News Release
#3
Boiler
Replacement London News Feeds From.....
Worcester
Bosch........
Worcester Bosch
As part of the Old Home Superhome project set up by the
Sustainable Energy Academy charity and National Energy
Foundation (NEF), Worcester, part of the Bosch Group has
provided two of its award winning products to give a flagship
eco-home an energy efficient heating and hot water system.
Old Home SuperHome is an ongoing programme to transform the
energy efficiency of existing housing stock in the UK, with the
ultimate aim of reducing domestic carbon emissions by 60%. The
initiative will look to establish a network of exemplar
dwellings, which are local and publicly accessible within 15
minutes to nearly everyone in the country.
Worcester Bosch Reports.......
During a particularly bitter coldsnap after Christmas, a
number installers and boiler manufacturers had to respond to
customers experiencing problems with frozen condensate pipes,
preventing their boilers from working. Martyn Bridges, director
of marketing and technical support at Worcester, Bosch Group,
explains what caused the problem and the best ways to avoid it
in future.
“Condensing boilers have proven to be an excellent
development in heating technology by ensuring much higher
levels of fuel efficiency, spelling good news both for
consumers, in terms of lower energy bills, and for the
environment. However, there is one small issue with the way
they work, that did cause a problem for some customers during
the very cold start to 2009. The good news is that it can be
easily rectified.
“As the name suggests, a condensing boiler produces
condensate and this has to be dispersed out of the boiler to
the waste system. In mainland Europe, Germany for example, they
have been using condensing boilers for many years and as a
rule, they only allow the condensate pipe to be terminated
inside the home. When this is the case the condensate will flow
into the waste water system of the building and therefore will
not be subjected to extreme sub zero weather conditions.
However, in Germany their architecture is very different to
here. They provide a plant room in almost all homes where the
boiler, hot water cylinder and often washing machine will be
situated. So there is a dedicated room in the property where
the waste pipe can receive this condensate.
“Generally in the UK, most homes don’t have the benefit of a
plant room. We often have to install boilers in kitchens and
cylinders in the loft or airing cupboard. In fact, quite often
in this country, homes don’t allow space for much more than a
wall hung boiler to be fitted. Therefore getting the condensate
to an internal waste pipe system isn’t always possible. In
these instances, the UK regulations allow the condensate pipe
to be terminated externally from the property. This is all well
and good most of the time but when we do experience sub-zero
temperatures and the pipes are transporting small quantities of
tepid condensate from the boiler into a waste pipe which is
exposed to these freezing conditions – there is a likelihood
that the pipe will freeze up.
“At the beginning of the year, parts of the country were
experiencing figures of around -10°c to -14°c overnight. If you
combine that with a wind chill factor, it could reduce that
temperature to something like -20°c. As a result, any external
condensate pipe that hasn’t been insulated or is very exposed
could potentially freeze, which in many cases will prevent the
boiler from firing because the condensate can’t be dispersed
and builds up within the pipework.
“To address this problem, firstly we would always recommend
that installers terminate the condensate pipe internally within
the house whenever possible and that terminating externally
should only be considered as a last resort.
“If however, because of the nature of the building, the pipe
cannot be terminated internally, we would advise that a number
of precautionary steps are taken. Firstly, the pipework should
be increased in diameter from the usual 21mm to at least 32mm
and preferably more. Secondly, the pipework should be insulated
with weatherproof insulation. Finally, the pipe should be
fitted as vertically as possible to ensure the condensate is
drained away quickly and it should be terminated closely to the
floor in a drain area to avoid cold winds blowing up the
pipe.
“Even if these steps are taken, it can still be so cold that
the pipes freeze. Because of this we would recommend to the
homeowner that they should leave the heating running overnight.
At Worcester, we have carried out research which suggests that
if you leave the heating on at a reduced temperature, say
around 15°c, then that should keep the condensate warm, which
will help to avoid freezing. The obvious concern here however,
is that we will be using energy when perhaps we wouldn’t have
done ordinarily. However, with these settings it will take less
time, and therefore less fuel, to bring the house up to the
desired temperature, than if the boiler was firing from
cold.
“The other advice we would offer to the customer would be to
turn their boiler thermostat to a higher temperature setting
when they would normally have their heating on. This means the
boiler will be operating at a higher flow and return
temperature, and so will create less condensate, and in some
instances no condensate at all. However, this procedure is only
recommended with a radiator heating system. It wouldn’t be
suitable for underfloor heating. The surface temperatures of
the radiators will also be hotter so consideration should be
given before this is undertaken, again though we are using more
energy than we normally would have done.
“For those customers that have a frozen condensate pipe
issue, they can attempt to thaw the pipe to alleviate the
problem. Using something like a hot water bottle wrapped around
the pipe is quite effective. However, we wouldn’t advise
pouring hot water on the pipe, as the liquid is likely to
freeze fairly quickly around and underneath it.
“In summary these measures are “get out of jail” suggestions
to allow the heating system to continue to operate, really the
situation needs remedying on a more permanent basis and
re-routing or insulating and increasing the diameter of the
condensate discharge pipework is required.
“We should now have seen out the extremely cold temperatures
that have caused this issue for another year. But we suggest
homeowners who have experienced this problem contact their
installer to discuss some of the measures mentioned to
hopefully avoid it happening again.
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