Improving water supply and Acorn heating pipework issues
Our customer lives in a remote rural location near Warlingham, in Surrey, UK. They asked us to provide a proposal to update their old Grant boiler. Interestingly, it had rotted through a few years previously, and their heating technician had located a comparatively healthy heat secondhand heat exchanger in Cornwall, which he had successfully fitted. The ladder type steel radiators suffered from perpetual air and some had stopped working, others had lost the upper sections and were partially cold, something which venting could not cure. I was intrigued because although the system was fitted with a header tank, there was […]
Remove Ideal iStor boiler and fit super new Viessmann and Fabdec system
We’ve published a similar story here before, which is one of the reasons why our customer in this case study called us. He recently bought a relatively new property (2011) with an Ideal iStor on the second floor, it wasn’t working properly, and he had been advised that it had been a money pit since virtually day one. The other reason he got in contact with Hot Water & Central Heating Ltd was that he had used us for boiler installation before, in this case around 11 years ago (not in this house!). A refreshing number of our early customers […]
Quick Combi installation. Installation after online quote by internet firm turns into a disaster.
Today we’re in Sevenoaks, UK. This one is an interesting story, in essence our customer needed a new boiler, their existing one was leaking badly, but contractually it is more complex. They chose one of the new breed of internet based suppliers, where a quote is given after filling out some internet questions with the help of pictures and tick boxes. If this is acceptable, a deposit is taken, the job is booked and you can (apparently) sit back in the comfort of knowing all is well. The internet based company they chose had all the right credentials, including peer […]
Fabdec unvented cylinder, cows, – and mother in laws – in Minehead
In our industry, there are few genuine innovations. When you look behind the hype, very little is new. The unvented mains pressure hot water cylinder existed for years on the continent, but in the UK it has only been permitted for domestic applications since 1986! This is because storing significant quantities of pressurised hot water brings certain risks, the one people get excited about being explosion. Unvented cylinders deliver mains direct hot and cold services to all outlets in the house, dispensing with the need for a water tank in the loft. They are typically the next stage up in […]
1960s Potterton Diplomat full of soot
Our customer in Twickenham was the proud owner of this Potterton Diplomat. We’ve scrapped a few of these recently; whilst frighteningly inefficient by modern standards, when one looks at the whole life cost, the fact that it has lasted at least as long as three contemporary boilers; perhaps it has helped save the planet by comparison with so called ‘green’ boilers?? What it nearly didn’t do, was save the owner of the house, who is partially sighted and aged well into his 80s. The boiler was completely sooted up, so much so that flames had started appearing up the front […]
Viessmann light commercial in Edenbridge
Pyser Optics are a long established company in Edenbridge, specialising in equipment for broadcasting and defence markets across the World. In fact, in a previous job, I used to order Broadcast TV camera lenses from them! Small world, they say. We were asked to specify a replacement for a 96Kw output SIME cast iron sectional boiler, which had been classed as unsafe. It was used to heat the main administration block of Pyser. Our heat calculations suggested that an 80Kw boiler would be more than adequate. We provided Pyser Optics Ltd with two options; a cheaper solution using a mainstream […]
New model ATAG combi, runaway installer and Evohome zoning using OpenTherm
We’ve been installing commercial sized ATAG boilers for some time, in fact, you will find some others on this blog. ATAG have recently relaunched their domestic offering in the UK, and now offer 10 year warranties and 24hr technician support. ATAG are a premium brand boiler manufacturer from the Netherlands, although a stake is now owned by Ariston MTS Group. Our customer had selected an ATAG IC Economiser 39, which is a combi boiler augmented with ‘designed at birth’ flue gas heat recovery (rather than tacked on afterwards like most other manufacturers), and reputed to be the most efficient boiler […]
Smart Meters
As part of a (mercifully) occasional series on this blog, where I comment about things that might not be all they seem in our industry, I thought I should say a few words about ‘Smart meters’. You will probably have heard, or seen, advertisements encouraging homeowners to have them installed. Smart meters are being promoted as helping you, the customer, understand where your energy consumption originates from, and manage it better to reduce costs. They are also being sold as being a key part in the process of you being facilitated to change suppliers easily, to obtain the best prices […]
Ideal Istor finally gets the heave ho
Our customers in today’s case study bought a ‘new build’ around 8 years ago, in the Redhill area of Surrey. Inside, these properties are very spacious, and the rear elevations have got multiple Velux windows, L shaped lounges, very light and open. Unfortunately, the developers chose to ruin their good work by fitting an Ideal iStor boiler. Our customer had fortunately taken out a British Gas Homecare contract on theirs, but after years of visits including a protracted one from the manufacturer themselves, and having replaced every part, some more than once, plus a powerflush etc, they decided it was […]
New Lennox warm air heater in Bromley
Warm air, or Hot Air heating, is where heated air is recirculated from the house, through a heating bank, and then back into the house again. It uses a network of ducts, usually in a ‘tree and branch’ formation in a domestic property. The heat bank could be heated directly by Gas, LPG, Electricity or Oil (indeed, there are a few other options as well). Installed correctly, using the latest equipment, warm air has the ability to be arguably the most efficient way to heat a space. This is because there is only one transfer of energy, from the original […]
