Leaving hot water on all day

[ClaireEclair]

Hi there. We’ve been having major problems with our boiler for the last two months. We have insurance with British Gas and have had 4 engineers out. Each one would slag off the engineer before them and tell us they were terrible. It seemed to be fixed but yesterday we switched it on and the fuse went. Electrician came and said electrics are fine and he thinks it’s the boiler.

We have an appointment for Wednesday but until then can we keep the hot water on all the time so that we don’t have to turn it off and risk the fuse going again? Or is this dodgy? I appreciate our bill will be horrendous.

Also, British Gas are terrible!!

Thank you!

You can keep it on but there's no guarantee it won't go again.
Is it affecting all your heating?

Do you know what type of hot water system you have? Is it a combo boiler (instant hot water when you turn on a tap) or do you have to wait an hour for the water to heat up if you want a bath?

Ah yes, this is true. When it blows everything goes dead. Heating too. As soon as the fuse is changed we can get it up and running again. But as soon as the heating is turned on again everything goes again. I managed to get someone to come out tonight thank god!

Hi there. It’s not combo. We have a tank and it’s the kind that you have to wait for it to heat up if we want to have a bath.

What do you mean by switching it on and off? Do you have a timer or are you switching an immersion switch?

I have a boiler with a hot water cylinder but the water in the cylinder is heated by the gas boiler. I have a timer so the hot water is heated for 1 hour per day and the heating is on for a longer time.

I dont physically switch anything on and off as the timer controls when the hot water/heating is on

Can you give more information about your heating system

Ok, then it will cost you more as every time you use some hot water, it’s replacing it with cold then keeping it to the same temperature. If your tank is modern and well insulated then not so much or a problem than if it’s older. However, you could try turning down your water temperature to compensate (might mean showers aren’t so hot).

What colour is your hot water cylinder? (This is not a joke)

Do you mean that your gas boiler is out of order and you have turned on the electric immersion heater? This will cost more because energy from gas is about a quarter the cost of energy from electricity. However you are lucky to have this option. People with a combi boiler and no cylinder have to boil a kettle to wash their face when the boiler goes wrong, so it is a much more severe problem.

All the questions have made me realise I know almost nothing about boilers! Learning though. We have a Worcester Greenstar Ri boiler. We usually have the water on a timer twice a day but we can also have it in constant if we want or just put it on for an hour or so if we need a boost of hot water.

Theres a large tank in the cupboard of our spare room that’s a pale green colour.

British Gas came to “fix” it four times and the second time they installed a new control pad which is when we started having issues with the fuse going. Another engineer came and seemed to fix it about a month ago but now it’s started blowing the fuse again .

I hate this with every successive engineer slagging the last one off. I had this for years. It did help me learn how the boiler functioned though...

By the control pad do you mean the control on the wall that has the timers for the heating and hot water? And the fuse is being tripped when that signals your hot water to be heated?

Yes, that’s what I mean. Sorry I’m not being clear. We switch the heating and water off and when it tries to go on the fuse is blown. If we replace the fuse we get it working again but then the next time the boiler goes off then switches on again the fuse blows again.

Are you physically switching it off or do you mean the timer is controlling it?

Is it a fuse in the fuse box that is being tripped or a different fuse elsewhere?

I may of course be wrong

But

Water dripping on an electrical part often causes a short or a fault to earth.

Boilers contain both water and electrical parts

However

When a boiler is hot, small amounts of water may evaporate or boil away

So sometimes a leak in a boiler does not cause a problem until the boiler is cold.

I'm sure your gasmen will have had the sense to look for signs of a small leak in the boiler, and its connected electrical parts such as the pump and the three-port valve. But get a torch and a rag and have a look yourself. Dried-off leaks can often show themselves by green copper stain, or limescale crust.

Thank you so much for all your help (I feel especially honoured that PigletJohn has given advice). I’m waiting on the repair man now so fingers crossed we will have it resolved 😀