Boiler replacement & servicing
Bridge over troubled water
Around 45 per cent of failed boilers are due to poor quality water in heating systems. This same phenomenon is also responsible for premature boiler breakdowns and repairs. Although the cost of poor water quality is high, the solution is decidedly inexpensive. Craig Mitchell of Sentinel explains how a few changes to water treatment practices can ensure lifetime protection
H
ousing associations invest vast sums every year on heating system upgrades and maintenance in order to increase tenant satisfaction, improve system performance, save energy and reduce heating related
costs (both for tenants and themselves). Despite this, independent research shows that the social housing sector absorbs a veiled cost of millions of pounds every year in heating system issues, while the National Housing Federation reports that ‘almost a quarter (23 per cent) of all housing association and local authority tenants are unable to keep their living room warm’ – a problem that is known to impact wellbeing. So where are things going wrong? The answer is complex and likely to involve numerous factors. However,
poor water treatment – which is remarkably prevalent – is guaranteed to be involved. To illustrate, research and testing by Sentinel and two major boiler manufacturers in over 50,000 UK homes found that 87 per cent of heating systems are without correct water treatment, while 50 per cent of systems over five years old suffer from dirty circulating water. Another study of 16,000
Often tenants will try to counteract the effect of cold spots by turning the thermostat up, but all this tends to do is increase bills rather than temperatures
homes discovered that 28 per cent of treated systems had lost inhibitor in just 12 months. Inadequate water treatment will almost certainly allow corrosion to
ensue (and limescale, where systems are located in hard water areas), which can wreak havoc inside heating systems. Where corrosion exists, common problems include boiler breakdowns, early repairs and parts replacements, reduced energy efficiency (and therefore reduced savings), degraded heating
www.housingmmonline.co.uk | HMM July 2018 | 29
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