Communal heating problem.

[OnlywhenIlaugh]

My son has a 5yr old apartment in a block of four on an estate of many similar blocks, this block of four is serviced by one boiler in an auxiliary room (locked). Hot water is piped into all apartments and heating is controlled by one Drayton 2 port valve controlled by a Honeywell programmer/thermostat. Heating had not been used during summer and on switching on in the autumn is not operating. Called site maintenance who came and checked in the auxiliary room, he then told us everything is ok his side the fault must lie on our side and we need to get an engineer out, he then went on to say, but it's usually the motorised valve they are usually the cause of faults for most and we can operate the valve manually meanwhile. I have checked the system there is no live feed to the programmer or the valve, there is power through the cut out in the consumer unit, so there seems to be a break in continuity between the consumer unit and the programmer. Unfortunately as we are unable to find a building wiring diagram I was wondering if anyone has experience of these communal setups and if they may have some sort of inline fuse or switch in the auxiliary room, because otherwise I can only assume that possibly some rodent had some cable for lunch. Any help would be greatly received.

 

[Newboy]

As a start point you need to check for local fusing and supply to the programmer inside the flat. How is the programmer supplied (electrically) - fused spur?

It's unlikely that the electrical supply to items inside the flat is controlled from outside the flat.

 

[OnlywhenIlaugh]

I can't find anything after the RCB in the consumer unit marked "Heating", power is getting past the circuit breaker. I have searched the flat all over and cannot find any unidentified box or switch. Just wondered if they might need to override the valve to perhaps bleed the system, or starve the occupants of heat if the annual service charge is unpaid.

 

[Newboy]

Heating had not been used during summer and on switching on in the autumn is not operating.

1) How did you switch it on?

2) Is there a thermostat in the flat?

 

[OnlywhenIlaugh]

It's switched on by the programmer/timer/thermostat which I have tested and is working but with no live feed to the programmer it can't switch the valve on.

 

[Newboy]

Forgive me being a bit dense - with no power to the programmer how is the programmer working (model number would help)?

 

[OnlywhenIlaugh]

Honeywell cm67 powered by batteries and the valve is Drayton za5 2 port.

 

[Newboy]

Is there power (240v) to connection 'A' on the backplate?

The power supply to the thermostat should be via a fused/switched fused spur which should be accessible to the owner of the flat to allow for servicing of the heating controls - perhaps worth either asking another resident or the building management company?

 

[OnlywhenIlaugh]

No there is no power to "A" this is the problem, without a wiring diagram I can only assume this is fed from the consumer unit switch marked "heating" which I have tested as live. We will get in touch with the management again to see if they have an intermediate switch/fuse between these points.