OFCH electronic timer separately programmable hot water & room heating 7 days?

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ajapale

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How would I go about getting an electronic timer with separately programmable hot water and room heating programs for the seven days of the week for my oil-fired central heating system?

Im not interested in condensing boilers, zoned heating or any of that grant driven malarkey.

My boiler is a firebird with three switches:
Mains On/Off
24 hours / Timed (with a circular analogue clock with pins)
HW / HW&CH

Its a terribly cumbersome and frustrating system.


Thanks
aj
 
I presume you are talking about the Firebird SuperQ boiler. They have a built in timeclock that can separate HW from CH, however, only if they are wired to a motorized valve on the CH plumbing circuit. Most of the ones that I have come across are not installed this way and the timeclock can only be used as an on/off timeclock, heating both HW and CH simultaneously.

If you have got a motorized valve, then it is pretty straight forward to bypass the built-in timeclock on the SuperQ. The motorized valve takes the live from the new timeclock, when the valve is fully open, the Auxillary becomes live which is then wired back to the boiler and circulating pump. You can install a two channel timeclock, the ones we use are the Horstmann H27XL. It is very user friendly and has features such as Boost and Advance to override the system outside of the timed programmes. Just wire the live through the new timeclock to the motorized valve and then the auxillary from the valve to the boiler which becomes the switched live to the burner/circulating pump.

If you do not have a motorized valve on your heating, then a single channel 7 day timeclock will suffice. This will now become the switched live but you will not be able to separate HW from the CH. Alternatively, install a motorized valve on the CH circuit and then you can heat HW without heating CH.
 
Shane007 said:
I presume you are talking about the Firebird SuperQ boiler.
Click to expand...

Thanks Shane! Yes its a Firebird Super Q 90-120.

We need it for showers in the morning but if we forget to switch HW&CH to HW then the radiators heat up even when not needed! We would like to set it up so that school work days would be different to weekends and holidays.

aj
 
It sounds like you already have the motorized valve in place so it should be a straight forward job.

The Horstmann H27XL is a 2 channel (HW and CH) 7 day timeclock. You can have separate timings for each day separately and you can also turn on and off each zone upto 3 times per day also. They are priced at about €70 + VAT. I have the 3 channel version installed in my own house and find it very easy to use.

Here's the link for the manual which also has a picture of it: http://www.horstmann.co.uk/downloads/ElectronicDocuments/Central-Heating/H27XL-USeries2.pdf

Or for their full range: http://www.horstmann.co.uk/central-heating.php

Horstmann also do a cheaper version called the CentaurPlus C27. It is also a 2 channel 7 day timeclock, however, I find that it is more cumbersome to use.

If you are not upto electrics, it is an electrician's job that should take no longer than an hour or so to install.
 
Thats brilliant Shane! Its just what we are looking for down to the 1 or 2 hour manual override.

Ill get on to our plumber/heating guy or our electrician on Monday.

Thanks
aj
 
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