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The era you describe is unlikely to be 100% mcu controlled, from personal experience, there is usually a transistor circuit that is used as de-bounce, I have seen these early SMT transistors go leaky and cause all sorts of random issues with operation (repaired many of the Vx high end stereos with this issue!).

thankyou very much for taking the time to write that lengthy reply .much appreciated .
so
its not the momentary power  switch for sure as its a removeable facia and the facia works fine on another unit .
i also have another unit that switches on and off fine but has other issues so was hoping i could swap the relevant parts(s) from that into my required unit .this is good cosmetically and has good cassette deck and cd changer  operation on it too (easier than swapping all these onto the other unit for sure !)

Our 24 year old gas fired combi boiler is serviced every year and works a treat. That said, it struggles producing constant water temps because the lazy arses at Southern Water keep.deoppong the pressure 

Who on here as any experience of these?

Looks like our old oil boiler from 1999 is pretty shot, so not worth throwing good money after bad in order to get it to limp on for another couple of years.

We have a plentiful supply of wood, so commercial wood pellets for the biomass boiler would not be required. This would help with running costs.

Also, I believe there is a £5000 government grant available.

Unless the heat exchanger and baffles are completely shot, it's always possible to keep them going for affordable money. All the bits to fix the burner are generally pretty cheap.

There was a programme on a few nights ago and two families who had these air source heat pumps were complaining about how inefficient they were compared to the gas boilers they had previously, the air source pumps were struggling to provide enough warmth and were costing an absolute fortune to run.

An all-too-common story in this country. People slinging in the wrong sized units, usually without determining the requirements of the other elements of the system properly. The problem is that gas boilers are easy when it comes this, you just sling in one that's a bit bigger than it needs to be, and bobs-your-uncle. Sure it runs slightly inefficiently, but no one ever really notices.

With heat pumps it makes a big difference. The technology is proven to be effective, if deployed correctly, we just don't really have the knack here yet. Or the housing stock in many cases.

Lots of generalisations, but...

The switch is usually connected directly to a microprocessor (uP). The uP is powered all the time, even when the radio is off. There are usually several operating modes, including a sleep mode where the power consumed is minimised. Pressing the switch generates an interrupt which 'wakes' the uP up from sleep mode, and it then turns power on (or off) to the rest of the circuitry.

The uP doesn't actually switch the power - that is done by a separate power regulator/control chip. The uP simply asks the regulator to turn on or off. Older designs will be a simple 'on/off' wire from the uP to the regulator. Newer designs may have a digital comunicaiton bus between the two.

So, if it were me, I'd make sure the on/off switch is working correctly, and the on/off signal is getting to the uP. Not much you can do about the uP itself, but if you can find an online circuit diagram for your radio you might be able to find the connection from the uP to the power regulator. The regulator will be quite a large device usually bolted to the metal chassis of the radio. They dissipate a lot of power so get hot. You can sometimes read the part number off them and locate replacements. 

Having said all that, if the radio is intermittent then chances are the uP and Regulator are Ok - silicon stuff is pretty reliable and unlikely to misbehave if correctly connected. It'll likely be a switch, crystal, resistor or capacitor playing up.

I have a 33kW gas boiler pumping 10 radiators in my house. The flow temperature is set at 70° and, when it's cold outside, it's going pretty much full chat 24/7. Ok, the house is warm, but I know I'm throwing at least 50% of the heat generated by the boiler straight out of the windows and through the roof and walls. I'm paying £240 a month for the privilege.
The cost of insulating the house? £48,000 when the last EPC was done 12 years ago.
I also have no off street parking to plug in an EV. So I'm basically one of the c.40% of people who live in this country that the likes of Ed Millipede pretends don't exist. Leaky house and no off street parking. That's why heat pumps and EVs can never get us anywhere near net zero. Pie in the sky.

Opti's place is quite large, from what I understand, and for any kind of heat pump to have a chance of actually heating the place he'd need underfloor heating as a minimum.
I've watched several videos and tv shows about these contraptions, and they only ever work with underfloor heating, huge radiators and efficient thermal insulation. The precludes about 90% of British homes.

Only one experience, neighbor had one (bearing in mind this was 10+ yrs ago). It was a right PITA. It was fed by wood pellets, so needed a massive hopper with a screw arrangement to pull them into the boiler. It was dead fussy on pellet size or it got jammed up. Dead fussy on pellet water content (too high and it gave out break all heat) so you either had to time your deliveries perfectly or use an electric drier to keep the water content down in your pellet store.

In your shoes I'd fit a new oil boiler, if one was required. Or a heat pump if your house is a)well insulated and b) you can find someone who *actually* knows what they're doing to do the heat loss calcs and the install.

No direct experience myself, but a friend rented a farmhouse out in the sticks which had just had one fitted a few years ago and she said they were going through wood and pellets like they were going out of fashion. 

A couple of years ago I considered having a wood burner with a back boiler to run the radiators, but after some investigation decided that I'd be spending more on wood than gas as you have to have burning really well to heat the water, so never bothered.

I'm sure there are plenty of YouTube vids about biomass boilers giving the pros and cons. 

Have you thought about an air source heat pump? 

I tend to think it is best to give them a wide berth. They seem compromised much of the time.

. 

There was a programme on a few nights ago and two families who had these air source heat pumps were complaining about how inefficient they were compared to the gas boilers they had previously, the air source pumps were struggling to provide enough warmth and were costing an absolute fortune to run.