Any of you lifers know a decent central heating engineer around the Shooters Hill area. My heating and water have gone kaput and I am getting earache ! Any help greatly appreciated.
Any central heating engineers on here? Have a Worcester Greenstar 30CDi combi boiler and the radio frequency thermostat doesn't appear to be picking up the signal from the boiler.
Boiler itself seems to be working fine, in that we can get heat if we override it at the boiler; there are no error messages, and water unaffected.
Did have a power cut last week so not sure if that's a factor.
I need some help if possible. I'm a complete novice at all of this heating stuff, just recently bought my first house and the heating seems to be playing up lately.
We've set timers on the programmer so that it comes on in the morning for a bit and then at night for a bit - at first this was fine but now it seems to be ignoring this and coming on whenever it chooses (it was on all day yesterday and then came on in the middle of the night too). When it comes on unexpectedly we usually turn a dial down on the boiler to stop it but then of course we have to turn the dial back up again when we want heat which isn't ideal.
The boiler looks pretty oldish but it heats the house up really quickly and we've always got hot water. Could it be a problem with the programmer?
I'm into all of this home tech stuff (got Alexa, Hue, Harmony) so have been tempted to get Hive for a while, would this replace the programmer and maybe solve our problems? I will probably book a service for the boiler too to check if that is all okay.
Any help would be grand, excuse my lack of knowledge, I'm thick as s**t at this stuff.
I need some help if possible. I'm a complete novice at all of this heating stuff, just recently bought my first house and the heating seems to be playing up lately.
We've set timers on the programmer so that it comes on in the morning for a bit and then at night for a bit - at first this was fine but now it seems to be ignoring this and coming on whenever it chooses (it was on all day yesterday and then came on in the middle of the night too). When it comes on unexpectedly we usually turn a dial down on the boiler to stop it but then of course we have to turn the dial back up again when we want heat which isn't ideal.
The boiler looks pretty oldish but it heats the house up really quickly and we've always got hot water. Could it be a problem with the programmer?
I'm into all of this home tech stuff (got Alexa, Hue, Harmony) so have been tempted to get Hive for a while, would this replace the programmer and maybe solve our problems? I will probably book a service for the boiler too to check if that is all okay.
Any help would be grand, excuse my lack of knowledge, I'm thick as s**t at this stuff.
I cannot believe you have posted this, I have just moved into a new house and I am having exactly the same problem. I have programmed the timer to come on at 7am and go off at 9am and then on again at 5pm and off at 10pm. However as soon as the temp starts to drop it kicks into life no matter what time of day it is.
I have spoken to the builder and he thinks it is the preset programs in the timer, if these are set anything I do will be over-ridden by the preset. The manual says to do a factory reset on the timer which wipes the preset programs and then I can do my own thing.
I have not done this yet but will let you know how I get on.
We had a similar issue and it turned out not to be the timer, but a fault in the computer system in the boiler.
If there's one thing I can advise for any new homeowner, it's get British Gas Homecare or equivalent. I pay £17 a month and have got 2 new radiators, new electrics in the boiler and annual servicing. We've saved an absolute fortune.
We had a similar issue and it turned out not to be the timer, but a fault in the computer system in the boiler.
If there's one thing I can advise for any new homeowner, it's get British Gas Homecare or equivalent. I pay £17 a month and have got 2 new radiators, new electrics in the boiler and annual servicing. We've saved an absolute fortune.
I moved into a house that had a new central heating (combi) installed Lived there for 5 years now without any hassle. That would have cost me over a grand under your logic, so I will strongly disagree with you in this instance. As for annual servicing on a boiler, apart from a quick hoover, the main ingredients are not maintainable, but sealed.
I can assure you that £17 a month is not good value (in my opinion).
Go on U switch website and you could be paying a fraction of that for the same cover.
I need some help if possible. I'm a complete novice at all of this heating stuff, just recently bought my first house and the heating seems to be playing up lately.
We've set timers on the programmer so that it comes on in the morning for a bit and then at night for a bit - at first this was fine but now it seems to be ignoring this and coming on whenever it chooses (it was on all day yesterday and then came on in the middle of the night too). When it comes on unexpectedly we usually turn a dial down on the boiler to stop it but then of course we have to turn the dial back up again when we want heat which isn't ideal.
The boiler looks pretty oldish but it heats the house up really quickly and we've always got hot water. Could it be a problem with the programmer?
I'm into all of this home tech stuff (got Alexa, Hue, Harmony) so have been tempted to get Hive for a while, would this replace the programmer and maybe solve our problems? I will probably book a service for the boiler too to check if that is all okay.
Any help would be grand, excuse my lack of knowledge, I'm thick as s**t at this stuff.
I cannot believe you have posted this, I have just moved into a new house and I am having exactly the same problem. I have programmed the timer to come on at 7am and go off at 9am and then on again at 5pm and off at 10pm. However as soon as the temp starts to drop it kicks into life no matter what time of day it is.
I have spoken to the builder and he thinks it is the preset programs in the timer, if these are set anything I do will be over-ridden by the preset. The manual says to do a factory reset on the timer which wipes the preset programs and then I can do my own thing.
I have not done this yet but will let you know how I get on.
Yeah this sounds like the same problem as me, it's bloody frustrating, woke up last night absolutely boiling. I think I need to dig out the manual (wherever that will be).
You don't say whether it's a gas or oil-fired boiler. If it's gas and you have no record of a service recently, get one done. You really need to ensure that it's safe.
You say it's old. You should prepare youself for the engineer to say that parts are no longer available and you will need a new condensing boiler.
Have you got separate thermostats on the radiators? If these are in the same room as the system thermostat, they can play havoc. (On a separate matter, always wind rad thermostats to fully open during the summer, this will help prevent them from getting stuck.)
You don't say whether it's a gas or oil-fired boiler. If it's gas and you have no record of a service recently, get one done. You really need to ensure that it's safe.
You say it's old. You should prepare youself for the engineer to say that parts are no longer available and you will need a new condensing boiler.
Have you got separate thermostats on the radiators? If these are in the same room as the system thermostat, they can play havoc. (On a separate matter, always wind rad thermostats to fully open during the summer, this will help prevent them from getting stuck.)
It's gas, yeah we'll definitely get it serviced that's a good excuse for me to work from home too. There's a bloke who lives opposite who works for a central heating company judging by his car, might give him a shout.
My old man has told me to get a new boiler as he thinks it's pretty old but don't really want to as we've got other priorities (new kitchen, new bathroom).
Not sure about thermostats on the radiators, I don't think we do but I'll have a look.
I wonder; Is the boiler mounted somewhere that gets cold/ eg in an outhouse/loft/utility room. Because if it's coming on outside of the core times on the timer. It sounds like frost protection is firing it up.
I wonder; Is the boiler mounted somewhere that gets cold/ eg in an outhouse/loft/utility room. Because if it's coming on outside of the core times on the timer. It sounds like frost protection is firing it up.
It's in the kitchen so not exactly a cold room, it is next to a window though. Now I think about it it does seem to play up when the temperature drops, like last night. Hard to tell though as it's cold most nights.
Sorry if this is too obvious - just trying to help.
Have you got a wall-mounted thermostat for the boiler somewhere? If it's a modern one, it may have separate programming for something like 7 days and all you're doing is (say) programming Monday, so the rest of the week, it will do whatever the previous occupants programmed it to do. Is there a manual? If not and it's battery-powered and you haven't already done so, try removing the battery for a while, to clear any programming.
(Btw, modern thermostats will have a factory preset of something like 6 degrees C for night-time, i.e. more or less frost prevention mode.)
If you have the thermostat model number, you may be able to find a manual in PDF form online.
Sorry if this is too obvious - just trying to help.
Have you got a wall-mounted thermostat for the boiler somewhere? If it's a modern one, it may have separate programming for something like 7 days and all you're doing is (say) programming Monday, so the rest of the week, it will do whatever the previous occupants programmed it to do. Is there a manual? If not and it's battery-powered and you haven't already done so, try removing the battery for a while, to clear any programming.
Yeah we have a wall mounted thermostat in the living room - it looks like the original one from when the house was built in the mid 90's. I'll try taking the battery out or I might just replace it with a modern one anyway and maybe that would work.
I assume your living room isn't especially cold or that you don't have windows open all night and perhaps the thermostat is in a draught? Mine is in the opposite type of location - in a passageway in the middle of my house, so it's routinely up to 1.5C above my living room temperature.
EDIT: if it's a battery-operated thermo, there will be a receiver for the thermo, usually a small box located close to the boiler. The receiver can develop a fault and fail to respond correctly to the thermo. If you replace the thermo, the receiver is likely to be wired in and will have to be replaced too. You may need an engineer/electrician.
Sounds like you have inadvertantly selected the 'On' program. If it is a standard control it should have 4 programs. 'Off', 'Timed', 'Once' and 'On'. When you have set the times you must ensure that the 'Timed' program is selected. This is usually achieved with a toggle switch that moves a selection arrow up and down on a small display screen.
I assume your living room isn't especially cold or that you don't have windows open all night and perhaps the thermostat is in a draught? Mine is in the opposite type of location - in a passageway in the middle of my house, so it's routinely up to 1.5C above my living room temperature.
EDIT: if it's a battery-operated thermo, there will be a receiver for the thermo, usually a small box located close to the boiler. The receiver can develop a fault and fail to respond correctly to the thermo. If you replace the thermo, the receiver is likely to be wired in and will have to be replaced too. You may need an engineer/electrician.
Living room is probably the warmest room in the house and no windows open.
I'll have to check whether it's battery operated, lots of investigation to do tonight - some helpful tips!
Sounds like you have inadvertantly selected the 'On' program. If it is a standard control it should have 4 programs. 'Off', 'Timed', 'Once' and 'On'. When you have set the times you must ensure that the 'Timed' program is selected. This is usually achieved with a toggle switch that moves a selection arrow up and down on the small display screen.
From memory we have 'On' 'Once' 'Twice' & 'Off' - we've currently got it on 'Twice' and then selected when we want it to go on and off in the morning and then the evening. I'm pretty confident that is set up properly as it used to work and I've been through all of the settings and 'Twice' seemed most logical for our needs.
So last night the heating just wouldn't turn on at all. Then when I went upstairs to bed I realised that the heating had been on, but only upstairs. Same again this morning, the radiators downstairs are cold and the ones upstairs are hot, any ideas?
Comments
http://www.britishgas.co.uk/products-and-services/maintenance-and-repair/central-heating-repairs.html
Boiler itself seems to be working fine, in that we can get heat if we override it at the boiler; there are no error messages, and water unaffected.
Did have a power cut last week so not sure if that's a factor.
Anyone have any ideas? Cheers
We've set timers on the programmer so that it comes on in the morning for a bit and then at night for a bit - at first this was fine but now it seems to be ignoring this and coming on whenever it chooses (it was on all day yesterday and then came on in the middle of the night too). When it comes on unexpectedly we usually turn a dial down on the boiler to stop it but then of course we have to turn the dial back up again when we want heat which isn't ideal.
The boiler looks pretty oldish but it heats the house up really quickly and we've always got hot water. Could it be a problem with the programmer?
I'm into all of this home tech stuff (got Alexa, Hue, Harmony) so have been tempted to get Hive for a while, would this replace the programmer and maybe solve our problems? I will probably book a service for the boiler too to check if that is all okay.
Any help would be grand, excuse my lack of knowledge, I'm thick as s**t at this stuff.
I have spoken to the builder and he thinks it is the preset programs in the timer, if these are set anything I do will be over-ridden by the preset. The manual says to do a factory reset on the timer which wipes the preset programs and then I can do my own thing.
I have not done this yet but will let you know how I get on.
If there's one thing I can advise for any new homeowner, it's get British Gas Homecare or equivalent. I pay £17 a month and have got 2 new radiators, new electrics in the boiler and annual servicing. We've saved an absolute fortune.
Lived there for 5 years now without any hassle.
That would have cost me over a grand under your logic, so I will strongly disagree with you in this instance.
As for annual servicing on a boiler, apart from a quick hoover, the main ingredients are not maintainable, but sealed.
I can assure you that £17 a month is not good value (in my opinion).
Go on U switch website and you could be paying a fraction of that for the same cover.
http://boiler.toptentradesmen.co.uk/tradesman/r-house-plumbing-heating-79075.html
07736 071764
'cept i've just realised that's an old question I'm responding to...
It could also be that the clock on the system has gone wrong.
You say it's old. You should prepare youself for the engineer to say that parts are no longer available and you will need a new condensing boiler.
Have you got separate thermostats on the radiators? If these are in the same room as the system thermostat, they can play havoc. (On a separate matter, always wind rad thermostats to fully open during the summer, this will help prevent them from getting stuck.)
My old man has told me to get a new boiler as he thinks it's pretty old but don't really want to as we've got other priorities (new kitchen, new bathroom).
Not sure about thermostats on the radiators, I don't think we do but I'll have a look.
Because if it's coming on outside of the core times on the timer. It sounds like frost protection is firing it up.
Have you got a wall-mounted thermostat for the boiler somewhere? If it's a modern one, it may have separate programming for something like 7 days and all you're doing is (say) programming Monday, so the rest of the week, it will do whatever the previous occupants programmed it to do. Is there a manual? If not and it's battery-powered and you haven't already done so, try removing the battery for a while, to clear any programming.
(Btw, modern thermostats will have a factory preset of something like 6 degrees C for night-time, i.e. more or less frost prevention mode.)
If you have the thermostat model number, you may be able to find a manual in PDF form online.
EDIT: if it's a battery-operated thermo, there will be a receiver for the thermo, usually a small box located close to the boiler. The receiver can develop a fault and fail to respond correctly to the thermo. If you replace the thermo, the receiver is likely to be wired in and will have to be replaced too. You may need an engineer/electrician.
I'll have to check whether it's battery operated, lots of investigation to do tonight - some helpful tips!