Condensing boilers, a brief guide
Condensing boilers, a brief guide
A condensing boiler is a money saving forward-looking boiler that contains an extra heat exchanger to enable the red-hot flue gases transfer most of their contained energy to pre warm the cold water input. Once running at a good efficiency, the water gases developed in the burning action condenses back into liquid form freeing the latent heat of vaporisation.
A result results in this liquid, named condensate, which is typically acidic, will need to be piped away to a drain or soak away. The boiler is required to be placed to a wall and the exhaust gases will travel through the flue. Hot water is served by a modest recepticle tank to enable rapid hot water accessibility.
What size of Boiler do I require?
It was a earlier practice to install oversize boilers. Whilst this meant that there was never the chance of the boiler not meeting the heat demand, even in the most glacial of conditions, it also meant that they were chiefly running at a reduced capacity, and so operating under their projected optimum efficiency. If you have bettered the energy efficiency of your household since the current boiler was installed in your house, you will probably find that you will be commended to install a smaller boiler than before.
Before you buy a Modern boiler we advocate you get advice from a CORGI registered installer.
If I get a condensing boiler should I fit large radiators?
The main efficiency gain from a condensing boiler is because it holds a bigger heat exchanger. Larger radiators would allow lower return temperatures, and so enable greater energy efficiency, but the additional benefit has not been viewed as cost effective, as you need to remember that that the system is is only using a small part of its total capacity for the main heating calendar months. Whilst this statement is correct homeowners would plausibly accept this in smaller properties.
The SEDBUK initiative assessed these topics, during which it was considered whether condensing boilers needed to be treated differently from others. The recommendation was that no new recommendations were necessitated, and the test results forthe condensing and the existing boilers use the same SEDBUK formula.