Archie Kidd boiler replaced (*) with another oil boiler pioneer
Our customer lives in Kent in a 1890s set of railway construction workers cottages. When the property was refurbished in 2004, he specified an Archie Kidd (Thermal) VHE Model 1 oil boiler. This was before the UK Government had latched onto condensing boilers being the future. In fact Archie Kidd had designed his Model 2 prototype in 1959 as part of his strive for energy to be conserved and not wasted needlessly. The Kidd Model 1 should last in excess of 30 years, so it was a shame to remove this now discontinued British leader in the history of heating […]
No place like home, EvoHome
This is a post closer to home. In fact it is my home! Our house in Edenbridge, Kent is heated by an Archie Kidd (Thermal) Ltd oil fired boiler, and has around 26 radiators. It was built in 1894 and heating it is an expensive business, because our insulation is hard to improve. In 2005 we installed Honeywell Hometronic. This is a system that uses remote control radiator valves to divide the house into 16 areas of controlled heating. This enabled us to reduce the heating level in rooms we weren’t using in the day, but warm them in the […]
Kidd boiler removed
The venerable Kidd Very High Efficiency (VHE) boiler is one of my favourites. Designed for Archie Kidd’s personal use in 1959, and then productionised in 1982, it has been the forerunner in condensing high efficiency technology in the UK for 30 years. Forget all the stories you hear about the Vaillant this, or the Worcester that, or the Baxi Bla Bla, the Kidd VHE was the first and last, the design is still current today, and 98% unchanged. OK, so you’ve got a Potterton Kingfisher and it is still going after 25yrs? Not a big deal. The Kidd was available […]
Refurbish 20 year old Kidd Condensing boiler
Refurbish a 20 year old condensing boiler? If you have to read this twice, then you probably haven’t got a Kidd VHE. Our subject of this blog is a 1990 Kidd Oil Model 1 unit in Canterbury, which had been ‘serviced’ in recent years by a contractor who was not familiar with the product, or condensers generally. The condense drains were all completely blocked and full of shale deposits, causing damage to the upper part of the boiler and casing. This had probably gone unchecked for a number of years. As a result, the projected 30 yr lifspan had been […]
Energy Management upgrade to Surrey property
For this update, we are near Dorking in Surrey, UK. 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. Truth is, the previous owner was right! Still available today, these boilers […]
Replacement water system in cellar for multi bathroom residence
ºOur customer has a large 3 storey Victorian detached property in Dulwich. In common with many houses in this area, an old gravity fed hot and cold water system using loft tanks was employed. Our customer wished to gradually update his house to new mains pressure fed bathrooms, using European high pressure taps, and wisely didn’t fancy the prospect of shower pumps. He also wanted to make use of the loft space currently occupied by the large water tanks, and remove the old copper hot water storage cylinder on the 1st floor to make room for another shower. Our brief was […]
Flying Kidd boiler; Leatherhead, Surrey
Our client, owner of a large private house near Leatherhead, had already used HWCH to replace a troublesome Keston LPG fired boiler in the swimming pool complex with a new Viessmann Vitodens 200 light commercial boiler. The main property was oil fired and used an old Trianco kerosene boiler in the cellar. This unit was an 8yr old inefficient boiler and was oversized for the property, being rated at 120Kw. We proposed replacing this with a Kidd Very High Efficiency Model 260; this has an output of around 260,000Btu (around 76Kw). Old Trianco boiler (you can’t buy cheaper) being […]
Kidd Boiler in renovation of large house in Tandridge, Surrey
The Kidd boiler was very popular in the early years (1982 onwards) with people in the music industry, many of whom were pioneers of environmental awareness. Abba, Peter Gabriel and the Alan Parsons Project are some notable customers of Kidd Boilers over the years. Inside a Kidd Model 260 – stripped down, preparing for lifting In a recently completed installation in Oxted, Surrey, we had to lower a Kidd Model 260 into an internal boiler room of a large private house. There was no space for a conventional crane, and to install a lifting hoist would have required some quite […]
Kidd VHE boiler in beautiful house near Outwood, Surrey
Another Grade II listed job for HWCH; our client had an old Worcester Bosch oil boiler in an external cupboard. This had unfortunately been unreliable in recent years. Our client wanted a reliable, energy efficient solution, with low emissions and a long service life. A Kidd Model 2 was specified, together with the Kidd seam welded aluminium flue, to pass up inside the existing chimney. The house was covered in hand made clay tiles and we wanted to cause minimal disruption, so we used a truck mounted crane to access the chimney, remove the old liner and insert the Kidd […]
