marshian

At one stage I was running 10-12 cycles per hour on manufactures stock settings - it was driving me nuts so I decide to deviate from the manufactures base settings I now only hit 6 cycles per hour when the house is in a steady state condition but most of the time it's around 4 Manufactures base settings are exactly that "base settings" get familiar with your boiler parameters and understand what they do and what impact they have and you can tweak the settings to reduce cycling without impacting warm up or comfort. Biggest impact is getting the flow temp right (if you don't have weather compensation) - next comes range rating to meet the heating requirements (in my case 16 kW on a 24kW boiler is more than enough) - then POT (pump over run timer) and then ACT (anti cycle timer) although both the last two have limitations

When I replaced an old non condensing 1980's boiler with a new condensing boiler back in 2009 I saved 4000 kWh per year so around 10kW per day I reckoned 50% was down to the pilot light and 50% was down to condensing eff improvements (as we couldn't get below 72 deg flow temp due to rads sized for 80/60 so condensing was marginal after the initial warm up phase The pilot light was set up to be robust or it would get blown out on a regular basis when it was windy so I'd say the 3.5 was probably quite representative of pilot light wastage

Absolutely agree but I was trying to make the same point - if you include the heat up phase you are going to over estimate the steady state losses.

I was using the std 15.5 to base HDD data to compare if my improvements were making a difference - however using the regression tool and historical consumption I quickly established that 16.5 deg was a much better base line for my house Currently between 2.7 and 3.3 kWh/HDD but if I make a mistake in setting the flow temp (get caught out by the outside temps changing quickly) then I can easily overshoot. (HW requirement is excluded) I don't have weather compensation - a 10kW min on a 24kW boiler range rated to 16kW so manual adjust flow temps to suit For 10 deg outside I can run as low as 45 deg for closer to zero I need 58 for the warm up phase but then I can drop to 52 to maintain temps (I'm looking forward to a new boiler and weather comp in the spring/summer)

Was the heating on constant (24/7) and the house up to temp before you started measuring gas used?? If you are heating intermittently or using setback temps then measurement of consumption is not going to give you your heat loss as you have heavy usage in heat up but periods when the heating is not on or it's maintaining a set back temp you will lose less as the house cools down. My calculated heat loss is 4.5 kWh (target temp 20 outside temp -2) however I deviated from the default ACH parameters in the assessment used - IMO they were way too high - with the suggested ACH it would be 6.1 kWh. I sense checked mine in a slighty different way in the cold snap we had in November last year (temp was between 0 and -2 during this time) as we do heat intermittently and don't have set backs on a weekend heating so on those days I heated the house up and then only measured gas usage for the hours once the house was up to temp - as a result I was only effectively replacing the heat being lost in that period First day averaged 4.1 kWh Second day average 3.9 kWh As a result I'm comfortable that my heat calcs are reflective of my actual heat loss

Explained well here

Turning off rads can save you very little........... The balance of the circuit on the remaining rads is no longer correct Unheated rooms steal heat from heated rooms so those rads have to work harder The circuit volume is reduced so the boiler short cycles which is bad for efficiency

Extended the garage about 20 years ago (5.5m by 3.5m) matched the original pitched roof (Marley Mendip concrete tiles and roofing caps) - been absolutely fine for years No leaks into the garage loft space but I noticed the other day when cleaning out the gutters some of the mortar on the valley joints and the roofing caps has cracked - some has fallen out and dropped into the gutters (see other post on gutter cleaning Anyone know what mortar mix to use if I get up there and pull out the loose stuff and re-point/repair the areas where it's poor? Soft sand or Sharp sand? I'm quite happy working/walking on a roof - it's only single storey and I over speced the roof trusses because I use the loft garage for storage

Bravo claps hands - nice detail (in some case a smidge too much) but Thank you for showing your workings

Doesn't the top twist to turn it off? Hence the ON being visible - the top turned then should reveal an "OFF"

Well it's certainly not right - if HW request from any tap doesn't result in HW delivered to the tap - I'd be pushing WB for further investigation/repair/replacement What good is HW on Demand (AKA combi boiler) if you have frig around at the boiler to get to to kick in

Is it just for a shower that it fails to provide HW? Does a bath/sink tap on fire it up?? How many litres per min does the shower flow (and what temp do you have the shower set too) some modern shower heads are capable of giving a good shower at very low water flows - down to as little as 6L per min I don't have any knowledge of combi boilers (i've stuck with a tank and intend to continue with one) but I would expect that they have a min flow required to kick the boiler into action - if the water temp is set to say 50 deg and the cold coming in on the other side is at 10 deg then to get a 35 to 40 deg shower at a 6L per min flow the boiler is only going to be asked for say 4 L per min (rough math)

All of mine are easy to access with the front of the unit coming off and giving good access - All are fitted with isolation valves because the fill valves are a regular consumables

I disagree with the statement that the flushing mechanism leaks - I've not seen that (yet) my experience is that modern flush valves also incorporate a cistern level overflow that would have previously been out thro the wall from the side of the cistern - as a result you quickly knew you had a ball valve failing and letting by because you could hear it dripping or your neighbour told you!!!! I'm pretty sure that the issue of integral overflows in toilet cisterns is compounded by householders setting the level as high as possible in order to get a little extra water in the cistern and improve the flush (I've done this to try and improve the flush but the extra 500 ml doesn't make much difference) Modern side fill valves seem to last a very short time before the diaphram fails or fails to seal My loft tank has a ball valve to control the fill and has only had one new washer in 40 years of use - I'd say that that mechanism is about as reliable as a Nissan Micra or Toyota Yaris (cockroach cars I call them - incredibly hard to kill)

OK that's a "relief" (sorry) - it seems I'm not alone in finding modern toilets flush volume "piss poor" (sorry again)

I was trying to keep the thread clean (unlike the damn toilets) but you are 100% correct - those old thunder flushes were a pull once and never need to check if it needed another

I have the tank stat set to 60 Deg - I only heat HW for ~20 mins and it gets to ~48 to 52 in that time - as a result the Tank Stat is never satisfied (unless it's Mrs M's Bath night in which case I heat it to 60 (legionaires cycle same day) and then it's satisfied After she's run a bath it's not so when the CH ends it calls for HW for 1 min and the valve returns to rest

I'm going to have to get my head round that - thanks for posting I heat water to much less than the tank stat is set too so my std practiced is to set the HW to 1 min after the CH cycle has ended and of course the tank stat is not satisfied so it returns the valve to the rest position of HW I was thinking about changing the valve round (and wiring) so CH is rest and HW is powered then it would always be at rest when running CH but then when you are only heating water the valve would be constantly powered on because CH is never called for.

All different manufacturers (probably all made in same factory) I think we bought one from Soak, one from plumb world and one from Victoria Plumb

All three loos suffer from similar issues All are within 1 m of the main soil pipe, are direct coupled to 110mm soil pipe (ie not some flexible concertina adaptor) and have decent falls to the soil pipe (considering the short distances involved The two stage button works a cable mechanism - push the large part for partial flush and the small part for a full flush (both parts of the button go down as a result) Partial flush when fitted is approx 3 L full flush is 6 L (I have experimented with increasing the partial flush volume by adjusting the settings but I end up with the unit set to give 6L regardless of button pushing (hardly a water saving feature if you have to set it up that way) The pans are all different makes (each loo was upgraded over a few years) and each time the performance is not as good as the previous close coupled unit with syphon based flusher and a 10 L cistern Hence my thinking that it's not enough water being flushed - increase the cistern size and I can revert the flush to being a two stage again with 4L for a part flush and 8-10 L for a full flush. All the water feeds to the cisterns are gravity fed from loft tank (not mains supplied) none have flow restrictors in the inlet so they do fill up again quite quickly but I'm not seeing how often needing to flush twice is saving any water.

I've got three toilets in the house. All have the same concealed cistern arrangements with a reduced water content (6L) and a two step "water saving" flush functionality Am I alone in thinking this reduction in cistern capacity combined with "water saving part flush" doesn't save any water at all because regardless of the requirement Mrs Marshian hits the full flush button every time (because a partial flush doesn't clear all the no'1's and leaves toilet paper behind) If it's No' 2's it frequently needs a full flush twice. I'm wondering If I should fabricate some stainless steel 8 - 10 L cisterns to fit in place of the plastic 6 L max ones. I've definitely got space inside the built in units to fit larger tanks......... Or is this a bad idea and we should consider drink less and reducing the level of fibre in our diets Oh and what EU directive or building regs would I be breaking 😉

Euuuwww that's not nice either!!!!

Neither - but I do get to borrow a bit of the garage occasionally (when I need to have a sort out) as well as have use of the driveway as she no longer has a car (just a mobility scooter lives in the garage) and she likes to see a car on the drive as it looks like someone is home. Husband passed away 3 years ago from Parkinsons/dementia but up to about 5 years ago they were best neighbours you could wish for - looked after our cats and the house whenever we were away and so this sort of activity is just paying back for previous good deeds. If it's icy I salt the driveway and paths I put the wheelie bins out on the days they are collected and bring them back in Cut the front grass when it needs cutting Still a good neighbour just not as mobile these days

Sorry if I've ruined your day - but the Rat had a worse day all things considered

Neighbours gutters on the garage were constantly overflowing onto her patio - she’s 85 and needs a walker to get about - not much chance of her getting up a ladder to clear out the gutters so as it stopped raining I thought I’d get it done for her…… Whole length was full of moss/leaves and general detritus Took off the end caps and stuffed a car cleaning sponge down the downpipe and washed them all out into a couple of 35 litre builders buckets Extracted the sponge and the downpipe was blocked up as well so off that came and rodded out a 2 feet of muck but it wasn't all leaves and moss Washed it down and found what was blocking it up I’ve heard the expression “raining cats and dogs” but never heard “raining rats!!!!”