Our customer has a lovely period property near Gatwick, in Sussex.  It has a very cold kitchen and lounge, and was a conventional system with water tanks in the loft and a hot water cylinder on the 1st floor.

The boiler was an old Potterton unit on the ground floor at the rear of the property.

Now, these old properties are usually a bit tight on cupboard and bathroom space, so our customer wanted to lose the water tanks and hot water cylinder, add a utility room and ideally compress all the boiler and hot water functions into a small area.

Enter the Worcester-Bosch Highflow 550 CDi.  This unit is a hybrid combination boiler, and is identical in size to a washing machine.  It has a 42kW heat engine, and an unvented water store inside.  That is the ‘hybrid’ bit, because the hot water heatstore makes this boiler deliver flow rates of hot water that could normally only be obtained from an unvented cylinder.

For the first few hundred litres of water, the blending of the preheated store and the real time efforts of the combi boiler engine deliver close to 25 litres of hot water a minute.  In real use, the unit recharges its’ heat store very quickly so rarely drops below this output.  It is a powerhouse in a small box.

We removed the old water tanks, the old cylinder on the 1st floor, and the ld boiler, and replaced it all with the Bosch unit.  This used the same flue aperture outside so did not affect the listed building requirements.

New boiler does everything for a 4 bed house

Significant modifications were made inside to the heating system, with new Vogel & Noot Vienna Line radiators throughout.  A Smiths Kickspace fan convector was installed in the kitchen, and pipewor was renewed and upsized in key areas to improve circulation through the radiators.

All pipework in the boiler area was removed from wall ducting and relocated on the ceiling to allow for some new wall openings to be created into the adjacent kitchen.

Checking the combustion settings of the new boiler

As part of a Bosch promotion for Gold Accredited Installers, our customer has the benefit of a 7 year parts and labour warranty on the boiler.

Solar PV has got a lot of publicity in the press, because the UK Government were offering extremely advantageous terms for those who could afford the equipment.  In essence, the deal was as follows;

You and I pay around 13p per kw/hour for electricity (Dec 2011).  If you put the panels on the your roof, you would be paid 43.3p per kw/hour.  In the form of a cheque, quarterly, tax free.  Furthermore, every other kw/hour would attract a further 3p.  So, if you generated 1000kw/hours you would get £433.00 + £15.00.

Just to make things even more interesting, the 43.3p is linked to the UK Retail Price Index (RPI), so each year it is likely to rise.  And the renumeration deal lasts 25 years.

Most consumers go for the larger installations (if their roof is large enough) because the return on investment is maximised, so this installation is forecast to deliver around £1300 in the first year.

However, there has to be a catch. And here it is.

The Government suddenly decided this scheme was too generous and from December 12 2011 any new installations will be downgraded to 21p per kw/hour.  Solar PV installed and registered before the 12 December will get the original terms.

Although the price of the materials is dropping, the 21p based tariff doesn’t offer a great investment opportunity for customers.  After all, they have to stay in the property for 25 yrs, stay alive for 25yrs, and keep the gear maintained for 25yrs.  So, following a boom time to Dec 2011, the Solar PV installation industry is now in tatters and many of the companies involved will soon disappear, along with the warranties and support.

Solar PV was an expensive diversion for us, and in hindsight, achieving all the silly Government requirements to be able to install it was a waste of our time and money.  Especially when you see so many moody installs out there, and hear of the various scams that the legislation was meant to avoid.

I’ve included one of our installs here.  There are 20 Mitsubishi panels, connected to a transformerless SMA inverter for maximum efficiency, on the rear of a slate roofed barn in Edenbridge, Kent.

Before

Scaffolding goes up

Dave, our master roofing contractor, with his assistant John (left)

Mitsubishi black edged panels up, scaffolding down

SMA TL3000 Inverter and isolation/metering

Many of our customers were interested in panels and did lots of research on the internet.  I was constantly being told the Mitsubishi panels we insisted on using were less efficient than the ‘Hokey Cokey 2000′ units they had been offered.  Let’s look at this objectively.

1. What does it matter whether a panel is 20.1%or 20.4% efficient?  What does that translate to in terms of revenue per annum?

2. If you wanted to have confidence that your panels would last 25 yrs, would you buy from a company that have been making them for over 40yrs, or 3 yrs?

3. If you look around your house, how many electronic products can you find  that were bought 25yrs ago & are still working?  And are they bolted outside the roof in all weathers?

Sometimes you need to avoid the hype and think objectively.  NB:  If you have a cheapy set of very efficient panels from a company you had never heard of, perhaps you shouldn’t be reading this.

If you would like a Solar PV system, get in touch.  But remember, it’s only 21p!

Alternatively, wait for the CHP gas boilers later in 2012.  They will heat your house and produce electricity.  Exciting times, and we will be there.

OK, so you’ve got a Potterton Kingfisher and it is still going after 25yrs?  Not a big deal.  The Kidd was available 5 yrs earlier and would have delivered 90% efficiency, instead of the 60% or so managed by the Potterton.  Think of all that fuel you’ve wasted!

That’s why Highgrove has a Kidd, along with other famous users, for example, music luminaires such as Sir Tim Rice, Peter Gabriel, Bjorn Ulvaeus.  And some less notable people, such as me.

Grade II listed farmhouse - beautiful!

Here we are in a Kent farmhouse, near Sittingbourne, and they have a 1983 Kidd oil boiler.  Now 28 years old, it is showing some signs of wear.  Mr Kidd has offered to refurbish it (yes, really) but the owners are remodelling the area once used as the boiler room, and there is insufficient space for the Kidd unit.

They will be sorry to see it go, but have been delighted with the economy and longevity it delivered.  And being solely mild steel, it is completely recyclable.

End of the road after 28 years of preventing energy wastage.

Connected to a very old (we reckon 1930s) one pipe heating system, we specified a new Worcester-Bosch oil Camray Greenstar utility.  This occupies only around a third of the space of the Kidd unit, but delivers a similar efficiency.

It is not going to last 28 years, but does come with a 6 year warranty due to a promotion Bosch are offering key installers at the moment (installation was Aug 2011).

Another neat job.

The one pipe system is perfectly compatible with a Worcester oil boiler, but it is difficult to remove debris in the pipework, due to the ‘Powerflushing’ systems not being effective.  Basically, with a one pipe system, the connection of one of our large Norstrom machines justs sends the high velocity water round a wide bore loop, with little effect*.  Instead, we fit a dirt separation device, in this case, a SpiroTECH Magnabooster2.  This can be emptied periodically by the homeowner.

*Some Powerflush machine manufacturers claim their machines can clean a one pipe system.  Simply not true.

The new boiler was tucked in the corner of the new utility area.  Some of the old 3″ pipework was rerouted and simplified to provide extra headroom in the new kitchen.

Finally, we fitted an additional cast iron school radiator in the lounge, and some modern programmable temperature controls by Honeywell.

New space efficient installation completed

We’re in a remote area south of Dorking, Surrey, accessed via a long farm track.

Farmhouse exterior

The property had a Trianco oiler, made around 16 years ago, with a leaking heat exchanger.  This is the end of the road for an oil boiler, because the heat exchanger is the whole metal frame of the boiler.

Facing the wrong way

Trianco have always been a budget boiler manufacturer, and have, as a company, seemingly lurched from one collapse to another, most recently last year, when their remnants were bought by an Essex metalworking company.  The other cheapy manufacturer, Perrymatics, failed many years ago.  But there are still lots of these products out there, because they sold so well.

The Trianco was connected to an old metal flue liner, incompatible with modern high efficiency condensing boilers.  For some perverse reason, the boiler had been mounted in an external boiler house sideways, rendering maintenance very difficult and compromising minimum manufacturer clearances.  This lack of access probably resulted in the boiler not being cleaned internally and the premature failure of the heat exchanger.

Original oil liner terminal on right, gravity is all that holds the tile cap on!

From measurements, we found that we could site the new Worcester -Bosch Camray unit facing forwards, enabling easy maintenance and compliance with manufacturer stipulations.

The Worcester-Bosch Flexiflue employed is near identical to the one used in the gas boilers, except that it is used for exhaust gas only – it does not provide an air inlet for the burner, this has to be arranged in the boiler room.

Instant access!

We used our preferred means of access to the chimney in the form of a 7.5ton elevating platform truck.  This is quicker than scaffolding and less likely to cause damage to the surrounding roof areas.

New liner on the way up

New flue termination completed

The new boiler was complemented by revised heating controls, including a Honeywell CM907 programmable room thermostat with Optimisation.

Finished installation

house in Purley

Our customer has an old atmospheric Potterton Kingfisher II 100,000 Btu in the basement, connected to the internal chimney system.

Old Potterton Kingisher

We could have resited the new boiler on the external wall but the flue outlet would have detracted from the external aesthetics of the house, so instead we discussed the option of connecting the new boiler to the old chimney system.  This is always the more expensive option, because the new liner system has to be installed from the rooftop and comprises a large number of parts.  However, in this instance, our customer wanted an ‘invisible’ installation so we specified the Worcester Bosch Flexiflue system.

Using a new, high efficiency condensing floor mounted boiler from Bosch, the FS30CDi (FS being floor standing), the Flexiflue system necessitating constructing a closure space under the old hearth termination.  This was built using blockwork.

New blockwork construction for Flexiflue termination

The chimney section above the roofline was found to be unstable, so the upper part had to be partially demolished and rebuilt.  This is not unusual as the heat and the tars tend to crack the mortar, allowing water ingress and subsequent frost damage over the years.

Old chimney needed some TLC.......

The new boiler extracts the exhaust fumes through a 60mm diameter flexible plastic tube all the way to the chimney top;  condensed water from the saturated vapours runs down the liner into the boiler and then to the drain.  The remaining ‘annulus’ of the chimney (in other words, the space remaining between the brickwork and the 60mm liner tube) is used to provide the air for combustion from the roof.  For this reason, the chimney has to be in reasonable condition, making the installation classed as ‘room sealed’, in other words, much safer than before.

new terminal almost completed

We are regularly asked whether the existing flue liner system in a chimney can be reused on a modern high efficiency boiler.  With a few possible exceptions for light commercial boiler applications, where a high efficiency boiler with a bespoke flue system may have been installed previously,, the answer is always negative.  This is because conventional boiler flues connected to a chimney liner require the liner to withstand high temperatures (up to 260C), and be made of a material not necessarily watertight or corrosion proof.  In contrast, a modern high efficiency boiler may only need a flue liner capable of withstanding typically 80C, but has to have resistance to water and acid.  The two solutions are mutually exclusive.

New Worcester FS30CDi boiler (before new blockwork and flue installed)

Unfortunately, my poor understanding of all matters iPhone has resulted in the loss of a large number of pictures for our installation gallery, but we still have a selection from this job.

NB: Other flue lining solutions we offer are available with Viessmann boilers, both domestic and light commercial.

Built around 25 years ago, it was heated by two separate Johnson & Starley warm air heaters, one per floor.  For hot water, a 295 litre direct gas fired AO Smith cylinder was installed upstairs.  There was also a large gas hob and a gas fire.

Johnson & Starley Warm Air and AO Smith Water Heater

When we totalled up the load for all these appliances, it was around 92kW.  This would have been fine, apart for two key problems.  The first is that the property had a standard domestic metered supply, which has a maximum design load of around 64kW.  The second problem was tha the gas meter was located a considerable distance away from all the appliances, in a detached garage, and the pipe from the meter into the house was just 22mm in diameter.

This meant that all the appliances were being supplied with a dangerously low pressure.  All the more remarkable was that the units had been serviced each year, by a CORGI/Gas Safe firm.  The same firm that had installed them 25yrs ago, it transpired.

Our customer was faced with either upgrading the gas supply to a light commercial meter, or making changes in the property to reduce the load and keeping the domestic supply.  Unfortunately, the light commercial meter option involved the excavation of a long drive and a huge bill from the gas supplier.

Having conducted some heat calculations for the property, we realised we could replace the heating and hot water system with a modern high efficiency solution and stay within the maximum load of the existing metered supply.

We specified new Lennox G61MPVT condensing warm air units, to replace the old Johnson & Starley equipment.  The G61MPVT is a US made unit that is simply light years ahead of any other warm air heater in the UK.  Delivering an efficiency in excess of 94%, these gas fired warm air heaters are quiet but have powerful fans, designed for minimal electrical consumption.  The units can work vertically or horizontally, and can direct their airflow upwards or downwards, simply by inverting the heater.

New upstairs installation, Lennox to the left, Trion filter above

We also specified Trion air purification units for each heater. Trion high efficiency electronic air cleaners will collect particles down to .01 microns in size and that includes those hazardous, invisible particles, such as tobacco smoke, atmospheric dust and bacteria and even some viruses. So efficient is the Trion high efficiency electronic air cleaners that up to 99% of airborne impurities that enter the unit are removed.

Dave our ductwork specialist working on a Trion air purifier

We engage a specialist ductwork fabrication and installation company to carry out all our modifications on site, for a professional finish.  Many of our competitors use flexible tubes and duct tape, but this is bodging in our view.

Ductwork prepared for new Lennox heater

For the hot water, we had a bespoke Gledhill Solar ready cylinder built, with a storage capacity of 300 litres.  This has a dedicated gas condensing boiler dedicated to heat it, in this case we specified a Vaillant ecoTEC+ 615 system boiler, which was mounted on a support built by us between the prestressed roof timbers.

New Viallant ecoTEC+ system boiler in loft

A much larger gas supply pipe was needed from the meter to the warm air heaters and the Vaillant gas boiler.  It would not have been practical to run a large 35mm outside diameter pipe through the length of the property, so we suggested the driveway was excavated for a modest length, and the old flueway from the downstairs warm air unit used as a duct to get the pipework into the loft.

New pipe from meter to house

A rigid stainless steel gas pipe called TracPipe was used, which allowed us to run internally and externally with no joints, apart from adjacent to the appliances.  This is inherently safer, and gives less resistance to the flow of gas because there no elbows or restrictive connections.

Driveway reinstated!

Our new gas supply to warm units running inside garage

Our new supply pipe (yellow top right) to house

The entire task took 8 days for 3 men, the job was completed in March 2011.  Our customer was wonderful to work with, tea and coffee was on tap together with some rather nice choccy biscuits.

Downstairs boiler intake/exhaust terminal

The heat distribution is better with the Lennox than the old J&S units, because the fans are more powerful.

Part of the property and one of our vans!

Our client had just purchased the property, and engaged us following finding this blog on our web site.

There were two main tasks;  firstly, one of the two boilers for the property had failed and was beyond economical repair.

The second problem was the water supply.  The road is on the top of a hill overlooking the coast and the water flow rate was very poor, in the region of just 8 litres per minute.  The static pressure was also poor, varying between 1.0-1.5 bar.  Our customer did not want to use the shower puumps, finding them too noisy, he wanted a modern unvented system.

We proposed fitting a new Worcester Bosch CDI conventional condensing boiler, to restore the heating to the house.

New Worcester Bosch 30CDi conventional condensing boiler

In order to transform the cold and hot water, we fitted a Trentclyde Charger and Mainsboost system, which was located in the garage.  The garage floor sloped, so we construucted a plywood base for the two 450 litre tandem accumulators.

New accumulators and Charger in garage

For the hot water provision, a Vaillant uniSTOR 310 litre unvented cylinder was installed in the loft space, having removed an old horizontal hot water cylinder and an assortment of cold water tanks.

The system can now deliver mains pressure wholesome water to all outlets, at a static pressure in excess of 3bar. Flow rates of 50 litres/min can easily be supplied, the accumulator banks being sited in the garage, have taken no additional space in the house.

Like all our systems, this was specified, designed and installed by ourselves.  The Worcester-Bosch boiler is warranted for 5 years.  The installation was completed in late February 2011.

Inside a Vaillant ecoTEC + 831

We advised them to fit a new Vaillant ecoTEC+ 831 combination boiler, because it is a well built unit and reliable for a lettings customer.  All our Vaillant installations benefit from a 5 Year manufacturer parts and labour warranty.  We have fitted a few hundred of the Vaillant ecoTEC+ combi over the past five years and found it to be a reliable product.

The system was fully Powerflushed, and the new boiler fitted.  A Vaillant ‘Plume Management Kit’ was used to divert the exhaust steam to a high level outside.

Vaillant plume management - and a faulty gutter downpipe!

The old hob was replaced with a new Bosch unit, featuring an FSD.  Flame Supervision Devices are now mandatory on hobs fitted in rented properties.

New Bosch gas hob

We supplied a new Landlord Safety Certificate for the property.

Drawing room

Our client has had a lovely oak floor laid and our mission was to replace the old radiators with refurbished iron units, and connect them to his Hometronic energy management system.

Large one in the hall, extremely heavy!

One of two in the lounge

Weather starting to turn

To leave the maximum room in the kitchen, we’ve suggested an external oil combination boiler.  A Worcester-Bosch external heatslave was our recommendation, it comes in an insulated and rather fetching dark green cabinet, noticeably better made than the product sold by their main competitor, with rubber seals round the doors etc.

Ricky connecting new pipework

We fitted all new copper pipework inside the house, together with our preferred Vogel & Noot radiators, which are Austrian built units with rounded corners, very child-friendly.

At one point the roads outside became impassable, so we had to halt work for three days.  As soon as the weather allowed, we were back on site, in this case this meant a Sunday.  It is pretty miserable installing an external boiler in the snow, it has to be said.

Fire valve, oil filter and oil isolation valve

We haven’t got any pictures of the finshed job, because it got dark very quickly.  But what a difference central heating makes to a house!

Like all our Worcester-Bosch installations, this boiler has a manufacturer on site warranty for 5 years, until 2016.