Are you damaging your heating boiler with a bad water system
Are you damaging your heating boiler with a bad water system
There are countless products available in the market that you can add to your heating system to ensure that it runs properly, and there are several other products that can do work for you even in standalone mode. Irregardless of which you choose, you should take proper care of your heating system, only then can it perform efficiently. Environmental agencies and local authorities constantly advise us to economise our carbon footprint by switching off unneeded lights and electric devices and by setting our thermostats at lower temperatures. All the above enlisted ways effectively save energy, protect the environment and bring down the electricity bill. But how about making your central heating system operate more effectively? The accumulation of sludge and limescale deposits in your central heating system will reduce its efficiency.
To prevent a mass of sludge and limescale from building up in your system, especially where the water is hard, you must try water treatment.
Water treatment looks after your system in more than one way. Various products of water treatment are available like electronic line and magnetic filters, noise reducers, gunk removers, anti-freeze and scale reducers and inhibitors.
You can either get hard or soft water in UK, depending on the area you live in. Hard water exposes you to limescale — your kettle, shower head and taps being the most probable areas where you first notice limescale masses. Any collection of limescale will make your system run less economically and therefore increase your heating bill. The energy cost in a boiler cylinder with limescale lining can be 40 percent more than a clean boiler leading to more expensive energy bills. Limescale is nothing, but calcium deposits in your central heating system. Soft water which contains less calcium salts is less prone to this scale formation, however it is advisable to test the water and take precautions.
Water treatment products act by modifying the water borne salts and preventing harmful reactions. These products can neutralize limescale, loosen and remove hard deposits or even maintain the residual salts in suspension form to be flushed out periodically.
There are chemical test kits which will measure the ph and chloride levels and also the iron and copper levels so that you can measure the probable corrosion potential and rate.
The first thing that you need to do is to determine whether your system has been installed by a competent person or not; if different metals like aluminum and copper or brass are connected together, corrosion will set in immediately. The service technician fitting your gas connections should possess CORGI certification, this is now called Gas Safe and is a legal requirement.
If you anticipate hard water problems, you can fit out your new central heating system with a suitable water treatment attachment. If you are updating your existing system you would be looking at flushing the whole system before adding any water treatment solutions.
The central heating system will take water from the main pipeline, and in this line, even if a functional water treatment method is already there to tackle the problem of hard water this method will be of no use for your heating system. They will help make detergents and soaps lather more readily but do not help in the fight to get your heating system working efficiently.
The three main things that you need to prevent are corrosion, limescale and biological growth.
The first problem that you may have to face is corrosion, it can start as soon as the system is installed and filled with water. Due to corrosion gunk is produced, which in its turn creates cold spots in the radiator and stops circulation. Pinholes can develop in the radiators which can make the boiler noisy when heating up.
In hard water areas the calcium and magnesium in the water causes limescale. Once the water is heated it leaves deposits of these minerals which form a hard crust, building up over time and blocking pipes etc. This can also make the system noisy and uneconomical, you will be paying for gas that does not heat your home.
You should also be wary of biological growth. Minute organisms can enter through the vents and storage tanks of the boiler. The biological growth advances rapidly in the form of a slimy lining. This material can really make your system under perform by clogging up the pipework.
You can learn more about these problems on the internet. Take some time to look through this. Kick-start with the manufacturers and their web sites. Below is a list of manufacturers and some of the popular products they have available. Forums and Blogs are another good source of free advice and wholesome information; you can also use these to directly get in touch with the suppliers.
Now you should be able to choose and install an effective heating system which is enjoyable, healthy and cost-efficient on both kinds of green!.