Gas / Boiler Fitters Could I Have Some Advice Please??

[Urban Sports]

Morning,

I have a large detached house which has a large and inefficient boiler fitted, it was probably adequate but the house has been extended, and I'm proposing to extend it further.

The boiler will not be up to the job as it struggles now as it is.

I did ask somebody a while ago and they said that the type of boiler I have would not be built anymore, it is a 4 way(????) boiler, anyway here is a pic



What I'm asking is can a newer more efficient boiler be fitted with minimal work to the existing plumbing as re plumbing is out of the question because the pipes are buried in the floors.

If it is possible to source one, where can I get one?

Cheers

[Ferg]

I'm assuming that you have that boiler fitted on a gravity system. This means that the primary pipework from the boiler to the cylinder coil isn't pumped, the heat simply rises. The heating circuit will, unless it's not been touched since the bronze age, be pumped. You can confirm all this by checking the pipes exiting the boiler. It will most likely have 4, not including the gas pipe.
Converting it to fully pumped (two pipes, and the only type of system which will be compliant with the efficiency regulations) is not always straightforward. It's to do with having an uninterrupted vent from the boiler to the header tank. You must NOT have any pumps or valves etc capable of obstructing that vent.
Sealing the system is a possibility, but it may well be that the original system might not be capable of taking the 3Bar pressure which is possible. You need to get a REAL heating engineer in to tell you what you need to do.

[Urban Sports]

It is all as you said although there is no obstruction at the vent.

I do intend to get an engineer in it's just that the last one I had in said he couldn't get anything to fit / work!!

I can't be the only person with this problem the house was only built in 1970 and I very much doubt that's the original boiler......although I have been known to be wrong!

Thanks for the help Ferg : thumbup:

[Ferg]

Urban Sports said:

It is all as you said although there is no obstruction at the vent.

I do intend to get an engineer in it's just that the last one I had in said he couldn't get anything to fit / work!!

I can't be the only person with this problem the house was only built in 1970 and I very much doubt that's the original boiler......although I have been known to be wrong!

Thanks for the help Ferg : thumbup:

If you can imagine this:

One pipe needs to come off your boiler and before anything else, vent to the tank. THEN it will be cold fed down ANOTHER pipe (OK, fellow heating people, let's not confuse by arguing that point) THEN it will be pumped into a tee which will split it to heating circuit and cylinder coil. If you try to draw that you'll see the issue. It's currently (I would imagine) vented off the flow pipe to the cylinder....


Edited to add..
This IS a very common problem when converting gravity systems to fully pumped.

Edited by Ferg on Tuesday 24th August 18:50

[netherfield]

Ferg said:

Urban Sports said:

It is all as you said although there is no obstruction at the vent.

I do intend to get an engineer in it's just that the last one I had in said he couldn't get anything to fit / work!!

I can't be the only person with this problem the house was only built in 1970 and I very much doubt that's the original boiler......although I have been known to be wrong!

Thanks for the help Ferg : thumbup:

If you can imagine this:

One pipe needs to come off your boiler and before anything else, vent to the tank. THEN it will be cold fed down ANOTHER pipe (OK, fellow heating people, let's not confuse by arguing that point) THEN it will be pumped into a tee which will split it to heating circuit and cylinder coil. If you try to draw that you'll see the issue. It's currently (I would imagine) vented off the flow pipe to the cylinder....


Edited to add..
This IS a very common problem when converting gravity systems to fully pumped.

Edited by Ferg on Tuesday 24th August 18:50

Hands up everybody who understood what Ferg just posted.

[Urban Sports]

netherfield said:

Ferg said:

Urban Sports said:

It is all as you said although there is no obstruction at the vent.

I do intend to get an engineer in it's just that the last one I had in said he couldn't get anything to fit / work!!

I can't be the only person with this problem the house was only built in 1970 and I very much doubt that's the original boiler......although I have been known to be wrong!

Thanks for the help Ferg : thumbup:

If you can imagine this:

One pipe needs to come off your boiler and before anything else, vent to the tank. THEN it will be cold fed down ANOTHER pipe (OK, fellow heating people, let's not confuse by arguing that point) THEN it will be pumped into a tee which will split it to heating circuit and cylinder coil. If you try to draw that you'll see the issue. It's currently (I would imagine) vented off the flow pipe to the cylinder....


Edited to add..
This IS a very common problem when converting gravity systems to fully pumped.

Edited by Ferg on Tuesday 24th August 18:50

Hands up everybody who understood what Ferg just posted.

I did actually!!