Boiler Controls Upgrade Advice

colinryan

Hi,

We recently bought an old (1908) house and are renovating. We replaced an old gas boiler when we moved in with a new band A condensing unit (Mynute HE). The boiler was in a room to be used for a baby and was holding up other jobs so we got it done pretty asap after moving in.

Having learnt a bit more about it since then I now realise we didn't do enough in terms of installing controls on the system (and our plumber never advised us in any way). My main concern is cost efficiency. Thankfully we do have thermostatic valves on most of the rads.

At the moment (based on my simple unerstanding) we have
a) A boiler which runs on one loop and pipes hotwater to everything at 70C.
a) No thermostat in the house other than the one on the boiler
b) One loop for HW and heating
c) No shutoff valves for HW or heating
d) No boost button on the boiler

What this means is that the boiler id currently running for 1.5 hours twice daily to give us HW and heating (minimally for this time of year as most rad valves are off) to warm the house in the morning and evening.

Can someone help me prioritise which of the above (in terms of bang for buck and ease of install) to do first and maybe advise as to what sort of solutions to use? Also am I missing anything?

Thanks,

C.

The most costly thing about adding controls is the draining down,
If it was my house i would check how clean the rad water was and see if inhibitor was added, flush to clean if necessary and add inhibitor which will protect your boiler from filling up with sludge,
I would wait to next summer when you don't need the heating in case you have any problems and plumbers aren't as busy, i would zone the sleeping area from the rest of the house ie.. upstairs from downstairs and put a cylinder stat on the cylinder connected to a zone valve, this i would control with a 3 channel programmer. The minimum i would fit is a cylinder stat and zone valve, it would stop the flow of water to the cylinder at 60c allowing the boiler to get up to temp quicker and then shut off on the boiler stat, i wouldn't add a programmer to control things because if you go to that trouble you might as well do it properly, you could also instead add a control that work like a thermostatic rad valve which would not require electricity, Gary

311

It sounds like the boiler is upstairs in the house ,if the cylinder is in a hotpress upstairs also ,
Then it wouldn't cost a lot to install a water only circuit on the system

Also it would be easy enough to run a cable from the boiler across the attic and down in a corner stairs area for a thermostat on the heating.

Laters.

colinryan

Firstly thanks for reponses!

Boiler is actually downstairs (we had the plumber move it to the kitchen when replacing it). The hot water cylinder is upstairs... lots of pipework. I know he did fit an inhibitor (I had read about them and asked for one and he was already fitting). Unfortunately he gave no further advice re other efficiency options at the time and we didn't know enough to ask.

I'm guessing I could add a new programmer and downstairs thermostat without too much difficulty. That at least would give (a) Boost functionality and (b) more efficient heating of the house (i.e. not running the boiler unneccessarily one the right temp was reached).

Sounds like any form of motorised valves or a thermostat on the cyclinder requires a full drain of the system. Which would be step 2 though not this year (not enough cash). I presume the parts aren;t too expensive but the labour is?

Finally a second loop/channel for HW (it is a 2 channel boiler) maybe? So annoyed we didn't know this as an option when we were moving it originally.

Have I understood correctly?

311

Sorry I misunderstood your original post

Depending on the layout of your house ,the price can vary for changing the system.
If you have partition walls upstairs ,sometimes you can get pipe up through an existing wall and across the attic to the hot water.

Your house structure will dictate the cost of getting it done.

If you were to drain down at the cylinder it wouldn't be as dramatic as a whole system drain down, you could fit a zone valve connected to a stat on the cylinder you wouldn't necessarily have to run it through a programmer, the valve would just be opened or closed depending on the stat and you would just run it the way you do now but you wouldn't waste money, you would need a automatic bypass as well which would allow the water to flow around your heating circuit when the valve was shut. If you cannot separate the circuit then i wouldn't fit a room stat as this would impact on your hot water temp ie.. once the room stat is up to temperature the boiler will go off for hot water to.I would fit a programmer which would match your end system requirements so if your will only have one room stat get a two channel programmer and if you are going to have a room stat upstairs then get a three channel programmer, make sure the boiler has a permanent live feed and it's power is not cut when the programmer is off, which is a favourite fault of electricians, good luck, Gary.