Experienced advice sought - long post warning

[Wannabebetter]

Hello all,

I’m after some advice if anyone is able to help? I’ve studied at college and obtained my NVQ Level 2 and 3, including gas. I was doing plumbing for a company which I got through the college, but they had to let me go as they couldn’t afford to keep me on, which I understand. So I went to my local council, as part of the colleges contacts as some lads got in there as well. I’ve seen a lot of decent responses on here (as a lurker), and just wanted to know a bit more about the industry, and I don’t trust what I’m being told where I am, or just get told “it’ll be fine. So my questions are these:

• I’ve been helping fitting some boilers (as I need to build my gas up before resitting my acs) , and read somewhere (but can’t find it now), about white parts of flue being on show. Where would I obtain this info? Mi’s?
• When are plume kits supposed to be used?
• Do I need to read thoroughly the Installation manual, none of our engineers tend to read them - is this because they do it all the time?
• Is wiring them up allowed by engineers? - do they need any formal qualification?
• Do systems need to be powerflushed, or just a quick chemical clean, or just fill, circulate, drain and refill (as ours do this)
• Does everyone hand write pipe sizing, or is there a quicker way of doing this? (None of our engineers do any of this either)
• How hard is it to get into boiler repairs?
• How do I better understand how boilers work?
• When I ask about things like “26.9 after removing a boiler cover?” I get told it’s fine, don’t need to, if you did everything for regs, you wouldn’t get out of the house.

This is all I can think of for now.

Obviously I know answers might be limited as some answers may refer to gas advice.

 

[polesapart]

I like your attitude.

In order

1 Manufacturer-dependant. Most don't like white showing, some offer balcony kits. You can get all this info online. "XYQ 111 installation manual" or "xxx flue guide"

2 Where the plume might cause a nuisance e.g. proximity to a boundary line.
Do not use as as a "get out of jail card", air intake position must still comply.

3 I do read the manuals before before specifying a boiler and installing, particularly if it's one I haven't installed before. I tend to do this off-site and in advance.
Maybe your colleages have done the boilers they install a hundred times before and know the boiler inside out.

4 Contentious area. Certainly any new fixed wiring e.g. new cabling to a hard-wired roomstat would officially require a qualified electrician.

5 Even more contentious. Let others debate.

My personal standard on a boiler replacement is if the boiler does not get choked by system crap, voiding the manufacturers' warrantee, and all radiators are hot then I and the customer are happy. Usually chemical flush, inhibitor and magnetic filter suffice.

6 Hand calculations are the gold standard and (rarely?) carried out.
You get to know, after a while, that xxkW goes with yy effective meters of zz diameter pipe. If in doubt I do calculate.
I'm told that apps and software are available.

8 Manufacturers training courses, books, online research, asking questions, experience.

7 Boiler repair is art as well as a science. You definately need plenty of installation experience (min 5 years IMO) first plus a willingness to get to grips with the electrical and electronic components and the sequences of operation as well as the combustion and hydraulic sides. Sometimes the manufacturers fault-finding guides are spot-on, sometimes a red herring. Sometimes the "boiler fault" is an external fault e.g. controls/motorised valves.

No short-cuts available.




I hope at least some the above is useful. Good luck!

 

[durhamplumber]

Ring the boiler manufacturers.They sometimes run training courses..At least you get to poke around in some boilers...As said,,no short cuts..

 

[Notch7]

It is useful to download the current building regs document, it gives measurements etc for distances from windows, neighbours etc etc.

Note the regs state that for flue extensions, bends etc "refer to specific manufacturers instructions".

Of course if you get your gas safe membership, you get the magic key to the hidden gas forum on here..........which probably has lots of trade secrets on diagnosing boiler faults.