Central Heating Pump

Keggers74

Sorry - Just reposted in plumbing and heating when i realised this was the wrong forum.



Our house has a gas fired central heating and hot water system that does not have a separate hot water vs. central heating controller. I.e it is either on or it is off.

The boiler is on the ground floor, with pump next to it. The storage tank is on the first floor and the two gravity supply tanks are in the attic.

During the summer I have turned all of the radiators off at the radiator valves so that it heats the hot water cylinder but doesn't warm up the radiators. The last few weeks some of the radiators have started to heat up even though the valves are turned off.

My question is, should the circulation pump still be turning on when the boiler is turned on to heat the storage tank, even though I have all of the radiators turned off, or will the boiler feed the hot water tank without the pump once all the radiators are turned off?

Am wondering if the pump is trying to force water through the closed radiators as it has nowhere else to go.

Thanks

Froststop

Hi Keggers74, The pump is controlled off the time clock, so it runs with the boiler. They are both fed off the same power supply. (standard practice)

When the boiler is running for hot water, one or a few of the rad valves are passing creating a circuit allowing heat into the rads.

I would anticipate it's an expensive way to heat your hot water in summer but it would need to be worked out according to gas prices and boiler running times.

IMO it may be cheaper to heat with immersion if you have one. I operate mine on a time clock. It runs for 2.5 hrs in the morning, 1hr around midday and again for 1 hr in the evening. This is sufficient for a family of four feeding sinks and appliances only.
I don't know what your average ESB bill is but mine last one was €132 for two months with no oil used. might be worth comparing yours and work out the amount of gas the boiler uses to heat the hot water.

Solar is the way to go but we'll have to save our pennies a little longer.

garroff

Hope I am asking this question in the right forum.
I have 8 rads, 3 are not heating in the middle. When I bled the non heaters I got quite a bit of brown gunk.(These are new rads- 3 years). Could this be a circulation pump problem or do I have to desludge the system?

Froststop

garroff wrote: »

Hope I am asking this question in the right forum.
I have 8 rads, 3 are not heating in the middle. When I bled the non heaters I got quite a bit of brown gunk.(These are new rads- 3 years). Could this be a circulation pump problem or do I have to desludge the system?

Is the "gunk" thick ore just dirty water?

garroff

dirty water

Froststop

garroff wrote: »

dirty water

Is it thick sludge or just black water?