Powerflush

NormanB said:
Do you need to powerflush your central heating to see your fn house now?��
Click to expand...

Do you mean "to sell your house"?

Anyway, the plumber came yesterday, spent all morning dismantling pipework, installed extra isolation valves and manually removing blockage from main boiler return pipe before connecting up the flushing pump and power flushing the whole system. The system now heats up much quicker than before and all the rads get hot. I still suspect the boiler is slightly undersized being only 24 kw for old, cold house with 14 rads. Maybe a 30kw unit would cope better and is the same physical size.
 
ghostlymoron said:
Do you mean "to sell your house"?

Anyway, the plumber came yesterday, spent all morning dismantling pipework, installed extra isolation valves and manually removing blockage from main boiler return pipe before connecting up the flushing pump and power flushing the whole system. The system now heats up much quicker than before and all the rads get hot. I still suspect the boiler is slightly undersized being only 24 kw for old, cold house with 14 rads. Maybe a 30kw unit would cope better and is the same physical size.
Click to expand...

Yes sorry I did mean 'sell' - not 'see' (afraid it was due to small phone and fat fingers and not proof reading).

First of I am very pleased to learn you now have a functioning system - very necessary especially with the low temperatures we have been experiencing. Can I ask a few questions:

1. Did you get a magna clean fitted?
2.Did he dose your system up with inhibitor on final fill?
3.Did he give you a certificate of flushing or whatever?
4.Can you reveal the cost?
5.How long was he on the premises?

Difficult one on the boiler capacity - it really comes down to how long you intend to stay in the property. But there are some first steps.

1. Improve insulation wherever you can by as much as you can. Then do some more insulating. If any of your windows (or doors) ever need replacement do so at the highest possible insulation specification.
2. Check the system is balanced in terms of temperature drop across each rad. Easy to do with a cheap digital IR thermometer. Google can help you with this simple (but tedious) procedure. (Basically in an unbalanced system some radiators can be deprived of flow by other more greedy rads).
3. If there are any rooms that are not used or not used often - either isolate or turn to minimum on the rad trv. ( For example I live in a 5 bedroom house only one kid at home now so 3 empty bedrooms that are only used for guests - the rads to these rooms are set to minimum on the trv and we open them up the day before guests arrive.)

Points 2 and 3 just help to get the heat distributed better to where you need it more effectively and more quickly.

If the boiler manages to keep you warm and your energy consumption compares favourably to like houses then the need to change boiler has to be weighed against the 'payback' period.

However, whatever you do keep an eye on the overall system and water chemistry. Go round the system regularly ( especially as you have a fresh charge of water in there) and vent the radiators - note which ones vent any gas and for roughly how long and do that at least monthly over the winter. Hopefully you should find the amount of gas been vented reduces to near zero, if it stays the same or even increases, it tells you that the process of corrosion is still active (add more inhibitor) and sludges are forming (clean the magna clean). What you do not want to do is consider the significant investment of a new boiler until you are at least confident you are on top of the water chemistry. This may mean more cleaning chemicals and hot flushing.
 
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Norman, thanks for your comments and good wishes. Yes he did double dose with inhibitor but I didn't get a certificate but may do when the paperwork arrives. It was done by the company who installed our new boiler and has an annual service and breakdown contract. The plumber was here from 8am till 5pm and it cost £600 (eek).
We've improved insulation as much as poss, secondary glazing, cavity insulation but the roof is largely uninsulated because of the construction. I've investigated ways of doing this but the only practical solution is to take the lath and plaster down on the sloping ceilings, insert fibre glass and replace with plasterboard and skim. I'd do this in a Heartbeat but swmbo says it would make too much mess so it's not going to be done. There's no grants available either.
We have four normally unused bedrooms which we usually have minimally heated but at present it's turned up a bit to ensure the inhibitor is well distributed. I check for gas in the rads fairly frequently and don't get much.
I will try balancing to turn down the very hot ones a bit (or get the plumber back under contract). I would imagine he'll be reluctant as he was up and down the place yesterday from attic rooms to cellar yesterday but he's a good and fit young man so will probably oblige.
Anyway, we're enjoying the warmth at the moment and the cost is forgotten.
 
Glad you are enjoying the warmth and the price you paid may be reasonable for the time on the job as it sounds he was more thorough than most. I have heard of so called plumbers doing a power flush being in and out within 2 hours.

Balancing see http://www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyl...-improvements-What-is-radiator-balancing.html

On the insulation front SWMBO is absolutely right it would be a really messy job.
 
I'm now considering having a green star mains pressure hot water cylinder to address our problem with slow filling of bath and poor pressure to the shower over it. The electric shower that runs off mains water pressure is fine.
Has anyone experience of these?
 
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