Strange C/h system

stevemul

We have a c/h system which seems to have been installed in a very strange and inefficient way. Can anyone advise please.
We rent a 10 yr old 4 bed detached house with oil c/h.
Usual configuration, boiler outside against kitchen wall, hotpress on first floor landing. Time switch in utility room.Hot water cylinder with immersion heater, pressure vessel etc.
There are two room stats, one in the downstairs hall, one on the upstairs landing, each independently controls downstairs and upstairs rads, respectively, obviously with zone valves.
When either stat is set so that the heating comes on, the boiler fires up and immediately starts to heat the water tank in the hotpress. There is no way ( that I can see) of avoiding heating a tank of water in the process of heating the radiators. Surely there should be a zone valve and switch somewhere so that the feed to through the tank internal heater coil can be switched off?
We are leaving the house for a couple of weeks soon and I want to leave the heating on a froststat setting, however, it would seem that each time the boiler fires up, I'll be heating a full tank of water at the same time as warming the rads!!
Any ideas?

sullzz

Have you got a 3 channel time lock , or on your cylinder is there a stat , your system might not be piped up for 3 zones , short term dolour ion to prevent your water heating would be to close the balancing valve on your coil

stevemul

The timer does not distinguish between the heating and hot water. Where will the coil balance control be and what does it look like? Thanks

stevemul

The only stat on the tank is the one on the immersion heater.

sullzz

The balancing valve should a gate valve ( red wheel head ) it's probably ( should be ) only open a slight bit , on your cylinder you will have 2 pipes coming out of the side of it , one about 3/4 of the way up and the other about 4" from the bottom , there should be a valve on the bottom one , these should be on the same side of the cylinder , the cold feed to the cylinder should be on the other side of the cylinder entering the bottom - don't close that valve - that one will be about head height , the valve your looking for will be near floor level, if you have any doubts , post a picture

stevemul

There isn't a gate valve, thats what I looked for and why I think it's an odd system. There does't seem to be any way to stop the water heating when the boiler is fired up.
If I got a plumber to retro fit a gate valve, would this work as an on/off for the water heating or would it also block the flow to the rads?

sullzz

Post a couple of pics of your cylinder

stevemul

Sorry Sullzz but I can't . I've actually left the house for a couple of weeks as per my earlier post and I've left an electric heater on a thermostat as a frost prevention.
I got vey frustrated trying to set it up on the oil system before I left so I thought I would ask the question on here for when I get back.
Maybe I can pick up the thread again when I get back. I do need to sort it out for the winter. Thanks for your help so far. You've confirmed it's a weird system if nothing else!

sullzz

It's not a weird system as such , it's not uncommon not to have a balancing valve it's just bad practice not to fit one , what I do find strange tho is that they zoned upstairs and downstairs but not the hot water , post up a couple of pics of the hotpress including all the pipework when your back