Should my hot water be on when my central heating is?

[BodG]

We recently moved into a house that had a boiler with a hot water tank. Previously to this we'd always had a combi boiler.

The programmer runs the heating and hot water separately, but we find that whenever we put our heating on we also need to have the hot water on or the radiators go cold. This means that when we have the heating on all day, the hot water is on too. We assumed that maybe this was how it was supposed to work.

However, we've just had our gas/electric statement and it's really expensive, so we're now thinking that maybe the water isn't supposed to be on all day and there's something wrong with our system.

Can anyone advise? Thanks

My parents have a hot water tank - you can have the hot water on without the heating, but not the heating without the hot water. Presumably it doesn't use much more gas to heat the water at the same time while the boiler is on anyway.

But I guess this will be an old boiler, so that might be why your bill is high.

Sounds right, but if you have any kind of immersion heater/boost setting then make sure that isn't constantly on as that would really increase the price.

Yes, absolutely - you don't need your immersion on if thenheating is on, and you should only really use it if you need hot water quickly and the tank is empty, otherwise it's cheaper to heat it using your gas/boiler.

erg we have the opposite problem in our house and it drives me potty.
I actually have no idea what kind of boiler we have other than it has 1 control dial on it ranging from 1-6 and then a digital display with plus, minus and flame buttons underneath.
For some reason my hot tap doesn't get anywhere near as hot (or hot enough) when the heating is off meaning I'm wasting loads of hot (read luke warm) water and gas trying to get a bath hot enough for me & dh as neither of us like getting out of a bath when the heatings on.
On the flip side it does make running dd a bath much easier and safer as the temp the water comes out the bath is perfect for her, so non of that too hot, too cold, too hot palavour lol

Have you looked at the manual?

I have a boiler with a water tank (i.e. not a combi boiler) and you can have the central heating on without the hot water. The control panel has 2 separate controls, one for the CH and one for the hot water.
Surely the water for the 2 systems is different, i.e. the central hearing is a closed system with the water stored in the radiators, whereas with the hot water, the water comes in, is heated by the boiler and is stored in your hot water tank and is replenished by 'new water' when you've used it.

We can have hw without ch but not reverse. Is it a read bill or estimated (based on previous owner's usage)