Reduce your energy costs with softer water for your central heating boiler

Nowadays a typical house is fitted with dozens of automatic appliances and systems to provide homeowners with a convenient life. In either case, your system will be well-prepared to work efficiently if you take the time to maintain it. 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. All of these are effective ways of saving energy which will not only help environmentally but also reduce many household energy bills. But how about making your central heating system operate more effectively? The accumulation of gunk and limescale deposits in your central heating system will reduce its efficiency.

You should be thinking about water treatment to stop this accumulation of sludge and limescale, especially if you live in a hard water area.

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.

The UK has water types ranging from hard to soft based on the region where you live. Hard water exposes you to limescale — your kettle, shower head and taps being the most probable areas where you first notice limescale masses. Limescale reduces efficiency and adds to heating bills. A tiny layer of scale inside the cylinder of your hot water can augment your fuel cost by up to forty percent. Limescale is nothing, but calcium deposits in your central heating system. These problems are not seen in areas that get soft water, however in case of any doubt one should always seek advice.

The way that most water treatments work is by changing the molecular structure of the water’s particles which, in turn alters the way it behaves. It can do this in different ways for example, by changing one structure for another, by taking away a structure or by inhibiting the structure from becoming solid.

If you want to determine the corrosion rate inside your heating system, you can do so by using these chemical kits which measure the chloride, copper and iron levels and measure the pH.

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 gas connections should be made only by a trades person, who is Gas Safe registered (with CORGI).

Always plan before getting the new system installed; for instance, you should know what water treatment method should be used. 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 water softening chemicals can produce better lather and are good for your skin, but they cannot reverse the choking and pitting inside the heating system.

You basically need to prevent your system from three things, limescale deposits, biological growth and corrosion.

Corrosion can start from the moment the system is set up and filled with water from the mains supply. The residue from corrosive action causes clogging of the water flow and reduces uniform heat transfer through the radiators. It can cause pinholes in the radiators and if left can cause the boiler to become noisy.

In hard water areas the calcium and magnesium in the water causes limescale. The high temperature of the water causes these elements to become hard and crusty, leaving deposits behind that clog pipes etc. Again, the symptom of this can be a heating system that makes noise.

You should also be wary of biological growth. They gets into the heating system through open tanks. After entering into the system, they starts breeding and produce slime and sludge. If the growth occurs in pipework, it can decrease the efficacy of the entire system.

You can learn more about these problems on the internet. Please spare some time and go through this or read the other informative articles in this site. Kick-start with the manufacturers and their web sites. You can see below a list of some of the most popular products and their manufacturers. You can also gain additional information and seek advice through different blogs or forums, some may be run by the manufacturers.

Now you should be able to choose and install an effective heating system which is enjoyable, healthy and cost-efficient on both kinds of green!.