Clueless - combi boiler and hot water tank

[Smoothieyummy]

I don't know if this is the right place to post. But I'm so clueless I need help! Both DH and I were spoilt brats and none of us ever had to deal with operating boilers.

We just bought our first house, moved in on the weekend and we have absolutely no idea how to work the boiler for heat and hot water efficiently and economically.

So we have a combi boiler downstairs and also a hot water tank in the airing cupboard upstairs.

Question:

1. Do I leave the combi always on?
2. I thought with combi you don't need hot water tank because the water is heated at source when you turn the tap on? That's clearly not the case here, we need to turn the water tank on for water and waited a while 20 mins ish for hot water.
3. Do I turn the hot water tank on all the time also? There are 2 switches next to the hot tank one for heating one for water. Do I keep both on or just turn whichever on when I need it?
4. In general, just clueless...don't want to leave everything on all the time because don't want to go bankrupt with the energy bills. Please tell me how to best operate this.

I am sorry, it is not a combi boiler, I just double check the paper work and it's a Gas boiler Worcester brand. Just shows how clueless I am.

But the questions are still the same. How do I operate this boiler and this water tank to make sure we have heat and hot water when needed.

You need to programme the finer to when you want hear and hot water.
So say you get up at 7am. Put he on 30/60 minutes before for an hour or so. Same with heat. Set it to come on for when you want it - mornings and eves if out all day. There probably should be a thermostat too to Set what temp the house will heat to.
There is usually an over ride button too. So if you want a bath at 3pm you can just heat water before hand if none left in the tank from the morning. Same with heat. The over ride button can switch it on if you want it on other times than on the timer.

There is some debate whether it is more economical or not to have heat on constant and use the thermostat to cut it out.

If you don't have operating instructions for your boiler try googling.

We have something that sounds similar. The downstairs boiler has separate settings for hot water and heating. At this time of year, we rather extra extravagantly, leave both on all the time. In summer, we turn the heating off, and schedule when the hot water heats up.

The separate hot tank has a electric hearing option (like a giant kettle) which we use as an emergency backup if the downstairs boiler ever failed, so it i usually switched off.

We changed our boiler last year and went fromno thermostat to a nest one. I love it! You can programme it differently for every day of the week with multiple changes of temp. It has home away assist so it can link to your phones and switch heating off if you are both out to save money. You can change temp from your phone whether home or out. The 3rd generation links into hot water as well. If you can get one wired in I recommend!

Our hot water is on a timer to come on for an hour in the morning and an hour in the early evening. This gives enough hot water for dh and I to shower in the morning and 2 dc to have a bath each in the evening. Plus enough to wash up anything that won’t fit in the dishwasher!

You should use the boiler for all your hot water and heating - using the timer to set when you want heat available. The switch on the water tank will be for an immersion heater in the tank which you can use if the boiler stops working - so keep this off until needed.

The immersion will probably be 3kw and so will cost 3 times your unit rate per hour to run. Don't use it unless you need it.

Find out who your energy supplier is, do a comparison, look at actual unit rates and standing charges and see if you can save any money.