How is this possible???

[Frenchie]

This morning I noticed it was hot in the house, and I grabbed and object that was on a heater, it was warm.. I was puzzled because I knew the heating system was off.. [blink]

I checked the boiler, the button was fully lowered indeed..

How can this be possible? [blink]

( sorry about my broken English, not good at using technical terms..) [:$]

[PeterG]

Time of life?.......... Were you having a "tropical moment".......

[AnOther]

When you say 'the button was fully lowered' what does 'button' mean ?

The main power switch or something else ?

[Frenchie]

No, not the main power switch , the one on the boiler that commands the heating system. It was on the lowest position , which means " no heating", but it's possible to have warm water.

 

[AnOther]

Normally such a setting would stop the heating working basically by inhibiting the pump which pumps the water around the radiators so how it's managed to run in that position I don't know.

Sorry to be pedantic but a 'button' would not have a 'lowest

position' so do you mean that there is a slider which you move up or

down between the various functions ?

If it is a slider then try moving it up and down several times, you might have a dirty contact inside somewhere.

Has the heating been in this position for some time and this is the first time this has happened or maybe the first time you have noticed it. I assume you haven't had anybody working on it or servicing it etc. such. Were the radiators hot, as they would be if the heating was on, or just warm ?

More questions then answers at the moment I'm afraid.

Perhaps this evening, or whenever your boiler comes on for the hot water, you can check again if the radiators are coming on too.

[Callie]

When we switch our oil-fired CH to summer mode for an hour in the early morning, it heats the water only. We turn all the radiators off except the bathroom one. This means that the bathroom is always warm first thing - even in summer, when at 7 or 8 o'clock in the morning, the outside temperature is still cool.

[Frenchie]

[quote user="ErnieY"]
Sorry to be pedantic but a 'button' would not have a 'lowest position' so do you mean that there is a slider which you move up or down between the various functions ?

Here it is, it is the second from the left :

[IMG]http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r20/regine79/Photo0486.jpg[/IMG]

Has the heating been in this position for some time and this is the first time this has happened  Y E S or maybe the first time you have noticed it.

. Were the radiators hot, as they would be if the heating was on, or just warm ? They were hot



Perhaps this evening, or whenever your boiler comes on for the hot water, you can check again if the radiators are coming on too. I will.


[/quote]

[AnOther]

Thanks Frenchie, I was trying to establish whether it was a physical switch as opposed to a 'soft' electronic one and I can see now that is physical.

Quite why it's suddenly decide to go like this if you haven't touched it is hard to say. You might try rotating the switch fully back and forth several times, if it's just a dirty contact this may clean it but at best it would be a temporary cure and it does sound like you're going to have to get someone in to look at it.

In the meantime you can just turn all the radiators off of course.

Good luck

[Frenchie]

Thanks a lot Ernie, kind of you to have taken the time to analyse and answer.

merci beaucoup.

I will call someone next week.

 

[Gluestick]

Frenchie: hope you are well and Bonjour !

This can happen when the Ballon becomes too hot. (The small one either within the boiler casing or external). Thw water normally starts  circulating backwards!

The heated water starts circulating through the heating circuit. Central Heating Pumps do not restrict water flow: usually this is achieved by motorised valves moving to "Closed".

However it all depends on the design of your system.

If the boiler is set to "Hot Water Only" then I would suspect that the Boiler Thermostat has partially failed and it is allowing the jacket water to become excessively hot.

It is usual to not fit Thermostatically Controlled Radiator Valves (TRVs) on towel radiators, in order to allow some partial circulation.

Temporarily, set all the room radiator TRVs to shut.

Hope this assists.

Bien après-midi!

 

[Frenchie]

It does assist, thank you Gluestick, I'm going to turn off all the room radiators  .

Merci. !!

Hope you are doing fine yourself.

Bon après midi aussi !!

[gosub]

I have had the same problem in the UK and in France, it was caused by a faulty (mid position valve?), not closing properly and allowing hot water pass through to the radiators, when heating the hot water.

[Anton Redman]

I have installed as 200 litre electric chauffe d'eau which we use in summer. We found that our oil fired central heating system even when switched to water heating only was still putting to much heat to the venting radiator. It paid for itsellf last year in reduced oil concumption versus a very small increase in electricity usage.