Gas boiler controller: no 'summer' setting

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DannyBoyD

Registered User
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Currently managing a property for relative.

It has a pretty new / good quality gas boiler.

There's a single zone timer controller & a thermostat in the hall. Pretty basic set up.

The issue is that with the warm weather, the hall thermostat isn't calling for heat. Sounds ok, until I found out that it wasn't heating hot water either.

Had to bump up the thermostat in the hall to ensure the boiler came on per the timed schedule.

Theres no way to set the boiler for hot water only.

How to fix? I'm told that I shouldn't turn off the radiators for the summer as there's invariably issues when they are put back on in autumn.

Is replacing the controller relatively simple? I gather its currently single zone & it needs two zones to split heating / hw.

Immersion isn't really a solution as there's no timer on it.

Any suggestions?
 
They probably just run the immersion in the Summer. A timer does not save much money with a modern insulated tank. You are thinking of adverts the ESB used to run 20-30 years ago.
 
What is the make and model of the boiler?

Whether it is possible will depend on the installation layout - ie separate pump for heating radiators and hot water feeds.

With the sparse details you have given, it is impossible to answer except to say maybe
 
jpd said:
What is the make and model of the boiler?
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viessmann vitodens 050
jpd said:
Whether it is possible will depend on the installation layout - ie separate pump for heating radiators and hot water feeds.
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Would said pump be installed else where in the house? or is it part of the boiler?
jpd said:
With the sparse details you have given, it is impossible to answer except to say maybe
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Not a heating engineer - if you are, will be happy to answer any questions I can.
 
Towger said:
They probably just run the immersion in the Summer. A timer does not save much money with a modern insulated tank. You are thinking of adverts the ESB used to run 20-30 years ago.
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Except that it isn't a modern insulated tank.
 
Is it a Vitodens 050 or 050-W?

There is a pump in the boiler to move the hot water around the system

If the installation is not setup for zones, then the same circuit is used to heat the radiators and the water in the cylinder - so it would not be possible to heat one without the other

If it's not an insulated tank, then it will lose heat constantly, even with a insulated blanket wrapped around.
I'm not a Heating engineer, but we have a Vitodens 100 and it has separate controls on it for hot water and radiator temperature. We have zoned controls to manage which rooms are heated or not

But if the installation is setup for that, there's not a lot you can do.
 
jpd said:
Is it a Vitodens 050 or 050-W?
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50-w
jpd said:
If the installation is not setup for zones, then the same circuit is used to heat the radiators and the water in the cylinder - so it would not be possible to heat one without the other
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That seems to be the case.
jpd said:
If it's not an insulated tank, then it will lose heat constantly, even with a insulated blanket wrapped around.
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Not in a position to do anything about this just now.
jpd said:
But if the installation is [not?] setup for that, there's not a lot you can do.
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kinda thought that alright
 
Regarding the uninsulated tank, I now have one of the insulated type but when I had the old one I had a big duvet around it and it actually worked better than the lagging jacket you could buy for them as I bought one of them eventually but discovered the duvet was better! In fact I think the old tank and duvet kept the water hotter than the insulated tank I have now, not a hope would it keep it warm overnight even.
 
This is not a very technical answer! But we used to have a lever on a pipe in the hotpress. We turned the lever 90° in the summer so that the rads didn't receive the hot water. It meant we could use the boiler to heat water only. We turned the lever back in the winter when we needed the rads again.
 
Any controller should have both a timer and thermostat. Keep the thermostat down, but set the timer for a short morning and evening burn, turn off all the rads so youre not wasting water heating them. Otherwise any plumber should be able to change the controller or put in a hive/nest. We have single zone also but the hive is great for the scenario you just described
 
ThatNewGuy said:
Keep the thermostat down, but set the timer for a short morning and evening burn, turn off all the rads so youre not wasting water heating them.
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If the thermostat is down, it won't call for heating and the boiler doesn't come on. That means no hot water.

I've been advised not to turn off the rads as it causes problems come Autumn/ Winter when they are turned on again.
 
You could turn the rads off and turn them back on briefly once a month. That seems the easiest.

In fact we've been turning all our rads off from mid May to mid September every year without any repercussions for the past 25 years. Maybe we've just been lucky. Appreciate you wouldn't want to chance that as its not your property.
 
I've never had an issue with leaving rads off, but there is usually at least one week in an Irish summer where putting a few rads on to dry clothes is needed.
 
You can turn radiators off for the summer. The only likely problem that you might encounter is that the pin on a thermostatic radiator valve could stick in the off position. If any radiators don't heat in the winter just unscrew the thermostatic valve cap, remove it and pull the metal pin up with a pliers. You do not have to drain the system to do this
 
Spot on! Found the lever in the hot press and works exactly as you said - many thanks!
 
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