Hi folks,
Apologies in advance if I use the incorrect terminology in describing the problem.
First, some History.
The current system is a WB Greenstar 8300iW 30 S (or maybe 35 S) condensing boiler. No cold-water header tank in loft, not a combi-boiler (we have a hot water tank in the airing cupboard). This runs a total of 13 radiators over 3 floors. Top floor is a separate zone (with its own programmer and wall-mounted thermostat). A second zone (for the middle and basement floor) has a thermostat that is wall-mounted in the hallway on the middle floor. Boiler is in the basement. For future reference I'll refer to the floors as floor 0 (basement), floor 1 (main living floor) and floor 2 (bedrooms at top of house).
This was piped up and confgured as above by British Gas around 25 years ago when we installed an Ideal Mimimiser boiler (what a dog that turned out to be). With no changes to the pipework or zoning (as far as I remember), it was replaced by a Vaillant Ecotec which worked for the next 11 years faultlessly between 2009-2020 until a single and catastrophic heat-exchanger failure in May 2020 killed it.
In May 2020 (mid-pandemic) the Ecotec failed and we had the Worcester Bosch Greenstar fitted. Apart from some fancy new pipework around the boiler, no changes were made to the system configuration (as far as I know).
We have used the system since the BG install of 1997 as follows:
We have separate temperarure and time settings for floors 0 & 1 - controlled by programmer/timer and wall thermostat in the hallway (floor 1). Floor 2 has its own time and temperature settings controlled by a separate timer/programmer and wall thermostat.
We could have the heating on on floors 0 & 1 and off on floor 2, on on floor 2 and off on floors 0 & 1 or all three floors being heated.
This is how our heating has worked from 1997 until mid-October 2021 when something has happened.
Due to the mild spring / summer / sutumn this year, the heating (on all floors) has basically been off since March. We have had domestic hot water (provided by the bolier) throughout with no issues.
Come to the first week of October 2021 and whilst floors 0 and 1 work as expected and we continue to get hot water as normal, floor 2 is experiencing issues.
To explain (in the following, I'm referring to floor 2 only unless otherwise stated).
Yesterday morning, both bathroom radiatiors were cold. Checked timer & stat - both calling for heat. Checked boiler - cold. Bled both bathroom radiators (although no water came out). Very puzzled. Boiler was reporting LoPr so water pressure was brought up to above 1bar.
Bled all radiators on floor 2.
We are out all day. Fitst thing I did when we came home (and before putting the heating on for floors 0 and 1) was put the heating on for floor 2.
Success - radiatiors became very toasty to the touch (both bathroom radiatios needed a lot of bleeding).
This morning - same scenario. Both programmer and stat on floor 2 calling for heat but boiler is off Went into the L.A Service Function and 1-A1 current status is 203 meaning a"bolier is in standby, no heat energy demand".
Currently, whilst writing this on floor 2, my feet are cold and the radiators cold. Programmer and thermostat are on (stat is set to 26C) but rads on floors 0 and 1 are hot.
Is this a faulty sensor?? Is this a faulty 3-way valve that may be sticking?? Is this some odd setting on the boiler that hasn't kicked in before??
Why do I have to keep (around six times in the last few days) bleeding the bathroom radiators and also topping up the boiler pressure when there is NO SIGN of a leak anywhere?
I'm totally baffled.
Everything worked up as expected up to the long lay-off (March - October) but now something is screwy!
Any thoughts / help / advice gratefully accepted.
XRD
Apologies in advance if I use the incorrect terminology in describing the problem.
First, some History.
The current system is a WB Greenstar 8300iW 30 S (or maybe 35 S) condensing boiler. No cold-water header tank in loft, not a combi-boiler (we have a hot water tank in the airing cupboard). This runs a total of 13 radiators over 3 floors. Top floor is a separate zone (with its own programmer and wall-mounted thermostat). A second zone (for the middle and basement floor) has a thermostat that is wall-mounted in the hallway on the middle floor. Boiler is in the basement. For future reference I'll refer to the floors as floor 0 (basement), floor 1 (main living floor) and floor 2 (bedrooms at top of house).
This was piped up and confgured as above by British Gas around 25 years ago when we installed an Ideal Mimimiser boiler (what a dog that turned out to be). With no changes to the pipework or zoning (as far as I remember), it was replaced by a Vaillant Ecotec which worked for the next 11 years faultlessly between 2009-2020 until a single and catastrophic heat-exchanger failure in May 2020 killed it.
In May 2020 (mid-pandemic) the Ecotec failed and we had the Worcester Bosch Greenstar fitted. Apart from some fancy new pipework around the boiler, no changes were made to the system configuration (as far as I know).
We have used the system since the BG install of 1997 as follows:
We have separate temperarure and time settings for floors 0 & 1 - controlled by programmer/timer and wall thermostat in the hallway (floor 1). Floor 2 has its own time and temperature settings controlled by a separate timer/programmer and wall thermostat.
We could have the heating on on floors 0 & 1 and off on floor 2, on on floor 2 and off on floors 0 & 1 or all three floors being heated.
This is how our heating has worked from 1997 until mid-October 2021 when something has happened.
Due to the mild spring / summer / sutumn this year, the heating (on all floors) has basically been off since March. We have had domestic hot water (provided by the bolier) throughout with no issues.
Come to the first week of October 2021 and whilst floors 0 and 1 work as expected and we continue to get hot water as normal, floor 2 is experiencing issues.
To explain (in the following, I'm referring to floor 2 only unless otherwise stated).
Yesterday morning, both bathroom radiatiors were cold. Checked timer & stat - both calling for heat. Checked boiler - cold. Bled both bathroom radiators (although no water came out). Very puzzled. Boiler was reporting LoPr so water pressure was brought up to above 1bar.
Bled all radiators on floor 2.
We are out all day. Fitst thing I did when we came home (and before putting the heating on for floors 0 and 1) was put the heating on for floor 2.
Success - radiatiors became very toasty to the touch (both bathroom radiatios needed a lot of bleeding).
This morning - same scenario. Both programmer and stat on floor 2 calling for heat but boiler is off Went into the L.A Service Function and 1-A1 current status is 203 meaning a"bolier is in standby, no heat energy demand".
Currently, whilst writing this on floor 2, my feet are cold and the radiators cold. Programmer and thermostat are on (stat is set to 26C) but rads on floors 0 and 1 are hot.
Is this a faulty sensor?? Is this a faulty 3-way valve that may be sticking?? Is this some odd setting on the boiler that hasn't kicked in before??
Why do I have to keep (around six times in the last few days) bleeding the bathroom radiators and also topping up the boiler pressure when there is NO SIGN of a leak anywhere?
I'm totally baffled.
Everything worked up as expected up to the long lay-off (March - October) but now something is screwy!
Any thoughts / help / advice gratefully accepted.
XRD
