Heating - pump on continuously, boiler timed?

S

sadie

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Moving into a rented house with oil heating. The boiler is on a timer, yet there is just a separate plain switch on/off for what I presume is the pump as you can hear it coming on. So if I want to have the heating on a timer, I need to have the pump on continously - don't I? Is it okay to do this?
 
you would need to have the pump re-wired to come on with the heating, this shouldn't be a big job
 
The pump will need to be rewired.

Once your heating is off, the cylinder is full of hot water. If th pump continues to run it will aftertime pump cold water through coil in cylinder and draw heat from it. Not good.
 
my personal choice if the pump is close to the boiler would be to rewire it using a pipe stat. At least then when the boiler stops firing under demand the 15 minutes or so of heat still travelling through the boiler baffles and walls is pumped into the house regardless rather than being left in the boiler too cool and go to waste.
 
Thanks. As its a rented house, the owners may or may not want to do any extra work. If it was just fitting a timer on the boiler switch we might pay for that ourselves.
 
I have a related question.

If the pump is on, it is sending heated water to the tank, upstairs in my case.
At the same time, it is heating the central heating.

If I wont want it to heat the water tank (I use immersion), would it be be more efficient to turn the pump off permanently?

Ie, I am thinking that more oil will be used to heat the water for the central heating PLUS the water tank. No need for full tank of water to be heated, as it is only for washing up / washing hands etc (have electric shower).

Or am I wrong?
 
I am sure it is cheaper to heat water by oil than electrics.

IF you turn off pump permanently your rads won't heat. If you look at your cylinder you should see two pipes enter it from the side, they will be about 18" apart. On the bottom one you should see a valve. If you close this valve you close heating circuit to cylinder, (similair to turning off rad).

IF you don't have a valve there, fit one. It's the easiest way to stop cylinder heating by way of the boiler.
 
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