Limpsfield is a village on the outskirts of Oxted, Surrey (UK).

View from the road

Our customer already has a ‘Hot Water & Central Heating’ installed oil fired cooker range (see our Heritage cooker page above), and was building an outside barn further down the garden.

The central heating boiler was an old oil fired unit, which was located in the hallway and could be heard throughout the property.

Our customer wanted a new boiler and also wished to convert the water system to a new unvented type.

Hot Water & Central Heating suggested that a Grant 3646 outdoor module was fitted, this is an outdoor boiler incorporating a weatherproof housing, designed to operate outside in all weathers. 

Grant Vortex condensing high efficiency outdoor boiler module

This freed up the cupboard in the hall, previously home to an oil boiler and a small vented hot water cylinder on braces above.  We removed these units and replaced them with a Range Tribune Slimline 210 litre unvented cylinder.  This upgraded the hot and cold water to mains pressure at all outlets, and removed the need for a loft mounted storage tank.

Range Tribune unvented installation in cupboard

In common with all unvented systems (and other forms of direct fed hot and cold water systems, like combination boilers and heatstores) the performance is greatly improved with a good water flow rate.  We ran a new 32mm water pipe to the road outside, for minimum hydraulic resistance.   The local water supply company were engaged to provide a new larger connection to the mains.

New water connection being excavated by Sutton & East Surrey Water

The new oak barn was home to a sun room, together with a utility room and shower room.  Hot Water & Central Heating installed underground pipe ducts to the main house to give hot and cold services, and also to feed the new underfloor heating.

New oak barn

Underfloor heating manifolds are quite large units, and it is prudent to site them where inspection and maintenance is easily carried out after the building works are complete.  This ruled out fitting the manifold under the sink or behind washing machines.  Instead, we installed a 7 zone L&K manifold in the ceiling void area above the utility room, hiding the pipework in a stud wall comprising part of the new shower enclosure.

Underfloor installation waiting for screed

The L&K system used nearly 500 metres of pipe, all laid on Building Regs compliant Quinn  insulation board.  The Underfloor Heating was laid in a day, and the concrete screeding completed the day after.  The flooring will be finished in tiling once the screed has properly dried out.

Another view of the underfloor pipework

Heating manifold hidden in ceiling area

Screed laid, all pipework buried. This area will be tiled soon.

Separate zone controls were fitted for the underfloor area, which were linked by armoured cable buried in a duct to the existing house.  Control of the separate heating zones is by Honeywell CM series programmable room thermostats.

Underfloor heating is an invisible but highly effective system*, and uses less energy to heat a space than conventional radiators.  This is because the human body feels warm at lower air temperatures when using underfloor heating. 

The new boiler works at around 92% efficiency, saving fuel but increasing comfort and reliability.  In common with all our Grant boiler installations, our customer received a 3 year on site warranty on the boiler.

*The only type of underfloor heating to be avoided is the electric type, because electricity costs around 12p per Kwh, compared to around 4.5p for gas fired heating and 6p for oil fired (this was written in June 2009). 

Don’t be fooled by sales literature claiming electric heating is 100% efficient and green, these are half truths.  Electrical heating uses energy generated by (usually) coal or gas in the UK.  From the power station to your house meter box, around 55% of the energy in the gas or coal burnt at the power station is lost in generating and transmission losses. 

So before even fitting underfloor heating, electricity is only 45% efficient.   And that generating efficiency partially accounts for the frightening price.  So a sales person could say electric heating is 100% efficient, but it would be a half truth.  If they said it was cheaper than gas or oil fired heating, it would be a lie.  The only electric heating that is efficient in comparison is using a heat pump, but that is addressed elsewhere on this web site.

Having transformed the water supply next door, we were invited to carry out the same task on this property.

Crystal Palace, our secret location

A TCWS Charger and mainsboost system was fitted, connected to an existing Gledhill Boilermate III heat store.

Charger & Mainsboost installed in garage

Now all the showers work on all floors. 

Charger/Mainsboost is a specialised water boosting product which utilises the ruling that water can be pumped from the mains at up to 12 litres per minute.  The water authorities are very particular at how this can be done, and in order to get approvals the manufacturer took around two years perfecting the design to prevent any possibility of backflow etc.  Once installed the Charger/Mainsboost can support flow rates of in excess of 40 litres per minute at pressures of up to 4bar…..irrespective of the quality of the supply.

Hot Water & Central Heating are your local and experienced specialists.

For this update, we are near Dorking in Surrey, UK. 

House near Dorking, Surrey

Our customer had a large house with around 26 radiators, we had been contacted because they had an Archie Kidd Thermal gas boiler that needed a service, and we are the regional experts for this unit.

Amusingly, they had been informed from the previous owner that the boiler was an expensive unit that represented the very best boiler that money could buy.  When they examined it, it looked like an industrial antique and they were a bit sceptical. 

Kidd Model 2 boiler being serviced

Truth is, the previous owner was right!  Still available today, these boilers are incredibly economical and were designed to last.

We were asked how we might improve the distribution of heat in the house, which was used for home working during the day and was occupied by a family at other times.    The owners were concerned that significant areas of the property were being heated when for much of the time only a handful of areas needed to be at occupational temperature.

We recommended the Honeywell Hometronic system as the best solution.  Every radiator and towel rail is fitted with a special radio linked control valve, which are managed by a small control panel.  

Small Hometronic panel in kitchen controls entire house

The panel is configured to recognise and control up to 16 areas of accomodation, and alter the heating distribution according to the preferences of the user.

Hometronic radiator control in the conservatory

In this way, a home office can be heated to a pleasant level in the height of winter, together with perhaps the kitchen and the downstairs WC;  the rest of the house can be allowed to drop to a much lower temperature, saving lots of gas.  Just before the children return home from school, Hometronic can boost their rooms to a comfortable temperature.

In the same way, the precise locational control delivered by hometronic allows towel rails to be heated in the summer for certain times of the day, using the main central heating boiler.

The Hometronic control extends to the hot water provision too, and can be expanded to lighting and other powered devices.  A popular option is the ‘lighting replay’ facility.  This learns which lights are used and can replay typical occupational lighting changes when you are on holiday to simulate the house in occupation.

If you own a larger home and want to get to grips with energy wastage, the Hometronic system is one of those rare ecologically viable products that offers real savings without sacrificing comfort.

This posting is going to be a ‘before and after’ type, because some of our customers have suggested it is more useful in this format.

Secret location in West Norwood

So here we have our customer property in West Norwood;  it’s a rented property with an old Vokera combination boiler in the basement.

Old boiler

The boiler has been suspended on two pieces of timber, which technically is not allowed, because wall hung boilers should be fitted to non combustible surfaces.

Boiler flue is compromised

The second problem was the boiler flue termination, which had various obstructions around it including a deep window sill, and a water butt.

And the third was the gas supply, which was around 8 metres long, in 15mm pipe, with a significant number of elbows – meaning that the existing boiler was under supplied.

The new boiler almost finished

We removed the boiler and fitted a new 18mm plywood support frame, and faced it with a fire resistant sheet.  The new Vaillant ecoTEC+ 831 boiler was fitted to this.

The gas supply was renewed from the meter in a larger bore tube.

Finally the flue was repositioned away from the window and the water butt, to an adjacent wall.

Old boiler flue removed, new one relocated

The old flue aperture was neatly bricked up.

A Vaillant Variable Termination Kit (VTK) was fitted to the flue, as the nearby property boundary was under 2 metres away.  This product lifts the flue outlet higher, and allows the plume (steam) to be directed away.

The system was powerflushed to remove contaminants from the radiators, Honeywell VT200 thermostatic valves were fitted where necessary, and the control system upgraded to feature the Honeywell CM907 programmable wall thermostat/timer.

This system will be covered by our Vaillant 5 year warranty scheme, until 2014.

This unit replaced an old Ideal Standard cast iron boiler in a storage room.  The Ideal Standard WM series unit was a bit long in the tooth, and was probably only 65% efficient.

We specified a 12Kw Worcester Bosch Ri replacement, which can achieve an efficiency of over 90% when used on a like – for – like basis.

New boiler (insulation to pipework not applied when photo taken)

The Worcester was mounted in a similar position to the old unit, but first we had to brick up the large flue aperture remaining from the previous boiler. 

The next door neighbour had recently had their boiler replaced by another contractor, who had elected use cement instead of bricks!   Hope it was a very cheap job!

The scene outside

A new Honeywell radio thermostat, and a new two channel timer was installed.

New Honeywell Line-of-text heating and hot water programmer

As usual, the system was comprehensively power flushed and our customer benefits from a reasonably priced, quality installation, warranted by Worcester Bosch until April 2014.

Our customer had already fitted a Hot Water & Central Heating installed Hometronic system in his main residence, complete with an accumulator boosted hot and cold water system.

He has a beautiful wooden barn building, separate from the house, which he uses to work from home.

We discussed using a combination boiler and radiators, but the sloping eaves design of the barn and the various space constraints within meant that radiators would not be ideal.

The barn, having a roof room with a vaulted ceiling, gets very warm in the summer, so we recommended fitting a heat pump.

Historically, a heat pump has two speeds, on and off, which for a heating appliance is uneconomic, because the task is never quite the same every day (British weather being what it is!).

The Worcester Bosch air/air heat pump is the latest modulating design, manufactured by Bosch subsidiary IVT.   This means it can deliver a higher level of efficiency than earlier units.

The Worcester Bosch heatpump has two components, an internal fan assisted heating /cooling unit, which is very small,

Ground floor unit

and an outside unit containing a quiet fan.  The outside fan unit extracts latent heat from the outside air, by passing very large volumes of low temperature air across a heat exchanger.

Outside Bosch air 2 air

This low level latent heat – which can be extracted even in temperatures as low as   -12ºC – is forced through an electrically powered (variable rate) compressor and transmitted via a pair of small bore refrigerant pipes to the inside unit. 

The inside unit then gives up to 6kW of heating,

- using typically 2kW of energy you have paid for,

- and 4kW of latent heat from outside, which you have not paid for. 

In very warm weather the unit can work backwards, extracting heat from the inside unit and discharging it outside, cooling the office.

Generally speaking, electric heating is very expensive.  Conventional heaters use resistive elements (eg: night storage, electric fan heaters, immersion heaters etc) and the energy you put in, is what you get out.  So if you put in a 3kW heater, you will get 3kW of heat from it. 

The low temperature latent heat extracted from the air, once fed through the compressed and then uncompressed refrigerant, gives far more efficiency for your money.  If you put 2Kw into a Bosch air/air heatpump, you can expect to see around 6Kw output for most of the year, giving a Coefficient of Performance 0f 300%.  It sounds like an impossible ‘perpetual motion machine’, but the extra performance is coming from low temperature latent heat in the atmosphere.

Upstairs unit (grey cable is not part of our installation)

We fitted two of these units, one to each floor.  The two compact exterior units were mounted around the rear of the building, used as a garden storage area.

Our customer reports that he is very pleased with the installation, which was fitted in January 2009.

If you have a small open plan flat, conservatory or barn conversion, and would like cheap running costs comparable or less than Natural Gas fired heating, together with air cooling in the summer, this may be what you need!

As the owner of Hot Water & Central Heating, I spend much of my time visiting properties where customers want advice and costings for boiler replacements, pressurised hot and cold water systems etc.

On one sunny day in March 09, I visited a couple in Limpsfield, Oxted (Surrey) with a Glowworm Energysaver.  This boiler was significantly corroded and there was a saucer placed strategically to catch the drips.

Later on the same day I was at an address in Caterham, Surrey, at the site of a converted military barracks.  Same boiler, same problem!

This is what a Glowworm Energysaver looks like just before it hits the skip

Here are a few photographs of the Caterham unit, which we removed and changed for a Viessmann 100 Compact. 

If you have one of these, start saving up for a replacement

Unfortunately, my camera batteries were flat when we finished the work, so there are no photographs at this stage of the renewal work.

Hot Water & Central Heating have also  replaced the same boiler 2 doors away, around 18 months ago!

We have just received the go ahead to replace the unit in Oxted too; if the customer gives permission for photos, that will feature on this blog in the next 4-5 weeks (we are quite booked up at the moment).

Our customer lives in Oxted, Surrey, and had an Ideal combination boiler initially installed under the Warmfront scheme around 7 years ago.

Not uncommonly for this model, a plethora of parts had been fitted over the years to try to keep it working, but without any success.  Some of the old parts were still on site.

We recommended fitting a new Worcester Bosch Greenstar 28i Junior condensing combination boiler.

Worcester Bosch Greenstar safely installed in cupboard

This new unit easily fitted inside the old boiler cupboard, and was considerably quieter than its predecessor.

This was quite an easy job (makes a change) because all the pipework was in good order and there was a nearby drain (needed for a condensing boiler).
We ran the new condense drain in 32mm tube, as this is recommended by Worcester Bosch for outdoor applications to prevent freezing, which commonly occurs in bad weather when normal 21mm pipe is used.  If you have a Bosch boiler displaying ‘EA’ in freezing weather, you can bet it is a blocked drain……

We fitted a Bosch plume diversion kit to the flue, to direct the steam (called plume) from the low eaves area and thus preventing damage from plolonged exposure to damp.

Just inside the eaves - new flue and plume extension

As usual, the warranty was extended to 5 yrs, covering our customer for any breakdowns until 2014, using the 320 strong (at last count) Worcester service force.

Completed in early April 2009, this customer’s house, on the Sanderstead/Purley borders (Surrey, UK) had an aged Potterton boiler removed and changed for a new wall hung Worcester Bosch 24Ri.

Who left that van there?

The new boiler was a third of the size and weight of the old unit, but had exactly the same power output.

The old cast iron unit had been very reliable, but extremely wasteful of gas.  Old floorstanding cast iron units rarely give an efficiency of greater than 65%. 

A new high efficiency boiler will achieve around 90% efficiency.

In other words, comparing the old boiler to the new one, for every £1.00 you spend on gas, 25p is immediately lost, forever.

And of course, if you are using less gas, your household emissions will lower, and there will be considerably more gas left for everyone else.

Inside the utility room

The only losers are the people selling you the energy in the first place…….. 

Getting back to our installation picture file, the old boiler had an enormous balanced flue which we painstakingly bricked up to match the existing….. if you look closely you may be able to see.

Completed job, spot the brickwork remedial work

Our customer’s boiler is warranted through our preferential arrangement with Worcester Bosch, until April 2014.

Our customer owns a terraced town house in London SE19.

It was late when we finished

He had considered a solar hot water system in the loft, as he wanted to minimise his family impact on the environment;  with solar hot water it is important to maximise the hot water storage, or you quickly run out of solar heated water and have to use the boiler.

Unfortunately, the design of these properties leaves a low headroom in the loft, restricting the size of cylinder, and there is limited weight capacity for large volumes of water.

So, instead, he decided to fit the Vaillant ecoTEC+ 937 hybrid combination boiler.  The wall hung unit comprises an 837 combi with a set of hot water storage tanks built in a pod at the back.  This makes the boiler quite large and heavy (getting on for the size of a washing machine), but it delivers a superb performance of 20 litres per min for the first 200 litres of drawoff.

We fitted the new boiler on the brick gable wall and used a vertical flue system.  Five new radiators were also supplied and fitted, and we were fortunate to be able to use some existing ductwork from a warm air installation to hide most of the pipework.

New Vaillant 937 in the loft

The Vaillant 937 is a good alternative to an unvented cylinder and boiler in a medium sized house, because it takes up relatively little space.  Other similar solutions offered by Hot Water & Central Heating include the Worcester Highflow CDi range.