change heating & hot water set up

[mike.T]

At the moment my central heating clock is set up to have the heating and hot water or just hot water only at a time.
Question how easy would it be to change the clock/system to allow heating only or hot water and heating.
Thanks Mike

 

[Space cat]

If you have on old gravity-fed hot water system it wont be easy at all! In a fully pumped system it may or may not be easy depending upon what kind of motorized valves you have. We'll need to know more about the plumbing layout before we can help you with the electrics.

 

[mike.T]

Thanks for your reply Space Cat
Mike

 

[Space cat]

You're welcome. I'll be watching this space.

 

[robertito]

Seems strange that you would want to heat the house and not have any hot water. If it's a question of boiler size, the energy required to heat the water is usually small in relation to the house heating.

 

[Space cat]

Seems strange that you would want to heat the house and not have any hot water.

But you'll still want to heat the house when the hot sylinder is up to temperature. If you can't stop boiler water from circulating through the cylinder coil your hot water will come up to boiler temperature - typically 85°C. Ouch!

 

[robertito]

Thanks, Space cat, yes, I'd overlooked that aspect...

 

[mike.T]

HI THERE ALL
My request for this set-up is that we leave the house empty over the winter and have the C/h on tick over about 10º but to do this I have to heat the hot water I was hoping to cut my running costs a bit.
regards Mike T

 

[TicklyT]

Consider your hot water cylinder as something akin to a storage heater.
Once hot, the only losses will be into the rest of the house, contributing to the space heating requirements.
The relatively small loss from the cylinder is then made up the next time the boiler runs.
The contribution to the 'thermal inertia' may mean the boiler doesn't need to run so often to maintain the temperature set on the thermostat.

 

[mike.T]

Hi thanks for your reply’s can I put my question a different way?
As I said before at the moment my central heating clock is set up to have the heating and hot water or just hot water only at a time.

I think what’s happing is I am warming up the hot water when the house is empty over winter a (waste of gas)
I just checked my tank thermostat and it’s range is 100 to 180f
Would it be possible to a switch on the line to keep the hot water side off or a new tank thermostat that starts at lot lower temp?
and leave the clock on C/h and Hot water on tick over about 10º.
Would this be possible the boiler is only a few years old, but the pipe work and tank is 30years old properly need replacing soon.
As have had problems with kettleing in the past
Mike