M’aidez

[Jean-F]

I need the input of you obviously far more intelligent, and all knowing guys who regularly contribute here.
This seems relatively simple to me, but my wife insists that she knows better, which to be fair, has often been the case in the past, she’s no dumbo.
The question is about central heating controls.
If I feel a little too warm, I’ll sometimes go to the thermostat and turn it down below the red mark.
Within minutes, the heat dissipates, and I’m, well WE are more comfortable.
My wife insists that this is a false economy, and that despite the fact that the radiators eventually cool all the way down, the green light is illuminated on the controls, which means that the gas fired CH is working away silently, and adding to the heating bill.
To my simple mind, the fact that the rads are throwing out no heat means that the system is NOT working away, sending hot water to the rads, and heating the house, but I’d be happy for her to be proved right.
Maybe I’m missing something glaringly obvious.

 

[Jean-F]

Boilers are either on or off, they don't regulate temperature.

Okay, that I understand, but if the green light is on, indicating that the boiler is on, but the thermostat has returned all the rads to cold, is the boiler still using the gas that it was using to heat the water in the rads?
I can’t see that it is, but if I’m wrong, just tell me, I will have learned something new.

Have you never stood next to your gas fired boiler and listened to the gas firing up or turning off?

I have heard it fire up, but I don’t think I’ve been standing near the boiler when the timer kicks in, and it turns off, I’m guessing that the low humming noise ceases.

Having read the OP, I disagree.

I’m guessing that you mean that she’s wrong, maybe you don’t mean that, but if you do, I’d appreciate you just saying so, as all I wanted to know was, is the boiler working, and using money, even though the rads are full of cold water?
You may disagree with my saying that she’s no dumbo, that’s your prerogative, it certainly won’t upset either me nor upset her.
In all the years that I’ve known her, she’s had maybe two lapses on the intelligence front, the first was when after five or six months of dating her, I suggested that she move in with me, and she agreed.
The second was some ten years down the line, I said that I thought that it would be a good idea to get married, and once again, blinded by what a nice guy I am, she said, “Yes, that sounds like a great idea.”

 

[Jean-F]

Nothing wrong with asking questions dude, if anyone tells you you're asking stupid questions tell them to **** off.

Anyway, giz a photo of this green light you're talking about, as well as your thermostat. Then I can explain it better

Thank you kindly Diddums, but here’s where I display my own dumbness, I can take the photos okay, but I’m unsure of the procedure for uploading them on to a post, although I’ve done it on another Forum, which has a an easy method of doing it.
On the reply, or quote and reply page, it has a feature for uploading photos, click on image, insert in post.
The brains of the outfit has just left, to go see Frankie Valli at the O2 with her sister-in-law, I’ll lean on her expertise later, but the green light(s), are on the timer in the airing cupboard which houses the boiler.
The left green light is for the HW, on 24/7, the right green light is for the CH, on a timer, comes on from 05.00 until 06.00, then on at 17.30 until 22.30, next to both CH and HW are push-in switches, to over ride the system, i.e., if I come in at 15.00 and feel cold, I can push the CH switch in, the green light comes on, and in a short while the rads start to warm up.

If the radiators are cooling down then the boiler obviously is not burning any gas

That’s what I thought, but I needed someone to say it, in an effort to prove to her that if the boiler wasn’t sending HW to the rads, then the boiler wasn’t using gas, thanks.

 

[Jean-F]

OP she's preparing to divorce you.

Time to lawyer up. Delete facebook and hit the gym.

Nice guidance, tongue in cheek or otherwise, but although I may not be the God’s gift that I thought I was back in the eighties when I first bought her a drink in The Raymouth Tavern, Bermondsey, I honestly can’t see divorce on the cards.
I still have the address and contact details of the solicitor who acted for my first wife in our divorce, and although he didn’t take me to the cleaners, even after urging her to let him, he was that good, and thorough, that if I ever needed a lawyer, I’d call his office.
Never been remotely interested in Facebook, always seeing it, rightly or wrongly, as for 14 y.o. girls, and think I can safely swerve the gym also, at 73 and a bit kg, with an 86 cm waist, and just about 1m 75cm, a daily 35 minute circuit of Southwark Park keeps me in reasonable nick.

 

[Jean-F]

If you can post a photo with a loaf of Hovis next to the boiler we can probably work out what's going on. The hovis is to ensure that it's actually your boiler, as per the forum rules.

Will a freshly baked loaf of cranberry and pecan sourdough suffice?
My wife prefers the wholemeal sourdough, but I’m not into brown bread, no matter how much healthier it is alleged to be.
I WILL locate the model number, even if I have to climb into the airing cupboard with the torch app on my phone, strike that, even if I have to steady the step ladder, while SHE climbs into the cupboard.

 

[Jean-F]

You don't need to, the radiators are cold, man. The boiler is off.

Thank Christ for that, I was just trying to comply with Kol’s post # 15.

 

[Jean-F]

Burning gas generates heat.
If the boiler is generating heat, that heat energy must be constantly transferred to something or else the boiler would quickly fail/catch on fire/explode.
If that heat energy is not being transferred inside your house, it must be being transferred outside of your house.

Your wife is arguing that the boiler is burning gas to generate heat and then continuously dumping that heat outside. Why does she think the boiler is built to routinely work that way in normal circumstances?

Unless something is badly wrong with your central heating or the central heating manufacturer is illegally conspiring with the gas provider to hugely inflate bills, when the boiler is switched on and working it will burn gas only as and when required to maintain the temperature set by the thermostat. The green light will be showing that the boiler is available to use, not that it's currently burning gas. If it's x degrees where the thermosensor is and you set the desired temp to <x degrees, nothing will happen. The boiler will not burn gas because there's no need for additional heat.

If you stand next to the boiler while it's burning gas and someone turns the thermostat temp down below the current temp, what you should hear is this:

1) A short delay (probably just seconds) while the new required temperature is sensed and the system confirms that the current temp is above the required temp.
2) The gas stops burning.
3) The water pump continues functioning for a short period of time, circulating hot water around the system for a while. Probably a minute or two.

This happens all the time unless your central heating system is incapable of heating your house to the desired temperature. That's the only situation in which it would be constantly burning gas when the central heating system is on.

You could also confirm this by looking at the gas meter (listening to it would probably work as well). Gas being used...thermostat turned down below current temp...a few seconds later the gas stops being used.

EDIT: My central heating system is on almost every second of the year. It's only off during power cuts and maybe during part of the annual servicing. Most of the time it uses no gas at all because the master thermostat is set to 8C and my house is above 8C. Or maybe it's 5C, I'm not sure. It's a "just in case" thing to prevent water pipes freezing.

EDIT: Strictly speaking having the central heating on but not supplying heat (because you've turned the thermostat below the current temperature) does increase your bills - it increases your electricity consumption by the amount required to run the boiler control systems. A quick look online shows consumption around 6 ro 7W, which sounds right to me. It's a simple little board. That would increase your electricity bill by about 15p a week. Oh noes!

Thanks Angilion,
To paraphrase Matthew Modine's character, in "Memphis Belle", "You have dropped it straight into the pickle barrel", and succinctly summed it up.
The only part I would take issue with, and then only very, very slightly, is when you said that my wife was arguing that the boiler was burning gas, "and then dumping it outside."
She wasn't saying that per se, but that construction could have been put on it, she was saying, that to her, the fact that the green light was on, was an indication that the boiler was heating gas.
With the benefit of hindsight, and armed with your input, I should have asked her, "If the boiler is generating heat, where is that heat going?"
An uneasy peace reigns chez nous right now, but it met initial resistance, when i handed her the iPad, to read the first batch of replies, backing up my theory, that if the rads had cold water, then no heat was being generated by the boiler, she read maybe 4 or 5, then cast the iPad unceremoniously aside, saying, "I'm not interested, this stuff bores me, I have no inclination to read your puerile Forums, I have more pressing things to do, like check my Facebook page."
I think that a line of posts, proving her theory wrong, had pushed her over the edge, so she had crept back to where a lot of women appear to seek solace, her Facebook pages, pausing only to lash out at my "obsession", looking at Forum pages for perhaps 35-40 minutes per day.