating system was on for at least an hour.

    Immersion takes half of the time compared to the oil system(half an hour to an hour) that is when it is on BATH and not sink.

    So what is the best (cheapest) way to heat water? or any other suggestions? like maybe leaving the immersion on SINK 24 hours a day? :confused:


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