France - British CH system help sought!

[PuzzledinFrance]

Sometimes in life you kick yourself, I bought a house in the Lot area last year, had been owned for 30 years by a british builder. Turns out that all aspects of the C/H system are British, including boiler and pipe sizes. It's unvented with a very basic control (old landis & Gyr unit), there appears to be no 3 way valve but there are two straight through valves, pipes all over the place, two pressure vessels, pressure gauges, placed on various pipes, the wiring junction box is a tuppaware sandwich box with a junction strip floating inside. The wiring, like the plumbing, looks like its been through a tornado with twists bends and crossovers everywhere. So you get the idea.
Caveat emptor, I know.

Now its winter and I find that I cannot control the hot water independently of the heating, so its scalding high pressure water, plus a lot of lpg being burnt. One of the two way valves is fitted to the primary heating input to the tank, unsure if this works, whether it works or not i bet i cant get a replacement over here.

Any UK plumbers/heating engineers in the Lot area who can help me or offer advice? (retired or otherwise!) I dont want to replace the boiler as I have been quoted 10K to replace the boiler with a french oil burner..........

 

[Gasmk1]

photos ? .................

 

[centralheatking]

diagram ? ....would also help ...centralheatking

 

[PETE 123]

I bet you said sacré bleu

 

[centralheatking]

I bet you said sacré bleu

And the French engineer says Demain ..Tomorrow as always never comes. Chking

 

[SimonG]

Just sounds like either the two port valve or head is faulty or the tank thermostat. Time to get out the testers.

 

[king of pipes]

A few pictures would help us direct you better Kop

 

[mattfrance]

One of the two way valves is fitted to the primary heating input to the tank, unsure if this works, whether it works or not i bet i cant get a replacement over here.

yes you can them at all plumbing merchants, Cedeo sell them for 148 euros to the general public, put a plumber will pay half of that.

I dont want to replace the boiler as I have been quoted 10K to replace the boiler with a french oil burner....

That's an, "I'm to busy price", 3K tops

 

[Frelon]

Oh dear, I sympathise, having lived in France for 12 years! First reaction is that a French plumber will not want to get involved!
Some 15 years ago I bought an old village school to convert to our family home and, learning from other Brits mistakes, made the decision to use local artisans to install the electrics and the heating system. The plumber was dual qualified like many in France so for a few days he did electrics and then for a few days did the plumbing.
His company were very responsive (as they were in the next village) to any issues I had! (In actual fact no major issues just a blocked condensate pipe.)
Whilst searching for properties I even came across a house where the DIY Brit had done all the electrics UK Style (ring mains are forbidden in France) with 13 amp sockets!
Your only hope is input from the friendly people on this forum, perhaps a holiday offer may go down well!

 

[centralheatking]

Sometimes in life you kick yourself, I bought a house in the Lot area last year, had been owned for 30 years by a british builder. Turns out that all aspects of the C/H system are British, including boiler and pipe sizes. It's unvented with a very basic control (old landis & Gyr unit), there appears to be no 3 way valve but there are two straight through valves, pipes all over the place, two pressure vessels, pressure gauges, placed on various pipes, the wiring junction box is a tuppaware sandwich box with a junction strip floating inside. The wiring, like the plumbing, looks like its been through a tornado with twists bends and crossovers everywhere. So you get the idea.
Caveat emptor, I know.

Now its winter and I find that I cannot control the hot water independently of the heating, so its scalding high pressure water, plus a lot of lpg being burnt. One of the two way valves is fitted to the primary heating input to the tank, unsure if this works, whether it works or not i bet i cant get a replacement over here.

Any UK plumbers/heating engineers in the Lot area who can help me or offer advice? (retired or otherwise!) I dont want to replace the boiler as I have been quoted 10K to replace the boiler with a french oil burner....

We have asked for a diagram and some pics, also in order to help you more tell us about the lifestyle of your property...do you live there full time, part time, holiday let ? Also what are your intentions keep sell and to whom ...this has import to the advice we can give you. I had a glorious home in VAR in the 80s / 90s and understand French tradesmen well. Centralheatking

 

[PuzzledinFrance]

Sometimes in life you kick yourself, I bought a house in the Lot area last year, had been owned for 30 years by a british builder. Turns out that all aspects of the C/H system are British, including boiler and pipe sizes. It's unvented with a very basic control (old landis & Gyr unit), there appears to be no 3 way valve but there are two straight through valves, pipes all over the place, two pressure vessels, pressure gauges, placed on various pipes, the wiring junction box is a tuppaware sandwich box with a junction strip floating inside. The wiring, like the plumbing, looks like its been through a tornado with twists bends and crossovers everywhere. So you get the idea.
Caveat emptor, I know.

Now its winter and I find that I cannot control the hot water independently of the heating, so its scalding high pressure water, plus a lot of lpg being burnt. One of the two way valves is fitted to the primary heating input to the tank, unsure if this works, whether it works or not i bet i cant get a replacement over here.

Any UK plumbers/heating engineers in the Lot area who can help me or offer advice? (retired or otherwise!) I dont want to replace the boiler as I have been quoted 10K to replace the boiler with a french oil burner....

Sacre bleu was the least of the language used! I had to stip out some cupboards to get to this lot Here are some photos but unsure what help they are. I'll see if I can put a diagram together. From playing around i can confirm that the room stat appears to work correctly as when there is no demand the water does not circulate in the heating system. However the boiler fired up and continued to pump heat into the hw system. The immersion works as does the thermostat which is wired to the immersion, there does not seem to be any cylinder thermostat that controls demand on the boiler, although you will see there is a valve fitted at the top of the hot water cylinder. the little lever on this appears to be detatched inside as it just flops about.

[automerge]1580728114[/automerge]
Whoops those pictures turned up bigger than expected! I have attached a diagram as below as best as I can understand. As you will appreciate I am not qualified to mess around and would much prefer to find someone who can help locally, however that is looking like a fools errand in this locality! I can test a val
[automerge]1580728546[/automerge]
ve control and replace that. However I essentially wanted to understand the way this appears to be configured to you professionals - would independent control of the heating be possible, or am I stuck with this? I don't see the point of the valve on the top of the HW tank (nor what would control this) as whatever I do HW seems to be on if I want CH on.

 

[Gasmk1]

the two post on cylinder controls that and the other controls the heating so you should have independat control of both.

 

[gpbeck]

Looks like he got a mate over and paid him in vin ordinaire.