tpow wrote:
My father in law is away from his home for a while and I decided to reduce
his house central heating ON/OFF times during this period. Currently he has
it running ON day and night, HW & CH...........

In UK midsummer you don't even need that. When there is a risk of frost
it is worth having the CH system on for a short spell morning and
evening. Frozen pipes and unoccupied house spells disaster.

I now have both water and heating coming on for 1/2 hours morning and
evening just to keep it ticking over. Even though the system is OFF with
boiler definitely shut down, the pump still runs. It is not running water
around the CH system but just circulating it around the local HW tank
pipework but not via the boiler.

This doesn't sound like it is correctly installed. The pump should only
run when the CH system is actively engaged in heating up the house.

It is a Sentinel Housing property and the heating system was
installed/upgraded a couple of years ago to bring it up to current standards
and legislation.

So is this the modern way, with the pump continually running.

No. But there might be an override switch somewhere if the house also
has a back boiler with an open fire or a wood stove. If that override
switch is closed then the CH pump will run irrespective of whether or
not the main boiler is active. So that you can circulate warm water from
the alternative boiler to the CH radiators.

Regards,
Martin Brown
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **