Gas Saving or electricity wastage?

[Muscroj]

So we have a probelm with our heating system & every time we have the hot water running it warms all the radiators as well. It ignores the fact that the heating is actually switched off, it ignores the wall thermostat which is telling it that it is too damned hot to heat the radiators it just does it, so I have had to turn all the individual rads off directly to stop having a red hot house!

Anyhoo, it got me thinking, we were heating our hot water twice a day, for what? my husband & I both have electric showers, he's switched to an electric shaver so doesn't need a bowlful of hot water every morning & the littlies only have a bath once or twice a week, so other than that it's only a pan or breadboard that won't fit in the dishwasher that needs washing. So, I've turned the hot water off altogether & use hot water out of the kettle for the few bits I need to wash & just put the hot water on for the hour before the boys bathtime.

Now, I'm thinking that this should be a big saving on Gas as we now only use an hours worth of gas once or twice a week, but is a kettle a really big energy user? and if so bby using the kettle am I just robbing Peter to pay Paul?

Also, anyone got any ideas whats up with my central heating system??

[Odsox]

anyone got any ideas whats up with my central heating system??

Sounds like you have a stuck zone valve or one that's not working.
Somewhere in your system there is probably a 2 way valve that sends the hot water from your boiler to either the cylinder, radiators or both.
It has a small electric motor on top that turns the tap automatically ..... or not in your case.
It's either that or the electronics that control it.

[Cloud]

Also, anyone got any ideas whats up with my central heating system??

Sound like the three-port valve is broke. Mine has had to be replaced twice since I've been in this house (about 20 years).

As for using electric. That's a difficult one. CO2 wise electric is bad (for the environment) and usually bad for the pocket too. Using a kettle is very efficient, so in this case, heating just the water you need probably wins, cost wise, over heating the whole water cylinder with gas. However, you have to factor in the shower usage too, but you could still be on the right side money wise. This depends on lots of things like the size of your hot water cylinder, its insulation, the efficiency of you boiler etc.

The best way to answer this question is to measure it. One week one method, one week the other. Measure gas and electric usage, and calculate the costs. It would need to be a week each so that other factors are averaged out, but you could try one day each to start with.

edit: I maybe a techie four-eyed geek, but I can't write proper English for sixpence - edited to fix the worst

[Green Aura]

I'll leave all the techno stuff to the boys above - it makes my head spin.

But re using the kettle to wash up etc. What about putting any leftover hot water from making drinks in a flask, so when you come to wash up you got a reasonable amount of hot water already saved. Just a thought - unless you're really disciplined about how much you put in the kettle each time, there's invariably some left over.

[Muscroj]

oooh now thats an idea! I'm sure I've got a flask somewhere!

I'll get my dad to have a loot into the 3 port valve business. I'm sure that's what the plumber added to the system at the end of last year when we had some rads fitted upstairs, I wonder if it's something he' done Thought it could be a mistake asking our neighbor to do the work, makes it awkward asking him to fix it so many months later

[Cloud]

I'll get my dad to have a loot into the 3 port valve business. I'm sure that's what the plumber added to the system at the end of last year when we had some rads fitted upstairs, I wonder if it's something he' done Thought it could be a mistake asking our neighbor to do the work, makes it awkward asking him to fix it so many months later

Our 3-port value has a lever on the side that moves when the value moves.

In case Dad is busy or you you want to look yourself, there are two simple things to check.

1) Which pipes are getting hot, and when?
2) does the lever move by itself, and when?

Our lever has three positions
a) HW only
b) HW and CH (mid position)
c) CH only

If you turn the CH only and check the lever position, then switch to HW only and check the lever you should see a difference. Ours take a few minutes to move from one position to the other.

This is what our three-port valve looks like. Lever is on the side (green arrows). Alternative water flow paths shown by blue arrows.

3port.jpg (143.08 KiB) Viewed 4249 times

[Muscroj]

thanks for taking the time to do this for me, I'll go & check it out now!

[Muscroj]

unfortunalty mine isn't quite as easy to view, I *think* the red wheel is the equivelant of your lever, but it doesn't really point to anything so I'm not sure which position it should be in Guess I better bite the bullet & ask our neighbour to come back & have a look at it

[Cloud]

I've not seen one like yours before. Seems a reasonable guess about the red wheel, but I can't tell any more than you form the picture unfortunately.

Did you feel which pipes were getting hot? With only hot water on you would not expect the 'A' pipe to be getting very hot (the one that curls round to the back). If it is getting hot then either it is the valve, or the controller that is faulty. The other two pipes should be very hot.