How your topical water can cut your energy cost-efficiency and hurt your gas boiler

Nowadays a typical house is fitted with dozens of automatic appliances and systems to provide householders with a convenient life. In either case, your system will be well-prepared to work efficiently if you take the time to maintain it. 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 tips are not only good for the environment, but also great for keeping your bills down at times of high energy prices. What is the best way to get your central heating system to work more economically? With the accumulation of the likes of limescale and gunk in your system will make it less efficient.

It usually happens in areas where hard water is present, you can go for water treatment to avoid these deposits.

Water treatment refers to several aspects of taking care of your central heating 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.

Living in the UK means that depending on whereabouts you are in the country, your water can range from hard to soft. Living in a hard water area means that you are prone to limescale your kettle probably being the first place that you will notice limescale deposits as well as on your showerhead and taps. These deposits decrease the cost-efficiency of your system which in turn increases your household bills. A thin layer of limescale can increase your fuel bills by 40 percent. Basically, limescale is just the build up of calcium deposits. These problems are not seen in areas that get soft water, however in case of any doubt one should always seek advice.

Most water treatments act by altering the molecular structure of the water and the particles therein and changing the way it behaves. Some will change one structure for another, others remove the offending structure and another will stop them from being able to make a solid leaving them in suspension.

If you want to determine the corrosion rate inside your heating system, you can do so by using these chemical kits which measure the chloride, copper and iron levels and measure the pH.

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 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. If you are updating your existing system you would be looking at flushing the whole system before adding any water treatment solutions.

It is worth noting that mains water supplies heating systems, but that any system you use to soften water will not help with any central heating problems that you may be having. You will be able to make lather with detergents and soaps more easily but your heating system will still have problems with efficiency.

Limescale formation, acidic corrosion and bio-chemical sludge are the main causes of heating system damage.

From the very instant your heating system is in place corrosion can begin. One of the symptoms of corrosion is cold spots in your radiators because gunk in the system prevents the water circulating properly. Pinholes can appear in the radiators and if untreated the boiler can start making noises.

Limescale results from the presence of calcium and magnesium in water, hard water regions have these elements more than the rest of the country. Once the water is heated it leaves deposits of these minerals which form a hard crust, building up over time and blocking pipes etc. Limescale can again make the gas central heating system noisy.

You should also be wary of biological growth. This tends to get into the system by open tanks. After managing to enter the system, it spreads by creating slime and gunk. It can also cover the inside of the pipework resulting in clogs and negatively affecting the operation of the whole system.

A lot of free advice is available on the internet on how to get rid of biological growth. Take out time to go through a few pages of free advice. It is recommended that you begin with the producers of the various systems. Below is a list of manufacturers and some of the popular products they have available. Blogs are another great source of free advice and information or contact a supplier with any queries that you may have.

All the best with your treatment and let’s hope you can get your heating systems working as expeditiously as possible to save you some hard cash.

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