An unusual warm air job using a Bosch Greenstar boiler
This is a house in a remote location near Maidstone, Kent. Some 200 years old, it was bought in a semi derelict condition over 35 years ago by the present owner, whose late husband was an architect. He remodelled and partially rebuilt the house, retaining all the period charm, but incorporating modern upgrades, including adding ducted warm air heating. The heating plant room was around the back of the house in an external cupboard, and the original warm air unit (oil fired) was replaced around 14 years ago by a local contractor. This 1990s unit, a Lennox oil fired cabinet, […]
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 […]
Oil boiler goes up chimney
OK. so we’ve covered a Worcester -Bosch gas boiler using an existing chimney, so here’s an oil boiler version. Sticking with Worcester-Bosch, this one is a Camray Greenstar 18/25 Utility model. We’re in a remote area south of Dorking, Surrey, accessed via a long farm track. The property had a Trianco oiler, made around 16 years ago, with a leaking heat exchanger. This is the end of the road for an oil boiler, because the heat exchanger is the whole metal frame of the boiler. Trianco have always been a budget boiler manufacturer, and have, as a company, seemingly lurched […]
Gas boiler goes up chimney in house
We’re in Purley, Surrey. Our customer has an old atmospheric Potterton Kingfisher II 100,000 Btu in the basement, connected to the internal chimney system. We could have resited the new boiler on the external wall but the flue outlet would have detracted from the external aesthetics of the house, so instead we discussed the option of connecting the new boiler to the old chimney system. This is always the more expensive option, because the new liner system has to be installed from the rooftop and comprises a large number of parts. However, in this instance, our customer wanted an ‘invisible’ […]
A few weeks next to the seaside
Here we have a large private residence in an exclusive area of Hove, near Brighton. Our client had just purchased the property, and engaged us following finding this blog on our web site. There were two main tasks; firstly, one of the two boilers for the property had failed and was beyond economical repair. The second problem was the water supply. The road is on the top of a hill overlooking the coast and the water flow rate was very poor, in the region of just 8 litres per minute. The static pressure was also poor, varying between 1.0-1.5 bar. […]
An external combi in this weather?
For this posting were are in Lingfield, a small town in Surrey. Our customers have bought an old house which has never seen the benefit of Central Heating. Furthermore, it is January 2011 and there is snow everywhere. To leave the maximum room in the kitchen, we’ve suggested an external oil combination boiler. A Worcester-Bosch external heatslave was our recommendation, it comes in an insulated and rather fetching dark green cabinet, noticeably better made than the product sold by their main competitor, with rubber seals round the doors etc. We fitted all new copper pipework inside the house, together with […]
Move boiler down the garden
Here we are near Tunbridge Wells. Our customer had an old wall mounted Boulter Camray oil boiler on the rear of his house. The unit was beyond redemption, having had a small internal fire. He quite fancied moving the boiler further away from the house, so we looked into moving it down the garden. Our customer was a builder, so he created a neat pipe trench and raised boiler plinth to our specifications. The property has a river running nearby, which has been known to flood, so the raised platform will protect his investment! We suggested a Worcester-Bosch Camray external […]
Conventional boiler to combination in South Croydon Flat
Our customer had an ageing Potterton wall hung boiler, which was affected by sludge, and wished to convert it to a mains pressure combination boiler solution. The old boiler and cylinder had been squeezed into a new kitchen conversion, so it was very awkward to access the constituent parts. We removed the old wall hung boiler and cylinder, and fitted a new Worcester-Bosch condensing combination boiler. The hot water cylinder, tanks and associated controls were no longer required in the new configuration, and were scrapped. We cut a neat slot in the kitchen cabinet carcass, which allowed us to achieve […]
Unusual house in Reigate, Surrey, gets unique underfloor heating
This property had an old HarcoPak, which is an integrated hot water cylinder and cold water storage tank, mounted in a frame on the 1st floor. It was heated by an old Potterton Kingfisher 100BF floorstanding boiler, which had been installed with a flue a couple of inches from the rear door and an undersized gas pipe; both of which were contrary to the gas regs at the time the house was constructed, and still are. We removed the Potty boiler, leaving a large hole for the on site building team of Mizon Builders to brick up. We relocated the […]
45 year old boiler bites the dust
The old Potterton oil boiler had been installed around 1965, and would still be working were it not for a failed oil pump that was no longer available. Sited in the utility room of this delightful property surrounded by fields, and with a large concrete asbestos flue running up the rear of the building, we suggested the replacement was sited in the detached garage. Another boiler subject to the UK Government’s Scrappage Scheme ( which finished in March 2010), we recommended a Worcester-Bosch Camray Greenstar condensing oil boiler to replace it. Holes were core drilled in the utility room wall […]
