Condensing boilers, a brief guide
Condensing boilers, a brief guide
A condensing boiler is a high efficiency advanced boiler that contains an extra heat exchanger so that the red-hot flue gases transfer a large proportion of their energy to start to heat the cold water input. When running at maximum efficiency, the water steam produced in the burning process condenses back into water releasing the latent heat of vaporisation.
A result will be this liquid, called condensate, which is typically acidic, will need to be piped away to a drain or water drain. The boiler should be fitted to a wall and the output gases will pass through the flue. Hot water is rendered by a modest recepticle tank to help quick hot water .
What size of boiler should I have fitted?
You should bear in mind that many years ago central heating engineers often put in boilers that had a higher yield than purely necessary.. Whilst this ensured that there was no possibility of the boiler not meeting the heat demand, irregardless of the wintertime weather, it also meant that they were not working a full production, and so running below their utmost efficiency. If you have improved the energy efficiency of your home since the present boiler was fitted in your house, it is highly likely that you will be recommended to install a smaller boiler than the current one.
Before you get a Modern boiler we advocate you get advice from a CORGI registered fitter.
Do the radiators need to be outsized with a condensing boiler?
The main driver for lower fuel use from a condensing boiler is that it has an outsized heat exchanger. More Prominent radiators would allow lower return temperatures, and so result in even better energy performance, but the additional benefit has not been regarded as cost effective, keeping in mind that the system is is only using a small part of its total capacity for the majority of the heating season. That in all probability remains true, though the reduced heating requirement for new build may well mean that homeowners would now allow over-sized radiators more willingly.
The SEDBUK initiative assessed these issues, during which it was mooted whether condensing boilers needed to be handled differently from others. The decision was that no new recommendations were necessitated, and the test results forall the boiler types use the same SEDBUK computation.