Location: Crumpsall, Gtr. Manchester, Lancs
Date: Feb 2009
Description: This job started out with a referral to look at an un-vented cylinder which had stopped working and had already been looked at by several people in an attempt to sort it out. Everytone that looked at it had a go but couldn’t sort it out. That wasn’t surprising as when we viewed it we knew it was wrong and we featured in our cowboy of the week award for poor wiring standards.
The cylinder that was in use was an indirect cylinder which means that there is a coil within the cylinder by which hot water is circulated by way of a boiler (gas, oil, electric) to heat the water inside the tank which is then used by the homeowner. This particular un-vented cylinder however was piped up rather differently. The coil that should have been used to circulate heated water through the cylinder was actually fitted with a central heating pump and being used to heat the flat. Where was the heat coming from you might ask? The cylinder was fitted with a double coiled immersion heated running directly to a 32amp feed. The idea was that the cylinder would heat up via the immersion heater mounted in the top of the cylinder and then the coil would eventually heat up near the bottom of the tank and that heated water would be circulated throughout the property?! It would work but not very efficiently and certainly not very warm considering the cylinder was only set to operate up to sixty degrees C.
Here are some before shots:
So we condemned the entire system and started again using what we could from the old system. Despite the fact that the system was electrically a bit of a mess the pipe work, with the exception of the circulating pump, was correct. There were overpressure devices fitted with properly sized pipe work and there were expansion vessels in place. The decision was made to install an Aztec electric boiler and re-pipe the problem areas to operate in an S-Plan configuration. We stripped out the stuff we didn’t require and re-piped the system to allow for two circuits (DHM/CH) added the required bypass, a pump and a new set of controls. The electrical side was also updated with a mini consumer unit in place of the old isolator and we added an RCD for protection as well. The entire job was completed in short order and now works as it should. It’s safe, efficient and doesn’t cost the earth to run.
Here are some after shots:
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