Old Ideal Classic

[chatlow]

Are you saying without the central heating on the boiler fires up often just to heat your hot water cylinder? or are you saying it fires up often when you have your central heating on?

I've only noticed it with the heating on as that's then the water is on for long periods of time

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

The stat seems to be screwed on and against the copper, it seems solid but not sure what else I can check without unscrewing it off. As for the temp, how do I find this? Is there a way to open the plastic housing and does it contain a gauge?

That I cannot help with, I have never seen a cylinder stat like that before, I can only guess.. Other types have a dial, an adjustable knob, with a pointer - allowing you to set the temperature. My guess would be in your case, the dial and adjuster, is under a cover.

Perhaps others can advise?

 

[Dereekoo]

I've only noticed it with the heating on as that's then the water is on for long periods of time

Well it is going to kick in and out depending on how sensitive your room thermostat controlling the central heating calls for heat (or not), which is all part and parcel of where it is located and how the heat in that particular area fluctuates. Comments re hot water cylinder appear to be red herrings?

 

[chatlow]

I'm not sure. The boiler fires up to heat the cylinder (thermal store) and I thought to keep it at a certain temp which is set at the boiler

The room stat calls for more heat which switches on the heating pump and circulates water (which then gets heated as it passes through the thermal store to the rads.

Obviously when the heating pump is on and radiator water passes through the thermal store this will bring the overall temp of the cylinder down, which I get, just seems to be causing the boiler to fire up more than id expect

That's my understanding of this magical system anyway

 

[Dereekoo]

I'm not sure. The boiler fires up to heat the cylinder (thermal store) and I thought to keep it at a certain temp which is set at the boiler

The room stat calls for more heat which switches on the heating pump and circulates water (which then gets heated as it passes through the thermal store to the rads.

Obviously when the heating pump is on and radiator water passes through the thermal store this will bring the overall temp of the cylinder down, which I get, just seems to be causing the boiler to fire up more than id expect

That's my understanding of this magical system anyway

OK, thermal store cylinders have no experience on them so take what I have said with a pinch of salt.

Happened to be talking to a Ideal heating engineer who was round at my sons sorting out an issue on his Ideal boiler under warranty and touched on the subject of my 27 year old Ideal Classic ff250 and he stated that these were good boilers around this time , obviously less efficient that present day ones but spares becoming harder to get. Trouble with modern boilers they work under stress all the time to achieve the efficiency hence 10 years is a good length for them

 

[fixitflav]

Need hot water on for heating.

That's odd for what looks like quite a sophisticated system, with separate pumps for CH and HW. Are you new to this, and do you understand how the controls work? And have you any reason to think the gas consumption is high? (apart from wishing it were lower )

 

[chatlow]

That's odd for what looks like quite a sophisticated system, with separate pumps for CH and HW. Are you new to this, and do you understand how the controls work? And have you any reason to think the gas consumption is high? (apart from wishing it were lower )

Sorry I should rephrase - the heating requires rad water to go through the thermal store to heat it up, so it needs to be on or at least warm enough.

So in theory yes we could have the heating on without the hot water on but it prob won't stay warm for very long as it uses the heat from the store.

We tend to have the water on with the heating for a good few hours from 3 or 4 pm and just the water for an hour in the morning which provides enough heat for shower, taps etc before work

 

[chatlow]

Oh and yes we are very new to this system. Didn't have a clue what it was when we moved in a year ago as came from a combi. The boiler has been solid to be fair and would be tempted to replace with a similar system just newer next year. As for costs yes during winter months it's been quite a lot higher than what we used to pay and that's with it being run as and when rather than more constant