A combination boiler with warm air solution in Orpington, Kent.
Although we do over 100 boiler installations each year, we only feature a very small selection on our installation gallery. Quite simply, this is because many are very similar in scope and our web site would become very repetitive. Today we are at a 1960s property, in a village near Orpington, Kent. This case study involves a customer who desired instantaneous high flow hot water, and also had a Lennox gas warm air heater (dating from the 1960s) which needed to be replaced. We could have removed their gas water heater (long expired) and hot water storage cylinder, and fitted […]
Dorking house water supply transformation
This week we are working in Dorking, Surrey. Our customer has what was probably once a gate house, in a beautiful part of the country, adjacent to National Trust land. Living in the country has its benefits, but services one takes for granted in a built up area are often not provided, such as mains drainage and a Natural Gas supply. This property has neither (in common with mine!) but unfortunately it also has a poor water supply. Sited nearly half a mile from the nearest main, the house is fed from a long pipe that during peak times reverts […]
Hometronic system transforms comfort in Godalming property
Godalming is a beautifully rural part of Surrey, UK. This house in located in an isolated position, and was purchased by the present owners a couple of years ago. One of the things that had never been successful with this lovely house was the heating. Radiators worked, then they didn’t work at all, seemingly at random. There were a few electric and LPG heaters evident when I did the home survey – it was a cold house. Our customer is a senior creative figure in the electronic gaming arts industry, and he wanted to have zone based control of […]
Weather compensation on a Bosch boiler in West Norwood
Today we are in Norwood, London UK, and our customer has a lovely house, a Victorian Tardis-like property which is simply enormous when you step through the threshold. Unfortunately it had a horrid unreliable Ideal Response 120 combi boiler in the kitchen. The previous owner unwisely sited it at a peculiar height in the corner of the kitchen, and then made maintenance difficult by building wall units in front of it. Which made the three heat exchangers the boiler needed in the last ten years rather awkward to fit. We looked at moving the new boiler to one side, and […]
Multiple showers now possible!
Mains pressure hot and cold water systems are great, but only if there is enough water. If you don’t get enough water from your water main, running one outlet tends to stop another from working, which is rather irritating. Mains pressure systems are those connected to combination boilers, unvented cylinders (some call these ‘Megaflow’) and heatstores. Our customer today has a Boilermate III, which is a Gledhill manufactured unit commonly found in newer houses built in the 1990-2009 era. It uses a heatstore principle; this is a large vat of permanently heated water from the boiler, which is used as […]
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 […]
Large Townhouse in Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace, South London, UK, was a Victorian haven for the well to do, formerly known as Sydenham Hill. The area has been named after the amazing glass and iron building designed by Joseph Paxton, which is no longer with us having been destroyed by fire in 1936. The ornamental gardens associated with the huge exhibition area live on in rather reduced grandeur; the two massive water towers which powered the ornamental fountains and survived the fire were dismantled in the 2nd World War because it was believed they were being used as bombing navigational aids. The area has […]
Dodgy gas installations
From time to time (about once a month at the moment) we find some examples of lethal work carried out by others. Usually this is when we’re quoting for replacements or upgrades, because generally we’re busy enough not to get involved with servicing and repairing stuff we haven’t originally fitted. These two examples were spotted in May 2012. This is a boiler in a house extension in Croydon, South London, that a builder has ‘moved’ so he can finish a customer’s extension. The builder, a Chinese gentleman who refused to give his name but vehemently assured us and his […]
Outside boiler in Kent
Hello and welcome to our latest post. This job, undertaken during the Olympics, was on a listed property in Four Elms, Kent. It is an oil boiler (we seem to be doing lots of these at the moment), a Perrymatics Jetstreme MkII, and the owners of the property fancied updating it with a new high efficiency model, and relocating it outside the property. As usual, we were pleased to oblige! The Jetstreme was removed from the rear office area creating significantly more room, and also making the house quieter. The old boiler was an ‘open flue’ type so there […]
Viessmann Boiler upgrade and Honeywell EvoHome
Today we are removing a 12 year old Keston condensing gas boiler (don’t see many lasting that long!) and replacing it with a Viessmann WB1B 19Kw compact boiler. Our customer lives in Redhill, Surrey, and is what you would call an early adopter, as he understand technology and the benefits it can bring. He fitted a Trisave condensing boiler in the mid 80’s, then the Keston and now wanted a well made reliable boiler. Enter the Viessmann! He can’t believe how quiet the Viessmann is! We are also changing all the controls, fitting a few new radiators, and fitting […]
