Hello,

I stayed at my mums this weekend and the upstairs of her house was very hot. She has an old boiler, but had a new control box put in recently. I turned the heating from timed to off, but the radiator in the first floor bathroom did not turn off. I spoke to my mum and she says that this radiator is on permanently. She does not use this bathroom often so it is not a huge problem for her but obviously this can't be right. It is my understanding that you have one radiator in a house that is on full, but surely it shouldn't be on if the rest of the heating is off?

I do not remember this being a problem in the past, so i was wondering if it might have something to do with the new control box. Or is it something to do with the type of boiler, as i have a combination boiler which seems much simpler.

She doesn't seem too concerned, but apart from the unbearable heat in the bathroom, i'm worried that this must be costing quite a bit of money. Short of her getting a nw central heating system/boiler, which would also be expensive, what can be done?

Regards

V

You may not realise it but you are victim of sub standard modern heating systems,
Not in your mums house but in yours, The irony is you dont know it,
Your combo system can not easily have a heated towel without all of the heating being on,
It is one of the draw backs of combi systems,
Whereas your mums system has been designed to produce the greatest comfort for the user,
by providing a hot towel to dry your self with, it also provides her with an airing cupboard,
which is something else you cant easily have with a combi,
No wonder your mum is not concerned, she obviously knows more than you about the issue but
choses not to debate it,

Hello Bob,

Thanks for the informative reply. You are correct that i do not know very much at all about heating systems which is why i came on here looking for advice. However you are incorrect as to the reason my mum in not concerned. As i said she doesn't use the bathroom which is one reason and the other is that she is old and has other things that are of greater concern. However as a caring daughter i do have a concern that this is costing her money.

Are you saying that this is correct that she can not turn the radiator off? I'm sure this hasn't always been the case.

Regards

V

Hi V
You can of course in most cases simply turn the radiator off, but just to make sure everything is ok
after you turn it off listen out for any unusual noises, the pipes that supply the rad also supply the cylinder via an internal coil that heats the "domestic hot service water" which, when it reaches a
predetermined temperature shuts off the boiler, this should cause the bathroom rad to automatically shut off at the same time, It will of course come on again when a hot tap is run and the cylinder cools a little, it should not come on when the cylinder is satisfied,

If the cylinder has an electric immersion heater fitted that works,and heats the water, you could consider shutting the boiler down for the summer,

But as your mum is getting old I think it would be better to keep her warm, and set the heating to
kick in whenever a chilly period sets in, if your mum does not use the upper floors you could
turn off all of the upstairs rads during the English summer but not the winter,