Your central heating likes its water to be treated
Your central heating likes its water to be treated
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 maintained. It is now well known, thanks to advice given by governments and environmental organisations, that we should save energy wherever possible by turning off lights, washing clothes at lower temperatures, switching televisions off and turning down thermostats. All these habits will result in lower household bills in addition to protecting the environment through energy saving. But what about getting your gas central heating system to work more efficiently? The build up of gunk and limescale deposits in your central heating system will cause it to run less efficiently.
You should be thinking about water treatment to stop this accumulation of gunk and limescale, especially if you live in a hard water area.
The term water treatment encompasses many different remedies for the protection of your system. Various products of water treatment are available like electronic line and magnetic filters, noise reducers, sludge removers, anti-freeze and scale reducers and inhibitors.
In the UK, depending on where you live, your water could range between hard and soft. Living in a hard water area means that you are prone to limescale your kettle probably being the first place that you will notice limescale deposits as well as on your showerhead and taps. Any collection of limescale will make your system run less economically and therefore increase your heating bill. You may be surprised to hear that you bills can increase by as much as 40% with just a thin layer of limescale in your hot water cylinder. Limescale is simply calcium deposits in your system. These problems are not seen in areas that get soft water, however in case of any doubt one should always seek advice.
The water treatment options work by changing water’s molecular structure, it changes the way water behaves. Water treatment works in different ways, it can change the structure or prevent the formation of solid or remove the offending particle altogether.
The outlook for possible corrosion can be determined by monitoring pH and salt levels as well as ionic conditions, using standard chemical testing kits.
The first thing that you need to do is to determine whether your system has been installed by a competent person or not; if different metals like aluminum and copper or brass are connected together, corrosion will set in immediately. The service technician fitting your gas connections should possess CORGI certification, this is now called Gas Safe and is a legal requirement.
If you plan ahead of time while having a new system assembled, you will be able to identify the water treatments you need and have some of them installed with your system. If you are updating your existing system you would be looking at flushing the whole system before adding any water treatment solutions.
Products added to the mains supply can soften hard water and improve the quality of water for domestic use, but they do not prevent or remedy deterioration of the central heating system. They will not have any effect on how efficiently your system works, but they will make detergents and soaps lather up more easily.
The three main things that you need to prevent are corrosion, limescale and biological growth.
From the very instant your heating system is in place corrosion can begin. Corrosion causes gunk in the system which can restrict the circulation causing cold spots on your 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. Once the water is heated it leaves deposits of these minerals which form a hard crust, building up over time and blocking pipes etc. Limescale can again make the central heating system noisy.
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 sludge. This can also grow and cause blockages in the pipework thereby reducing the efficiency of the whole system.
There is a lot of free advice on the internet. Please spare some time and go through this or read the other informative articles in this website. Lets first have a look at the manufacturers. Some well known manufacturers and their popular products are listed in this site, such as Sentinel or Fernox. 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 central heating systems working as expeditiously as possible to save you some hard cash.