The winter question....

[secret squirrel]

I've been following a thread on whether the heating should be left on permanetly or left to come on when people are in etc....

My question is wear and tear on the boiler whether combi or system,

Is it better for the boiler to cycle all day for little bits or is it better for the boiler to be working quite (very) hard for a shorter period?

My gut instinct is that it is better to have it working for little bits all day rather than hammering it for a few hours....

 

[doitmyself]

It all depends on what moving parts there are in the system. Gas valve, pump, motorized valve, diverter valve (combi). All these are doing is opening and closing. I don't know what the life of these components is in terms of number of operations before failure, but I would expect it to be in the millions.


The wear and tear on these components is negligible compared to the difference in wear and tear of a Fiat Panda towing a caravan and a BMW X5 towing the same caravan.

 

[Renewable M]

drive your car to the shops. Race a hundred yards stop. Turn off engine, get out. lock doors. Open doors, get back in, start engine, race a hundred yards and repeat. Equals knackered car. Same with most other appliances that 'cycle'.

With leaving the heating on constant as you've mentioned, you are likely (depending on your system) to have longer on periods and longer off periods - more the equivalent of your car toodling along at 55 miles an hour.

Working for "little bits" is still on/off, pump start etc.

Maybe the way around to look at it is not "How soon will the boiler wear out?" but "How can I extend the normal running life and still be comfortable and afford the gas bill".

It's a good topic.

 

[secret squirrel]

A long time ago (in a galaxy far far away) I was on exercise in the army for a few weeks and we all expected a lot of equip failure due to the length of time it was all working. To everyones surprise this wasn't the case the equip just kept going.

The same as a car they like being used, I have a kia picanto and it has got 90k on the clock and is still going strong, my dad has an astra and is rarely used and electrics keep failing, hes already had 2 batteries.

My thinking on this is that it is better to keep it all on

BUT does the constant use affect any aspect of any single component, for example pumps need a little tweaking after being shut off all summer......

 

[Renewable M]

something we notice with oil boilers when we add heat pumps or solar, is that often the oil boiler won't switch on for 8 months of the year or more, and the old ones can get stuck.

That's when the customers are too cheap to upgrade the boiler too! The minimum we advise is that a new burner is fitted to their 20 year old floor standing dragon, so that our installers dont end up going back to it.

 

[doitmyself]

drive your car to the shops. Race a hundred yards stop. Turn off engine, get out. lock doors. Open doors, get back in, start engine, race a hundred yards and repeat. Equals knackered car. Same with most other appliances that 'cycle'.

That's because car engines need time to warm up to the correct working temperature and, until they do so, the lubrication in the engine, gearbox, differential etc will not be correct so these component will wear out quicker if you always do short journeys where the car has not reached working temperature.

There are no comparable components in a central heating system.

 

[oldie]

Hi Secret squirrel,
I know that the time invollved is so far very short, but I have left my heating on "continuous running" since the start of the Winter chestnut thread So Far as far as I can tell it has been very sucsessful with the house now at a constant warm tempature.
To answer your particular question the boiler and pump seem to run a lot less now as the fabric of the house remains warm day and night, when I had things set on timed the boiler and pump were having to cut in and out on a very regular basis, So I would say that as things seem to be running less that would mean of course less wear and tear on all componants. This of course is only a very short time scale but so far so good
oldie

 

[payney1974]

I think its just the luck of the draw with gas valves, fans, pcb's and most " dry" parts, it doesnt really matter if its on constant or on / off all the time. With wet parts ie pump, aav, prv, h/e etc etc it just comes down to water quality!! On a different note experts say you should never let your house get colder than 16 degrees C ( this temperature doesnt let the fabric of your house to cool) thus making your boiler not work so hard and not use as much energy (cheaper to run).