You central heating system may want you to live somewhere else
You central heating system may want you to live somewhere else
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. It is now well known, thanks to advice given by governments and environmental organisations, that we should save energy wherever possible by turning off lights, washing clothes at lower temperatures, switching TVs off and turning down thermostats. All of these are effective ways of saving energy which will not only help environmentally but also reduce many household energy bills. 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.
It usually happens in areas where hard water is present, you can go for water treatment to avoid these deposits.
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, sludge removers, anti-freeze and scale reducers and inhibitors.
If you are living in UK, you should first ascertain the hardness of the water you are getting. If you find a build up of limescale in your kettle and on your shower head you probable live in a hard water area. Limescale reduces efficiency and adds to heating bills. You may be surprised to hear that you bills can increase by as much as forty percent with just a thin layer of limescale in your hot water cylinder. When calcium carbonate precipitates out of the hard water, it forms limescale inside the boiler. If you live in a soft water region, then you need not worry about limescale that much; however, if you are unsure about the water quality, then without any faltering seek advice.
Most water treatments act by altering the molecular structure of the water and the particles therein and changing the way it behaves. One way of modification is to convert a structure completely to another, another is to take out the mischievous component, and yet another way is to prevent the structure from becoming solid, thus leaving its normal process unrealized.
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. By law, only CORGI registered tradespeople can deal with gas connections, this scheme is now known as Gas Safe.
It is a good idea to plan ahead, if you are having a new system installed, think which water treatment you will require as some can be fitted to your system. If you are updating your existing system you would be looking at flushing the whole system before adding any water treatment solutions.
The mains water supply provides water to the heating systems, one can fix various other systems with the mains supply in order to deal with the problem of hard water, however these systems that soften the water work only for your household, they don’t do much about the problems associated with the central 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.
With regards to heating systems, you have to prevent three important things viz,limescale, corrosion 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. Corrosion produces gunk and this prevents free circulation, this can eventually lead to formation of cold spots on radiators. If left as such, it can lead to the formation of pinholes in the radiator, and it will also make the boiler noisy.
Limescale results from the presence of calcium and magnesium in water, hard water regions have these elements more than the rest of the country. Heat causes these minerals to precipitate and step by step encrust the inner lining of pipes, leading to blockage. A vibrating and wheezing heating system can be a real nuisance.
Fungal and bacterial growth is another menace to vented heating systems. 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 gunk stagnates in the plumbing and slows down the flow of hot water.
A lot of free advice is available on the internet on how to get rid of biological growth. Please spare some time and go through this or read the other informative articles in this site. Manufacturers of water treatment products provide detailed data and user references on their web sites. Below is a list of manufacturers and some of the popular products they have available. Blogs also offer ample source of free help and information or you can contact the companies with any questions.
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!.