The mystery of the new boiler

We seemed to have finally sorted out the problem with the central heating. In October both the Fox & I wrote in our blogs about the difficulties we were having with our new boiler. We had a fiddle with the controls & it seemed to settle down. Then it started playing up again. Once more it started coming on when the timer said otherwise. What is more the light on the timer control panel didn't come on to indicate the boiler was working yet the radiators were red hot.

Yesterday we decided to get onto the experts. I rang Eaga who had installed it. They put me on to a technician. He gently questioned me, made me go through all the settings on the control panel. All was correct.

Then he asked where the boiler was sited. I duly said in the laundry room, attached to the house but accessed through a separate outside door.

"Ah. That will be it," he exclaimed as light dawned. "The boiler itself has its own thermostat. If the ambient temperature around it falls below 5C, it automatically switches itself on. It's to avoid the boiler freezing up."

So now we have a thermometer in the laundry room to check if the temperature is getting that low. We also closed the window in the hope of keeping the room warmer, then the house wouldn't have to be quite so sweltering.

It has to admitted we have been having some cold days, & nights especially, of late. I looked at the outside thermometer attached to the shed this morning just before I sat down to write this. Even then it had only just warmed up to -6C. It had been colder earlier on when I first got up.

Now we're keeping our fingers crossed that closing the window has been sufficient to stop the boiler from going on. Otherwise I can see this new boiler is going to be a darn sight more expensive to run than the old one, as it will be running 24 hours a day by the time we get fully into winter.

The man did suggest we had a few options if it did not. We could try boxing the boiler in. That should keep the ambient temperature higher. Alternatively we could have a radiator installed in the laundry room. There's the option of just paying for the extra gas, reassured that we will at least be warm. Finally there's the drastic option of moving the boiler inside, though where I'm not quite sure. It would have to go on an outside wall & most of our outside walls are broken up with interior walls, fitted cupboards, windows & door frames. And a boiler is not the most attractive thing to have in the midst lounge! We'll just have to see how it goes on.