Where you live can impact upon your central heating boiler
Where you live can impact upon your central heating boiler
Nowadays a typical house is fitted with dozens of automatic appliances and systems to provide homeowners with a convenient life. Any household system, be it a refrigerator or television set or electrical wiring, will function better and more economically if it is well maintained. 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. These energy saving hints are not only good for the environment, but also great for keeping your costs down at times of high energy prices. But how about making your central heating system operate more effectively? The accumulation of gunk and limescale deposits in your central heating system will reduce its efficiency.
Whether your water is hard or soft can play a crucial role in the life of your central heating system and water treatment can help here – to extend the healthy working of your system with products such as Fernox.
The term ‘water treatment’ is one that is used to describe various methods of taking care of your system. A wide range of water treatment products including scale reducers and inhibitors, magnetic and electronic lime fighters, gunk removers, noise reducers and anti-freeze are available.
If you are living in UK, you should first ascertain the hardness of the water you are getting. If you spot limescale formation inside your kettle or bath taps, there is probably hard water running in your taps. Central Heating bills grow as a result of efficiency reduction caused by limescale. The energy cost in a boiler cylinder with limescale lining can be 40 percent more than a clean boiler leading to more expensive gas bills. Limescale is nothing, but calcium deposits in your central heating system. Those who live in soft water areas need not take quite so many precautions but it is always wise to seek advice if you are unsure.
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.
To begin with, you should make certain that your system has been assembled by a qualified individual, for example it’s important to have the simple knowledge that connecting aluminum and copper or brass triggers a corrosive reaction because that’s what happens when different metals are joined. The service technician fitting your gas connections should possess CORGI certification, this is now called Gas Safe and is a legal requirement.
If you plan ahead of time while having a new system assembled, you will be able to identify the water treatments you need and have some of them installed with your system. Before using a water treatment remedy on your present system, ensure that the entire heating system is completely flushed out.
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. These solutions can make detergent and soaps to lather effortlessly, but they will not be able to help the heating system to work efficiently.
Corrosion, limescale and biological growth are the three things that you should be looking to limit or stop from occurring.
Corrosion can start from the moment the system is set up and filled with water from the mains supply. Due to corrosion gunk is produced, which in its turn creates cold spots in the radiator and stops circulation. Gradual pitting can perforate the metal piping, causing the boiler or radiators to rattle.
Hard water has a higher concentration of calcium and magnesium salts which cause limescale deposits within the system. The deposits thicken when the water is heated, this leads to formation of a hard crust over a period of time which eventually blocks pipes etc. Again, the symptom of this can be a heating system that makes noise.
Biological growth inside the system is another hazard that must be prevented. This tends to get into the system by open tanks. Once in the system it breeds producing slime and sludge. In addition to the tank, they grow into the pipes and block them; thereby the efficiency of the system is further reduced.
There is a lot of free advice on the internet. Take a look at this for a few minutes to improve your awareness. Kick-start with the manufacturers and their web sites. Browse through some of the reputed water treatment companies and their acclaimed products on this page. Blogs also offer ample source of free help and information or you can contact the companies with any questions.
So wish you all the best for your water treatment, make sure you chose the one that is effective and at the same time shrinks your household costs by helping you maintain an efficient central heating system.