My father in law is away from his home for a while and I decided to reduce
his house central heating ON/OFF times during this period. Currently he has
it running ON day and night, HW & CH...........

I now have both water and heating coming on for 1/2 hours morning and
evening just to keep it ticking over. Even though the system is OFF with
boiler definitely shut down, the pump still runs. It is not running water
around the CH system but just circulating it around the local HW tank
pipework but not via the boiler.

It is a Sentinel Housing property and the heating system was
installed/upgraded a couple of years ago to bring it up to current standards
and legislation.

So is this the modern way, with the pump continually running.

thanks
dj

tpow wrote:
My father in law is away from his home for a while and I decided to reduce
his house central heating ON/OFF times during this period. Currently he has
it running ON day and night, HW & CH...........

I now have both water and heating coming on for 1/2 hours morning and
evening just to keep it ticking over. Even though the system is OFF with
boiler definitely shut down, the pump still runs. It is not running water
around the CH system but just circulating it around the local HW tank
pipework but not via the boiler.

It is a Sentinel Housing property and the heating system was
installed/upgraded a couple of years ago to bring it up to current standards
and legislation.

So is this the modern way, with the pump continually running.

thanks
dj


Try uk D-I-Y group, much more experienced in these matters, and as
helpful as here.

"Broadback" wrote in message
...
tpow wrote:
My father in law is away from his home for a while and I decided to
reduce his house central heating ON/OFF times during this period.
Currently he has it running ON day and night, HW & CH...........

I now have both water and heating coming on for 1/2 hours morning and
evening just to keep it ticking over. Even though the system is OFF with
boiler definitely shut down, the pump still runs. It is not running water
around the CH system but just circulating it around the local HW tank
pipework but not via the boiler.

It is a Sentinel Housing property and the heating system was
installed/upgraded a couple of years ago to bring it up to current
standards and legislation.

So is this the modern way, with the pump continually running.

thanks
dj
Try uk D-I-Y group, much more experienced in these matters, and as helpful
as here.


ahhhh, great thanks and have posted there now.

No. The pump should not run when the CH is off, it is an installation error or fault. No way is it some "modern way". It is also an utter waste of energy.

There is no need to have the CH or HW coming on "to keep it ticking over" when the house is unoccupied at times of no frost. Assuming you are not in a part of the world where it is currently winter and could suffer frost at the moment, just turn it off, anything else is a waste of energy. If it was a cool time of year (spring/autumn) I would say turn it back on half a day before your father returns, but in summer even that is hardly necessary. Even if going away in winter, you could turn the thermostat down to say 12 degrees for protection.

Even when your father is in the house. He only needs the HW to come on, say, twice a day for at most a couple of hours, in fact probably only once a day if he only uses substantial quantities of hot water once a day, like many single people. Absolutely no need to have the CH on overnight when he is asleep either, even in winter, assuming some kind of approximation to a modern standard of insulation. If the house is not insulated to an approximately modern standard, it is a no-brainer to have it done.

I read that the average energy bills for a house are about £900 a year. I live in a 4-bed detached house and my bills are half that, even though the house was originally built in 1938 with solid walls and has been difficult to fully insulate to modern standards, though we have done our best. Your father's situation makes me realise why so many people have ridiculously high energy bills.

tpow wrote:
My father in law is away from his home for a while and I decided to reduce
his house central heating ON/OFF times during this period. Currently he has
it running ON day and night, HW & CH...........

In UK midsummer you don't even need that. When there is a risk of frost
it is worth having the CH system on for a short spell morning and
evening. Frozen pipes and unoccupied house spells disaster.

I now have both water and heating coming on for 1/2 hours morning and
evening just to keep it ticking over. Even though the system is OFF with
boiler definitely shut down, the pump still runs. It is not running water
around the CH system but just circulating it around the local HW tank
pipework but not via the boiler.

This doesn't sound like it is correctly installed. The pump should only
run when the CH system is actively engaged in heating up the house.

It is a Sentinel Housing property and the heating system was
installed/upgraded a couple of years ago to bring it up to current standards
and legislation.

So is this the modern way, with the pump continually running.

No. But there might be an override switch somewhere if the house also
has a back boiler with an open fire or a wood stove. If that override
switch is closed then the CH pump will run irrespective of whether or
not the main boiler is active. So that you can circulate warm water from
the alternative boiler to the CH radiators.

Regards,
Martin Brown
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **