potterton netaheat electronic 10-16 central heating problem

[markjones1986]

hi guys, i'm getting slightly concerned about the situation i've found myself in so i thought it was time to try and figure this out. id like to mention that i have pretty much no idea what im talking about in regards to this, i've never had an issue with this kind of thing before and as such am feeling pretty useless. its basically resulted in me living at my girlfriends house due to the temperature at mine.

the boiler i have is downstairs, mounted to the wall in my kitchen and it is a potterton netaheat electronic 10-16. the programmer thing is a british gas UP1L. we have a cylinder in the airing cupboard which is upstairs. there are 3 radiators downstairs and 3 upstairs. we do not have a thermostat other than the one on the boiler so cannot control the heat of individual rooms.

i have a few questions to ask first:

how should this system work? should i be able to turn on the central heating without the hot water being on as well? currently if i turn the central heating on using the bg controls, absolutely nothing happens, no noises, no ignition, no heat.

however if i turn the hot water on, the pilot light ignites, makes the noises that i assume are normal and then if i turn the ch on i can hear the water start to flow and my radiators heat up.

now i assume you need hot water in the cylinder for the radiators to heat up so this kind of makes sense, but this is coming at an extortionate cost (we're on a gas card/meter) and whilst the radiators are getting hot, the house is simply not warming up.

it also seems like the boiler is cutting out quite regularly?

any advice or knowledge would be gratefully recieved.

mark.

 

[gavinda]

sounds like a basic gravity water pumped heating system. probly nothing wrong at all. however given the current issueds with this boiler a safety check would be well worthwhile.

 

[markjones1986]

any comments regarding the boiler cutting out? what i mean by this is that i cannot see a flame through the window and it will reignite a minute later, not sure if cutting out is the correct term. could this be effecting the heat that the radiators are reaching or is it more likely to be something to do with the radiators themselves?

it just seems like we're burning our money currently, having to turn the hot water and central heating on is costing an extortionate amount of money and the house simply isnt warming up. we're wondering if using electric heaters would be a more cost effective idea but at the same time have heard a lot about this being more expensive and im also concerned about the effects the temperature is having on possessions within the rooms not being heated by a heater.

i know little to nothing about radiators, what could i do to help assess this problem?

 

[fender]

It sounds to a degree that the pump is not running, or it's running but not pumping properly, so the boiler will cycle regularly on the overheat stat.

Can you check if the ch pump is actually running?

 

[bengasman]

These boilers have not been made for some 20 years, how come it has taken you so long before finding it a problem?
When is the last time the boiler was serviced?

 

[markjones1986]

Basically i graduated last year and i moved into this property in july 2008, the heating wasn't really an issue until around november but due to other things going on i've not really had a chance to really get down to finding out what is wrong (if anything is).

i moved into the property and had to hassle the landlord for a safety certificate, turns out he claimed that the lettings agent was supposed to sort it all out for him and hadn't. we had a gas man out in august who checked it over extremely quickly and gave me a certificate for it. is this the same as a service? sorry for being so clueless, guess its a case of never bothering to look at how these things work until you need to.

the pump is located with the cylinder yes? turn the hot water and central heating on and listen? i've had to ditch to my girlfriends due to how cold it was at mine so i'll have to look tomorrow.

 

[bengasman]

As a tenant you should never get involved in problems.
sent the landlord a registered letter that you had to move out due to heating problems that he was aware of and threaten to withhold payment for the time the property was not fit for habitation.