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Tell him to go to a hire shop. It's his problem, not yours, so just tell him to just do the job he has been paid for and stop arsing about. Air takes longer, a lot longer, to indicate a leak, quite apart from the frequently mentioned hazards of it being capable of killing someone if a...

No, it (anodic corrosion prevention thing) works, proven technology. It wasn't the MoD, it was the Iraqis and various other defence ministries where bungs had changed hands. The UK MoD had tested it, demonstrated that it didn't work and never bought it. Nothing even slightly funny about...

Often a bathroom radiator or towel rail was connected to the circuit that heated a domestic hot water cylinder. The aim was to dry towels and provide some heat in the bathroom when the central heating was off. Maybe the hall was formerly a bathroom or someone has connected it to the wrong...

They replaced sacrificial anodes on steel or stainless steel water heaters. It would invalidate any warranty if it wasn't working. If you've got the receipt or installation details, there is typically 15 or 20 years guarantee against corrosion on the tank body.

I doubt it would work, I'd anticipate the dirt capacity is too small and the resistance too high. I came across Lakos side-stream filters in a similar application, mostly used to remove limescale particles from cooling tower circuits or to clean up large heating systems. They did an...

The domestic hot water supply is heated continuously, regardless of what time is set on the (built-in?) programmer. Useful if, say, you need a shower very late and all the stored hot water has been used. Then you forget to switch it back until some weeks later.

I'd scrap all 6 Diplomats and replace them with 2 wall-mounted condensers. The size of the plant room would be halved and the free space partitioned off and rented out within the month.

Modular boilers? They were a big thing, in the '80s. An array of domestic boilers instead of 1 or 2 big commercial boilers. Which reminds me. The other advantage was that by keeping the output of each boiler below 40kW (I think) they could be serviced by a technician with a domestic Gas Safe...

Not any more. Condensing boiler efficiencies are fairly uniform over the entire range of modulation, providing the return water temperature is low enough to allow condensation.

The only advantage is in installations where a failure of the one and only boiler would be catastrophic (care homes, schools, offices, hotels, etc.) and where the client is prepared to pay for built-in redundancy. I wouldn't bother, unless you're in one of those categories. Get one quality...

It wasn't intended as a tip, FB. Soft soldering is perfectly adequate. I've never yet seen a properly soldered joint that had leaked or come undone. It was intended more as a note of caution about getting acidic flux residues into a system. The active flux saves the installer time, but will...

Not really. The hot water outlet connects to the open vent. The open vent is the escape route for steam, in the event that the immersion heater sticks on, as they do. There's no pressure relief valve. There shouldn't be any valves at all between the that outlet and the open vent discharge, not...

You've misunderstood this, I think. The heat loss is the amount of heat escaping through the structure and by ventilation when the room is at a constant setpoint temperature (21 degC say) and the outside is at a constant design condition temperature (-4 degC or so). So long as you put in...

With all due respect, the best of your knowledge isn't very hot. CO (and other combustible gases and volatile vapours) are generated during any solid fuel combustion. They should be mostly burned unless, as you say, you restrict the oxygen supply. The flames you see are a gas fire, in...

Slightly OT. Someone (don't recall who) who was in the SOE in WW2 commented that shortly after they'd arrived in France, they had been petrified by things that should have been of no concern and unconcerned by things that should have caused them to run and hide. With experience, they learned to...

They'd burn if they get hot. Thet won't get hot if the flue is completely blocked by a balloon. And please don't tell me heat rises, it doesn't. Norcon seems to be a knowledgeable heating installer. If you found his answer unhelpful, I'd suggest it's because you didn't understand it...

About 30 years back (when I did a course on such stuff) i was told the liability for negligence was 15 years, or 5 years from the discovery of the negligence. So after 9 years, if you've got documents and the builder isn't dead, bankrupt or in liquidation, you would still be able to claim...

Yes. It acts as a lubricant and also dissolves the surface of the pipe and fitting, making it easier to assemble. Read the data printed on the pipe (ABS or uPVC?) and make sure you get the correct solvent-weld adhesive and cleaner. The 'multi-purpose' stuff is inferior and won't take...

Yes. Data should be 2-core screened twisted pair, but I'm not familiar with that device. I've only once tried to run data cable with mains (screened data cable, on an existing mains cable tray), I won't try it again; no data at all besides a perfect sine wave.

Two other things. I looked at the VR65 manual, it will only operate two 2-port valves or one 3-port valve, so you'd need to use the DHW contacts in the VR65 to operate a relay capable of switching the power supply to the two DHW 2-port zone valves. Secondly, there is a mistake in my...