Oil combination boiler updates Kent Oast House
Our customer had very recently moved to a picturesque Oast House near Headcorn, Kent. Oast Houses are typically found in Kent and although no longer used for their original purpose, retain the round towers and pitched roofs so beloved by picture postcards. Our customer wanted to maximise their internal space, which is always at a premium in a round house and this meant the larder had to be vacated of a poorly maintained Firebird heat only oil boiler; and the bright yellow oil fired AGA also had to go. Sadly, oil fired AGAs are no longer desirable, being temperamental, old, […]
Large Church installation; 3 plus 1 boilers
Earlier this year we were invited to provide a costed design solution for a new boiler plant at St Johns Church, Tunbridge Wells. A large, Grade II listed building, probably the largest church in the area, it comprises an enormous high ceiling worship space, with the addition of vestry and offices. The church building management team knew pretty much what they wanted to achieve, helped by their professional engineering roles in the electrical power industry. We found a cascaded set of three commercial 50Kw cast iron Ideal atmospheric boilers. The Church technical team had previously fitted a BMS (Building Management […]
Kensington large house boiler renewal in lockdown
This installation started as a phone enquiry relating to a house in the Kensington area of London in early 2021. The story, relayed by owner’s son in law, was that his parents had a light commercial boiler that had failed some months earlier, and they had found it difficult locating a contractor prepared to consider utilising the existing chimney for a new boiler. As we are based in Kent, Kensington is a bit of a schlep to drive for a quotation. We have done a fair bit of work in Kensington during 2020, much of it that would make really […]
Viessmann Cascade in large house
For our case study today, we were called to inspect a large house in Surrey, completely refurbished around 7 years ago, with multiple underfloor and radiator heating zones. The house had a basement boiler room, containing a pair of 46Kw Vaillant EcoTec 46Kw light commercial boilers, using a cascaded flue system and a header. A maintenance company had paid a number of visits to keep the boilers running, but they were plagued with frequent reliability problems. The last inspection had also raised issues with the flue header and chimney lining installation, even though they had been maintaining it for years […]
Move boiler to cellar and convert to unvented hot water
We are in the Camberwell area, close to London. Our customers have a lovely Victorian house, but unfortunately, the boiler and the hot water cylinder are in a cupboard in the master bedroom. This makes the room unnecessarily warm in the summer, and of course, you can hear the boiler operating. Our customers wished, if possible, to relocate the boiler into the cellar area. Unfortunately the cellar area was underground, with no apertures to ground level, and it had no drainage. And restricted headroom. So that’s all good then. We found a small bookcase in the hallway that had originally […]
Grade II listed building condensing boiler using chimney
Today we are in a house in a beautiful part of the Garden of England, in other words, Kent. The house is in a small village reminiscent of the one filmed many years ago for a Hovis advert, with cobbled streets and high pavements. Our customer had bought a house with an old Potterton Osprey light commercial in the cellar, and British Gas had said that many parts were no longer available. Other contractors had suggested the only options involved siting a new boiler on an external wall; this would have resulted in lots of unwanted visible pipework but also […]
Commercial boiler Design and Installation at premier Surrey Golf Club
Tandridge Golf Club was designed by the renowned Harry Colt in 1924, and today is judged as one of the top 100 golf courses in the UK. Situated in a rural location near Oxted, in Surrey (UK), it has a thriving membership and is a beautiful course; the main club buildings date from 1928 and have been carefully retained to the present day (unfortunately the first clubhouse burnt down in 1927, exacerbated by the thatched roof). It is popular every day, with golfers seemingly happy to battle in all weathers at all times of the year, perhaps encouraged by the excellent dining […]
Complex house heating system of the future (in 1998) gets updated
For this case study, we are in Ealing, West London. Our customer rang us to say he had inadvertently bought a large house with a woefully complex heating system around 8 years ago. The first time he viewed the house, it was perfect – but they never went into the garage. On the second visit, he popped his head into the garage area, and found it completely full of commercial plant, and a ambient temperature of over 30C. Since then, many a central heating specialist has escaped having seen the garage; apparently they are brimming with confidence until the door […]
Large old listed country house – 155Kw boiler system renewal
We’ve just replaced the boiler plant in a very large country residence in Sussex (July 2013). The old oil fired Worcester Bosch system heated the house, which was mainly comprised of 60 yr old radiators and large bore steel pipe, as an entire single entity without any zone control. The oil bill (no mains gas here) was £12K per annum. Our customer looked at a number of options, but liked our approach best. Our unique proposal was to improve the efficiency of the boiler room by using weather compensation and load sharing – reduce consumption of oil and increase comfort, […]
New model Vaillant in cellar replaces iron commercial
Today’s case study looks at an interesting house near Leatherhead, Surrey, UK. Outwardly, it looks like a chalet bungalow, but at the some point in the past, a massive cellar was excavated underneath with a swimming pool, games room and boiler room. This was some years ago and the present owner has no need for the swimming pool, which together with the associated boiler/plant room, was at the end of its economic life. The pool and house was heated by a large iron open flued commercial boiler with a pressure jet burner. There was masses of wiring in the cellar […]
