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 […]
Greenstar 8000 LPG 70Kw Boiler Cascade in listed building

Our customer bought a large house near Ashford Kent, in a rural setting. They knew the property needed a lot of work, the previous owner had dedicated his life to refurbishing it, and to be frank, there was an awful lot still to be done when he handed over the keys. This was a refreshing refurbishment to be asked to get involved with; our customer had read this blog from time to time, and we were on his list for this project before we knew about it. Unlike some customers, who would buy a large property, have it completely remodelled […]
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 […]
Underwater listed building, novel oil flue system

Here we have an unusual case study. It is a listed building in a rural part of Kent, UK, on top of a hilly area. It has a large cellar covering most of the floor area of the house. In very heavy rainfall in 2019, the road (some considerable distance from the house) became flooded, and due to some collapsed drainage on the highway, a very large amount of water gathered in a pond. At some point during the night, the water found its way into a cellar light, smashed the window, and quickly filled the entire cellar, all the […]
Barn conversion near Tonbridge, Kent

Here we find ourselves down a rural unmarked lane in Kent, the site of a large barn conversion. It comprises a two storey hallway, and many original features. Much of the house is already underfloor heated, using an L&K system with around 14 separately controlled zones. What makes this system unusual is the various heat sources used to create the heating and hot water. There’s two fuel burning stoves, some solar thermal on the rooftop, and a Rayburn solid fuel stove. This was all installed by the present owners, who were almost singlehandedly responsible for the design and execution around […]
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 […]
Some Church installations 2016:

We have been very busy over the last year, converting a number of church campuses over to Honeywell Evohome zoning, as well as in many cases updating the boiler plant at the same time. Evohome was originally designed for domestic use, allowing a room by room control of heating. We’ve found that sophisticated commercial heating control systems are great if you employ a dedicated plant room manager – but for many light commercial applications, it is simply too complex for those expected to control it. There are huge energy savings to be made by only heating the areas in use at certain […]
Norwegian Chalet, imported by the Marquess of Tankerville

We work on some interesting houses in our job, and this was one of them. Hidden away in a rural location near Tunbridge Wells, in around 1906 this house was erected in the grounds of Greystoke House, home of the Earl of Tankerville. The house had first caught the attention of the Marquess of Tankerville whilst on holiday in Norway, so, naturally, it was disassembled and brought over to Great Britain. She planned to use it to board visiting guests at Greystoke. The Marquess died in 1922, having handed over the property to the China Inland Missionary Commission in 1918. It […]
William Pitt the Younger’s house

The focus of our case study is a listed building in Westerham, Kent, which was once the residence of William Pitt the younger. Westerham is a small town steeped in history, and features Chartwell, home of Winston Churchill, Downe House, home to Charles Darwin, and Squerryes Court. Chevening, the deputy prime minister’s estate, is just down the road. Featuring timbers that are believed to date back to the 13th century, in more recent times William Pitts’ former house has been an upmarket restaurant, and an Indian fine dining eaterie. The present owners purchased the property in a state of dilapidation, […]