How your local water supply can trim your energy efficiency and harm your central heating boiler

There are many optional products that are available to add to your 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. Regardless, a central heating systems that’s given proper care will work for you smoothly. The Government and environmental agencies repeatedly tell us about the ways to conserve energy like switching off the lights and appliances when not in use, re-adjusting the temperature of the room and washing machine according to the needs, and not leaving any electrical device in the standby mode. These environmentally conscious steps not only save the greenery on our planet, but also save the pound notes in our wallet. So how to make your central heating system run efficiently and reduce carbon dioxide? Your gas central heating’s efficacy decreases when limescale deposits and sludge accumulate in it.

To prevent a mass of sludge and limescale from building up in your system, especially where the water is hard, you must try water treatment.

The term ‘water treatment’ is one that is used to describe various methods of taking care of your system. sludge 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.

If you are living in UK, you should first ascertain the hardness of the water you are getting. Hard water exposes you to limescale — your kettle, shower head and taps being the most probable areas where you first notice limescale masses. Limescale not only reduces the efficiency of your system, but also increases your heating bills. A thin layer of limescale can increase your fuel bills by 40 percent. Limescale is nothing, but calcium deposits in your central heating system. If you live in a soft water region, then you need not worry about limescale that much; however, if you are uncertain about the water quality, then without any hesitation seek advice.

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.

The outlook for possible corrosion can be determined by monitoring pH and salt levels as well as ionic conditions, using standard chemical testing kits.

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 service technician fitting your gas connections should possess CORGI certification, this is now called Gas Safe and is a legal requirement.

Don’t rush in to making a decision, always carefully consider what type of water treatment you need with your particular system. It would be a good idea to completely flush your whole system before adding any water treatments.

The mains water supply provides water to the heating systems, one can fix various other systems with the mains supply in order to deal with the problem of hard water, however these systems that soften the water work only for your household, they don’t do much about the problems associated with the central heating system. These solutions can make detergent and soaps to lather effortlessly, but they will not be able to help the heating system to work efficiently.

Corrosion, limescale and biological growth are the three things that you should be looking to limit or stop from occurring.

From the very instant your heating system is in place corrosion can begin. Your radiators can suffer from cold spots caused by restricted circulation as a result of sludge created in the system by corrosion. 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. Heat causes these minerals to precipitate and gradually encrust the inner lining of pipes, leading to blockage. This again can manifest itself with a noisy heating system.

You should also be wary of biological growth. They gets into the heating system through open tanks. It establishes itself in the system and then produces gunk and slime. This gunk stagnates in the plumbing and slows down the flow of hot water.

You can learn more about these problems on the internet. These resources cover product details as well as user feedback. Lets first have a look at the manufacturers. Browse through some of the reputed water treatment companies and their acclaimed products on this page. Blogs also offer ample source of free help and information or you can contact the companies with any questions.

All the best with your water treatment, let energy conserving heating and hot water with lower household bills rule.