Boiler question

[transatlantic]

I've just completed on a property purchase, but won't be moving in for a few weeks, so decided to turn off heating. However, when I'm outside doing work on the garden, I can still hear it kick in every now and then for about a minute and then turn off again. Is that normal? By kick in, I mean hear the exhaust thing start doing "something"

I also noticed that despite me not having the heating on and not using any hot water, the oil level does seem to drop a bit?

I thought I had disabled it by switching it to off. It has 3 modes. On/off/time.

It's a combi boiler so I know it'll kick in when hot water is requested, but I wasn't using hot water at the times I hear it kick in.

So in summary. If you have an oil combi boiler set to off and you're not using any hot water, is it normal for it to stick kick in every now and then? And still be using a little oil?

 

[NazNomad]

If you have an oil combi boiler set to off and you're not using any hot water, is it normal for it to stick kick in every now and then? And still be using a little oil?

Mine doesn't. Maybe the control circuitry is fubar? What boiler is it?

 

[marcros]

i wonder whether it fires up to prime the pump once a day. is it around the same time each day?

I wouldnt have thought that it would use much oil though- not enough to see it drop noticeably.

 

[transatlantic]

It's an old Boiler, wallstar I believe.

Not sure if it's the same tome each day, I'm not there often yet, but will try and take note.

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[morturn]

I know some of the modern combi boilers will spin the circulation pump every so often when switched to the off position, to prevent it from seizing up. I am told that some will also give the fan a spin too.

 

[RogerS]

You might find some help over on Askthetrades.co.uk

You might try disconnecting the internal froststat if you're confident. If that thinks that it's very cold then it will initiate a firing up.

 

[RogerM]

Some combi's store a litre or so of hot water internally to enable the supply to be "instant" until the newly heated water comes through. So could be the boiler just keeping this small amount hot.

 

[transatlantic]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, the frost protection and internal tank make sense. Will have a good read of boiler manual today, although it's difficult to know what's what as there seem to be other systems in the property that I don't know what they do. Hopefully the service engineer can give me the run down.

Anyone know what this thing is? It seems to be unused as it's painted over, but I'd like to remove it. There is one in each big room.

I'm assuming it's some ancient thermostat, but when I unscrewed it to take a look inside there was a lot going on, including a lot of insulation?

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