New Condensing boilers, the laymans guide
New Condensing boilers, the laymans guide
A condensing boiler is a money saving advanced boiler that integrates an additional heat exchanger so that the red-hot flue gases transfer a percentage of their energy to pre-heat the water in the boiler system. Once operating at peak efficiency, the water gases created in the operating process condenses back into liquid form loosing the latent heat of vaporisation.
A consequence results in this water, called condensate, which is typically acidic, required to be piped away to a waste pipe or water drain. The boiler will have to be fixed against a wall and the exhaust fumes will travel through the flue. Hot water is served by a little recepticle tank to facilitate speedy hot water accessibility.
How can I find the right size of boiler?
In earlier years boiler installers filled bigger boilers than were needed. Whilst this ensured that there was never the chance of the boiler neglecting to meet the need for heat, even in the most icy of conditions, it also meant that they were principally working at a part load, and so functioning under their configured optimal efficiency. If you have insulated your household since the present boiler was installed in your house, it is highly likely that you will be recommended to install a smaller boiler than the current one.
We recommend looking for professional advice from a CORGI registered installer before choosing an appropriate alternate boiler.
Do I need to set up oversize radiators with condensing boilers??
The main driver for lower fuel consumption from a condensing boiler comes from having a bigger heat exchanger. Bigger radiators would allow lower return temperatures, and so promote efficiency higher still, but the additional saving is not shown to be cost effective, as you should count the fact that that the system is working at very low capacity for the majority of the heating season. Whilst this assertion is correct householders would probably accept this in smaller properties.
The SEDBUK initiative considered these matters, during which it was argued whether condensing boilers needed to be treated differently from others. The result was that no new recommendations were called for, and the test results forall the boiler types use the same SEDBUK computation.