Live in a soft water supply area and get smaller gas charges
Live in a soft water supply area and get smaller gas charges
Manufacturers have made multiple products and services that you can add to your central heating system to help it to perform efficiently for a longer period of time. The point being that if you look after your system it will look after you. Our Government and environmental activists have been telling us to switch off lights, turn TVs completely off instead of leaving them on standby, and lower the temperature of our washing machines as well us the thermostats of our rooms. All of these are effective ways of saving energy which will not only help environmentally but also reduce many household energy bills. Are you paying the same attention to your central heating system? The heating system is also prone to reduced efficiency caused by corrosion, limescale formation and gunk buildup.
Whether your water is hard or soft can play a crucial role in the life of your central heating system and water treatment can help here – to extend the healthy working of your system with products such as Fernox.
The term ‘water treatment’ is one that is used to describe various methods of taking care of your system. gunk extractors, limescale inhibitors, electronic and magnetic lime reducers, anti-freeze compounds and noise reducing agents are some of the extensive water treatment products sold in the market today.
You can either get hard or soft water in UK, depending on the area you live in. Limescale deposits are common in areas that get hard water, and these deposits are first seen on kettles, taps and shower heads. Limescale reduces efficiency and adds to heating bills. You may be surprised to hear that you bills can increase by as much as forty percent with just a thin layer of limescale in your hot water cylinder. When calcium carbonate precipitates out of the hard water, it forms limescale inside the boiler. 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.
Many water treatments produce the desired effect by changing how water molecules and the particles inside act through modifications of their structure. Some will change one structure for another, others remove the offending structure and another will stop them from being able to make a solid leaving them in suspension.
There are different types of chemical test kits available that can help you to ascertain the corrosion potential of water by measuring the pH, chloride, iron and copper levels.
First, you must ensure that your system has been installed by a competent person just knowing that you must never directly connect aluminium to copper or brass because simply by connecting different metals can start a reaction which causes corrosion. You must get your gas connections done by a person registered with CORGI as the law requires this.
You should decide about the water treatment well in advance, especially when you are installing a new heating system. If you are updating your existing system you would be looking at flushing the whole system before adding any water treatment solutions.
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. They will not have any effect on how efficiently your system works, but they will make detergents and soaps lather up more easily.
The three main things that you need to prevent are corrosion, limescale and biological growth.
The first problem that you may have to face is corrosion, it can start as soon as the system is installed and filled with water. Corrosion produces sludge and this prevents free circulation, this can eventually lead to formation of cold spots on radiators. It can cause pinholes in the radiators and if left can cause the boiler to become noisy.
Limescale is caused by calcium and magnesium which is present in the water hard water areas having far more of these minerals than other parts of the country. Heat causes these minerals to precipitate and step by step encrust the inner lining of pipes, leading to obstruction. A vibrating and wheezing heating system can be a real nuisance.
You should also be wary of biological growth. This is usually introduced into the system through open tanks. Once in the system it breeds producing slime and gunk. If the growth occurs in pipework, it can decrease the efficacy of the entire system.
Plenty of free help is available on the internet. It would be wise to take time to go through some of this information. Manufacturers of water treatment products provide detailed data and user references on their websites. You can find a list manufacturers and the popular items they carry in this site. Forums and Blogs are another good source of free advice and wholesome information; you can also use these to directly get in touch with the suppliers.
So wish you all the best for your water treatment, make sure you chose the one that is effective and at the same time trims your household costs by helping you maintain an efficient central heating system.