Hot Water/Central heating separation

[chrisp]

We have a hot water cylinder in the airing cupboard, with a digital timer/control panel that has separate settings for water and heating (so that they can come on separately and at different times etc...).

Odd thing is, however, even if the heating is set to be totally off (i.e. not even on timer) when the hot water comes on the upstairs raditors all come on!

This seems odd to me but I have been told this is normal (admittedly the person who told me this is not any kind of plumber so could be talking nonsense...).

For the summer months I have manged to turn off all the upstairs radiators (although it took some WD40 and Cillit Bang to loosen them!) and I suspect this will be an expensive problem to fix so we may have to just live with it, but I would be grateful to hearwhat people on this forum have to say about it....

 

[Bernie2]

Hmm!

Its certainly not usual. But unless you know how the system is piped up you can't really say what the problem is.

Some basic questions may help perhaps: Has it always been liked that or has it gone like that?

 

[heatserve]

Almost certainly reverse circulation, as Bernie2 alluded to.

No, it's not normal and is due to bad design / installation.

 

[chrisp]

Thanks for the answers - we bought the house in December last year and because we then went through the coldest winter on record it took us a while to realise what was happening - it was only as it started to slowly get warmer we started to want to have the water on without the heating...and then found that we couldn't!

We'll probably just have to live with it for now - you've confirmed my suspicions that a) this is not right and b) it will probably be fairly painful (in terms of time, money or both) to fix....we'll have to get someone to have a proper look at it to find out what's going on...

Thanks again for the swift answers!

 

[Mbear]

Without seeing it course

that's sound classic faulty zone valve symptons.

Ie the faulty ch zone valve is sticking causing constant power to the pump&boiler therefore the timer says it's off but the pump&boiler will still be working away for ch