Very cold house!

Why does the central heating always pack up when it’s blooming freezing outside?

I had a Honeywell 3 port valve that worked faultlessly for over 20 years before giving up. I’m guessing that is the problem again as I’ve now had 3 in the past 6 years.
They don’t make stuff like they used to anymore 

I just feel in need of a grump

Our heating packed up back in February during one of the really cold spells. The plumber said the fan had gone on our 15 year old boiler, £480 for a new one or £2k for a new boiler. We chose the latter. A couple of months on, when the outside temperatures rose, we discover we can't have hot water without the C/H being on. Plumber says it a boiler fault, boiler company came out and say it's an installation fault, plumber comes back and says it's a wiring fault, electrician comes out and says it's a plumbing fault. They kind of agree it's the motorised valve at fault (a Honeywell one that was replaced 4 years ago). It will take a month for them to get the new one and install it. The cost is eyewatering,  at over double what I paid for my first flat.

I'll be a little unhappy if they don't resolve the issue this time 

My Honeywell motorised valve failed recently causing our heating to be on all the time irrespective of the thermostat.  The plumber got a valve by the following day and the total bill was around £150.  I also seen them in B & Q recently.  He only replace the electronic part leaving the part the water runs through intact. Took him all of twenty minutes all in.

Slaphead wrote:My Honeywell motorised valve failed recently causing our heating to be on all the time irrespective of the thermostat.  The plumber got a valve by the following day and the total bill was around £150.  I also seen them in B & Q recently.  He only replace the electronic part leaving the part the water runs through intact. Took him all of twenty minutes all in.

Thanks, that's cheered me up

Think I'm growing donkeys ears

The Honeywell and Danfoss (1st a metal cover, 2nd plastic) motor heads are available separately from the valve. My new house had one of its Danfoss heads fail after 3 years, the plastic hook anchoring the return spring had snapped. A bodge with new hole and a tyrap fixed it and might have stayed that way until I found you can by new Motörheads 

Having had quite a few of these fail I’ve now become a bit of an expert at fixing them!
9 times out of 10 (obviously not in your case HF) it is the motor inside the motor head that fails as many are cheap Chinese motors that tend to last a couple of years at best. This one from Screwfix is supposed to be of a higher quality and is what I fitted back in February.

It is a pretty easy job but obviously DO NOT attempt if not competent.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/drayton-synchronous-motor/28670?_requestid=44763#_=p

Our old oil boiler totally died a couple of weeks ago, decided to switch to gas and ordered an 45kw Worcester 8000  Cost £4500 including fitting but hopefully the bills going forward will be better. Now have a tank with 1000 litres of heating oil to get rid of, he who takes the tank gets the oil for free!
Will try facebook marketplace or gumtree, how many people will say "Yes please I want the oil for free but not the tank".

If in a naughty mood, you'd find most older diesels will lap it up quite gratefully!! (Hence why CH oil gets stolen)
When we had a farm we had to declare that the heating oil was not to be used in road vehicles.
Heating oil is basically kerosene.
On 150Kw diesel power plants we had for aircraft ground power, the filler cap had "Diesel or Avtur" on a label by it. Avtur is also kerosene! No changes to engine setting just pour in whatever fuel was available.

You can indeed run a diesel on heating kerosene with caveats. Apart from dyes diesel contains various lubricants which kerosene lacks. It is possible to replace them by adding in automatic transmission fluid but only in an emergency. I suspect somewhere on line you could find the quantities.

Engines that can run on both fuels will be engineered to do so with sealed or self lubricating bearings and others that are engine oil fed.