How often should the burner on my boiler come on.

[Officer M168]

When i moved into rented accommodation our boiler was not working. The landlord sorted the boiler but one problem was the radiators gave off enough heat but the never reached the temp (able to touch only for a few seconds due to how hot they were) that my friends and family radiators did.
No i did realise that the burner was kicking in every 10 mins, it would reach upto 80 on the temp scale then settle to 50 the 10 mins later would kick in again up to 80 then drop to 50.
I've just recived a letter from E-on that my direct debit is changing to £117 a month (an increase from the £56 we were paying before)
So when i looked online at our bill we where £300 odd pound in debit.
So i was expecting the most of it to be electric as fire & oven is electric and the only thing gas is the central heating.
Well the electric was £90 odd & the Gas was £200 odd.
I'm wondering if the Burner kicking in evey 10 mins and the radiators not being hot to touch was the problem and if it is what could be the cause.

[plazmoid]

Sounds to me like the boiler is very, very inefficient. the radiators i have no clue about.

[whatsupdoc]

When my boiler starts from cold, it runs continuously for about 30mins to get up to temperature, shuts down for about 5mins and then flares again for around 10 mins, and so on.

The timing will depend a lot on how many radiators you have, the room temperature (i.e. how fast the radiators radiate) and the setting of the boiler thermostat, which should determine how hot your rads get.

[Kebabhead]

Are all the rads getting hot or just some of them?

Are they hot at the bottom when you touch and warm at the top?

If so then they have air in them and need bleeding

[neilios]

I take it you don't have a roomstat ,and the bolier is cycling on and off on it own internal boiler stat .If the rads a re cold there probably sludged up ,best to get rid and put some new ones in ,need some trv's aswell .

[depot]

what's the name of the boiler ?

[Officer M168]

heat is the same top or bottom its just not hot to touch, we have TRV's on them all of them are turned to 5 (highest).
And no we don't have a roomstat.
The boiler we have is "Main Combi 30 He"

[depot]

Originally Posted by Officer M168

heat is the same top or bottom its just not hot to touch, we have TRV's on them all of them are turned to 5 (highest).
And no we don't have a roomstat.
The boiler we have is "Main Combi 30 He"

That's a good boiler, if the rads are the same heat top to bottom it's unlikely there blocked.
Look at the thermostat on the front of the boiler, it might be set to low.