What can you place in your water supply to help your boiler
What can you place in your water supply to help your boiler
There are many optional products that are available to add to your central heating system to keep it running on a regular basis, and there are others that you can install and let them do the work for you day by day. In either case, your system will be well-prepared to work efficiently if you take the time to maintain it. We have all heard the advice from the Government and environmental agents telling us to turn off our lights, turn off TVs and not leaving them on standby, and reducing our washing machine temperature and room thermostats. All of these are effective ways of saving energy which will not only help environmentally but also reduce many household energy bills. But, how will you make sure that your central heating system works efficiently? As the layers of sludge and limescale starts piling up, the efficiency of the system starts dwindling increasing your energy costs.
You should be thinking about water treatment to stop this accumulation of sludge and limescale, especially if you live in a hard water area.
Water treatment refers to several aspects of taking care of your central heating system. Many types of water treatment products such as scale reducers and inhibitors, magnetic and electronic anti-lime mechanisms, sludge destroyers, noise reducers and anti-freeze can be used for water treatment.
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. Limescale deposits inside boiler parts, pipework and radiators increases energy consumption and can lead to banging and bumping in the pipework. A tiny layer of scale inside the cylinder of your hot water can augment your fuel cost by up to forty percent. Limescale is nothing, but calcium deposits in your central heating system. Soft water which contains less calcium salts is less prone to this scale formation, however it is advisable to test the water and take precautions.
A majority of water treatment methods alter the molecular structure of water and the associated particles, and thereby changes the way water behaves. Some methods change one structure into another; a few others, remove the interfering structure; and the remaining, prevent the formation of limescale.
There are chemical test kits which will measure the ph and chloride levels and also the iron and copper levels so that you can measure the probable corrosion potential and rate.
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 gas connections should be made only by a trades person, who is Gas Safe registered (with CORGI).
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 revamping the old system, you should rinse out the whole system before adding the water treatment method.
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. These water softening chemicals can produce better lather and are good for your skin, but they cannot reverse the choking and pitting inside the heating system.
With regards to heating systems, you have to prevent three important things viz,limescale, corrosion and biological growth.
Right from the time the system is installed and commissioned, internal conditions can cause corrosion to set in. 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.
Hard water has a higher concentration of calcium and magnesium salts which cause limescale deposits within the system. Once the water is heated it leaves deposits of these minerals which form a hard crust, building up over time and blocking pipes etc. This can be another cause of the heating boiler making strange noises.
The next problem to deal with is the biological growth. The growth enters the system through open tanks in certain types of heating system. After the biological matter gets into the tank it begins to breed and produces gunk and slime. This can also grow and cause blockages in the pipework thereby reducing the efficiency of the whole system.
Plenty of free help is available on the net. It would be wise to take time to go through some of this information. I would start with the manufacturers themselves. You can find a list manufacturers and the popular items they carry in this site. You can also gain additional information and seek advice through different blogs or forums, some may be run by the manufacturers.
Good luck with your water treatment heres to energy cost-efficient central heating and hot water with lower household bills of course.