Processing the area water supply to help the central heating boiler

There are countless products available in the market that you can add to your heating system to ensure that it runs properly, and there are several other products that can do work for you even in standalone mode. Any household system, be it a refrigerator or television set or electrical wiring, will function better and more economically if it is well serviced. Environmental agencies and local authorities constantly advise us to economise our carbon footprint by switching off unneeded lights and electric devices and by setting our thermostats at lower temperatures. All the above enlisted ways effectively save energy, protect the environment and bring down the electricity bill. But how about making your central heating system operate more effectively? The accumulation of sludge and limescale deposits in your central heating system will reduce its efficiency.

If you live in a region where hard water is being supplied, then you should look for water treatment methods to prevent sludge and limescale from damaging your central heating system.

The term water treatment encompasses many different remedies for the protection of your system. A wide range of water treatment products including scale reducers and inhibitors, magnetic and electronic lime fighters, gunk removers, noise reducers and anti-freeze are available.

If you are living in UK, you should first ascertain the hardness of the water you are getting. If you spot limescale formation inside your kettle or bath taps, there is probably hard water running in your taps. Any accumulation of limescale will make your system run less economically and therefore increase your heating bill. Just a small, thin layer of scale in your hot water cylinder can increase your fuel bills by as much as 40%. When calcium carbonate precipitates out of the hard water, it forms limescale inside the boiler. If you live in a soft water region, then you need not worry about limescale that much; however, if you are unsure about the water quality, then without any wavering seek advice.

The water treatment options work by changing water’s molecular structure, it changes the way water behaves. One way of modification is to convert a structure completely to another, another is to take out the mischievous component, and yet another way is to prevent the structure from becoming solid, thus leaving its normal process unrealized.

There are different types of chemical test kits available that can help you to ascertain the corrosion potential of water by measuring the pH, chloride, iron and copper levels.

First, you must ensure that your system has been installed by a competent person just knowing that you must never directly connect aluminium to copper or brass because simply by connecting different metals can start a reaction which causes corrosion. You must get your gas connections done by a person registered with CORGI as the law requires this.

It is a good idea to plan ahead, if you are having a new system installed, think which water treatment you will require as some can be fitted to your system. However in case you are just updating your existing one, you can start with flushing the system and then think of any water treatment, there are chemicals you can add to your central heating system to reduce corrosion and gunk build up.

Heating systems take water from the mains water supply and there are various systems that you can attach to your mains supply to deal with hard water problems, however, it is worth noting that systems that are put in to soften water in your home are only for household use and will do nothing for your central heating system problems. They will help make detergents and soaps lather more readily but do not help in the fight to get your heating system working efficiently.

With regards to heating systems, you have to prevent three important things viz,limescale, corrosion and biological growth.

Corrosion can start from the moment the system is set up and filled with water from the mains supply. Corrosion produces gunk and this prevents free circulation, this can eventually lead to formation of cold spots on radiators. Pinholes can develop in the radiators which can make the boiler noisy when heating up.

Limescale results from the presence of calcium and magnesium in water, hard water regions have these elements more than the rest of the country. When the water is heated, these minerals deposit, forming a hard crust that grows with time and blocks the pipes. This again can manifest itself with a noisy heating system.

Biological growth in the system is another one to avoid. The growth enters the system through open tanks in certain types of heating system. After entering into the system, they starts breeding and produce slime and gunk. In addition to the tank, they grow into the pipes and block them; thereby the efficiency of the system is further reduced.

Plenty of free help is available on the net. These resources cover product details as well as user feedback. It is recommended that you begin with the producers of the various systems. You can see below a list of some of the most popular products and their manufacturers. You can also gain additional information and seek advice through different blogs or forums, some may be run by the manufacturers.

All the best with your treatment and let’s hope you can get your heating systems working as efficiently as possible to save you some cash.

Posted in Safety