How can I find out how my heating works?

Cheetah Designs · 26 Nov 2011 at 16:35

Basically, I have a water heater and a water tank.

When the "hot water" is on I guess it fills up the tank with hot water. What about central heating, is it likely that goes directly from the water heater to the heating or will that go through the tank aswell?

shoes · 26 Nov 2011 at 16:36

Turn heating on - see if house gets warmer

Cheetah Designs · 26 Nov 2011 at 16:38

shoes said:
Turn heating on - see if house gets warmer

How will that tell me if its going in the tank or not?

ste_bla · 26 Nov 2011 at 17:21

I doubt it as when our rad leaked was really manky water, where as fill up bath from water tank it is not

Morv · 26 Nov 2011 at 18:05

If you have a oil or gas fired central heating boiler, i would be suprised if it didn't heat your hot water cylinder. Have you got a programmer on the wall somewhere that you can change from auto to 24hr?

Dr.EM · 26 Nov 2011 at 18:10

I think usually in central heating systems the water is pumped through the radiators and boiler and it's just the same water making a loop over and over. Otherwise you'd be throwing away your expensive heated water all the time, which is unfortunately what happens to shower water! It explains why the water is so manky if you bleed a rad too, because it's probably been there for years :eek:

It'd make sense that the thermostat system would compare the input water temperature and output water temperature to adjust the burner too, but I'm not certain that's what it actually does.

EDIT: May not be useful, we don't have any hot water storage here so I'm basing it on how the system here works. I'd guess the heating 'ring' and hot tap water 'ring' are seperate though, as they seem to be here, and that no, the radiator water doesn't go through the tank.

Morv · 26 Nov 2011 at 18:17

If you have a indirect hot water cylinder, then the heating will heat up the hot water cylinder. A indirect cylinder has a coil inside it and 2 connections on the side of the cylinder. The heating water will go around the coil and it is seperate from the domestic hot water.

Usel · 26 Nov 2011 at 18:22

You could turn off the immersion heater for the hot water tank and see if you continue to get hot water.

Danm54 · 26 Nov 2011 at 19:05

Morv said:
If you have a indirect hot water cylinder, then the heating will heat up the hot water cylinder. A indirect cylinder has a coil inside it and 2 connections on the side of the cylinder. The heating water will go around the coil and it is seperate from the domestic hot water.

What he said ^

I assume the water heater is a boiler?

The boiler heats the water which gets pumped around either the hot water cylinder or the heating. Now it could be controlled by one motorised valve (y plan) or two motorised valves (s plan) or if its old it'll have a pump for the heating and will gravitate around the hot water.

Or it could have a pump pack (think thats what they're called) which is 2 pumps on the same cast body, one for hot water and one for heating. Rare though cause they're crap!

Could also have a single feed (primatic) cylinder where you only have one header tank that feeds both the heating and hot water, they are separated by an air gap in the cylinder though so once filled they stay separate.

Basically, theres loads of different systems but they all work the same way. Kind of...

haaammit · 26 Nov 2011 at 20:54

Do you want to know if your heating works or how your heating works?

Slam62 · 26 Nov 2011 at 20:59

take it all apart and put it back together