To not understand anything about my heating or hot water

[Donotunderstandmyhouse]

I've nc as frankly this is embarrassing. I am a grown woman (married and pregnant) with a very responsible professional job and a mortgage. But I have no clue about my heating or hot water system.

I think I have a conventional boiler. We have a boiler in the kitchen and a huge tank upstairs in the bathroom cupboard. We have two room thermostats (living room and hallway). Our other rooms also have radiators with controls on them.

I have currently got the water set to come on for an hour each morning and an hour each night. I feel like this is a lot? There is only me and my dh in the house atm and I shower on a morning then dh showers on a night.

I have the heating set to come on for an hour before we wake up and on an evening for an hour.

Please can someone explain. Why do I have to set the heating to come on? Surely it just kicks in if the room thermostat temp gets too low? I'm so confused. I should know this but no one has ever explained it all to me 🤦🏻‍♀️

Surely it just kicks in if the room thermostat temp gets too low?

Only if the heating is switched on via the timer. There is probably an all day setting which will mean that the boiler will fire up as soon as the temperature drops lower than the thermostat's setting. Someone will come on here to tell you that it's more efficient to leave your heating on all the time. Don't believe them, it's a myth!

But that's where I'm confused because while I have the thermostat set for a couple of hours heating each night if I get cold I just turn the room temp thermostat up and the heating comes on? Honestly do not think I should be allowed to own a house or have a baby as I am clearly missing some brain cells 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

You mean the heating comes on if you turn the thermostat up even if it's set to "off"?

You have to have the system switched on for it to warm up the radiators. If the room is at your set temp then it wont start heating the rads until that lower temp is reached.

It's a bit like automatic lights... only come on when you need it even though the switch is on.

With the water tanks dont forget this will feed any other hot water taps like your sinks (so dont drink it) depends on how old your tank is will depend on how much water it can hold as they fur up inside

The hot water should last all day, so an hour in the morning should be fine. There’s 5 of us and this is enough hot water. Other than if someone wants a bath instead or I’ve done a lot of cleaning!!

If you want to use the thermostat set the heating to thermostat - then set the room temperature. It should kick in only if the temp drops.

@reallybadidea yes no matter what time of day (so outside of the times I've set the heating on) it the room thermostat drops the heating comes on.

@Greentulips thank you I have changed it to an hour each morning for the hot water now :-)

See ours, it's heating and hot water or hot water only from the gas boiler, so heating on all the time but only kicking in when the temperature drops would mean it was always keeping the water hot.

We have an electric immersion heater as well, but I don't like using it as it's bloody expensive.

I'm so confused 🤦🏻‍♀️ I've got an engineer coming out to do a service in a couple of weeks so maybe I'll admit to him that I have no bloody clue and he will explain it all 😩

I once called a plumber because my water was cold.
It turns out the pilot light had gone out 🤗

@iamH when I rang about an issue a while back I was asked if I had a gas or electric boiler....I had no clue. The lady then tried to talk me through how to reset the pressure etc and I pointed out that as I did not even know what type of boiler I had it was probably unlikely that I was going to be able to fix the issue myself. She sent out the engineer.

It sounds as though either it's actually on the All Day setting or the timer is broken. Definitely ask the engineer. I don't think it's unreasonable to not know how it works if there's no instruction manual.

@reallybadidea I have watched some videos on YouTube and now have it programmed on the ALL DAY setting for both heating and water. Then I've set the timers for water for an hour on the morning and the heating to be on for an hour each night (although i assume this won't happen if the room thermostat temp is fine??). Does anyone know if that sounds right? I don't want a huge bill before the engineer comes 🤦🏻‍♀️

If it's on the All Day setting then it will come on every time the temperature drops. It needs to be on the Timer setting I would have thought?

So in the video I watched it said if I put it on the ALL DAY setting then that would mean it would follow the set times? I have an ESi programmer if that helps?

Yeah you don't want the all day setting, at least not for your water - that means it will be heating the water in the tank every time the temperature drops. You should be able to just set it to come on for a set time and then be off off.

Oh dear now I'm thinking it should be set on AUTO ?

I've found the instructions online

www.heatingcontrolsonline.co.uk/index.php?route=product/download/download&download_id=142

Yes yes Auto, that's the one!

This is what it looks like now. So it's auto for heating zones one and two then the auto on the end is for water but for some reason my little tap sign has disappeared?

I am so sorry for being so daft to everyone on this thread and incredibly grateful!!!!!

Also (and I swear this is my last question) I've set that all up but the boiler in the kitchen is still making a noise like it's doing something? Should it be? 😩😩

You've got the same timer thingy as me. I also have a boiler on ground floor and a water tank on top floor.

Auto is what you need. Then you can programme the heating and hot water to come on twice a day.

E.g.- I have my heating set to come in at 5:30am off at 7:30am. Then again at 3:30pm and off at 8pm. If I select all day it will come on at 5:30am and won't go off until 8pm.

We have a thermostat in the kitchen (not fixed so we can move it from room to room). On the thermostat we can turn the heating up or down (therefore turning it on or off - BUT it will only go on if the actual timer for the heating is set for on during these times).
Our boiler and hot water tank are on the top floor. As is the boiler timer for hot water and heating.
So our boiler timer has hot water on for 2 hours each morning and evening. The thermostat doesn't interfere with water. Our boiler timer has the heating on from 5-10am and from 3.30-9pm each day. The heating will come on during these periods (assuming I haven't lowered the temperature on the thermostat). EG. If it's 18 degrees in my kitchen according to said thermostat, and it's 6am (so the heating is timed to be on), if I've set my kitchen (or whatever room I've stuck the thermostat in) thermostat to 21 degrees it will kick in and the radiators will come on and stay on until the thermostat has reached 21 degrees (except those radiators where I have thermostatic valves and have most turned OFF - we have a hot house). However, if I have turned the thermostat down to 15 degrees, the heating will NOT kick in (to the radiators that are turned on - or any radiators) due to the fact that I have set the thermostat lower than the actual temperature showing on the thermostat. It might sound complicated. But it's not difficult. You have 2 things controlling your heating/water. The main timer (usually near your boiler). You can further control your heating (assuming it's on) via your room thermostat (eg. turning it down). You CAN NOT turn your heating on from your thermostat if your heating is not timed to be ON on the main timer.

@Whiskyagogo oh good I think I have cracked it now then :-)

@Iamverylittle goodness knows what I had it set on before 🤦🏻‍♀️ Think I have it sorted now :-)

Thank you all for your help!! :-)