Boiler/central heating explanation

[arfdog]

Hi All,

I require some assistance in understanding my house's hot water system. My main problem is that I I only get water from the taps if the central heating has been on for an hour or more. There seems to be no option to get hot water without the central heating being on as well.

I have:
1:) Inside the chimney downstairs, there is a gas fired boiler, with a gas fireplace integral to it, poking through the front wall of the chimney and into the lounge. I can turn the fire on and off as required. I can hear when the gas boiler inside the chimney is heating water, and it only does so when the central heating is on.

2:) An oval storage tank in a cupboard upstairs. This has a thermostat on the front of it, and it contains hot water (that has been heated by the gas boiler I guess) only when the central heating is on. Next to this tank, there is also a pump, which I gather pumps water around the central heating circuit. Additionally, there is a power switch, now I don't know if turning this power switch off would disable the pump and in doing so turn off my central heating, or if this is just a safety switch to switch off any electrical heater element that may be within this storage tank.

3:) In my kitchen I have a timer, which switches the central heating and hot water on or off, depending on the program setting. The wires from this control unit run upstairs into the cupboard where the storage tank is.

I am quite desperate to discover how I might get hot water from my taps, without having the central heating turn on. There is no central heating thermostat, other than individual thermostats on each radiator.

Thanks in advance fr any help you could give me,
Arf

[tom squires]

hi
what kind of programmer do you have installed? does it have a seperate hot water switch?
if it doesnt have a seperate switch it sounds like you have the wrong type of programmer,
you should have one with 2 seperate switch's which would enable you to switch the hot water on and not the central heating
have a look and let me know

[arfdog]

Hi Tom,

The programmer has no hot water only button, it seems to be a central heating controller only.
I guess if I remove this I should see an unused wire or two coming out of the cable that goes up to my storage tank cupboard? Is there a way I can test if this wire controls the hot water only, by pulling it up to 12V or connecting to ground? I am not sure of the signalling methods employed in heating control.

Thanks for your help!
Arf