Whether to remove a coal fire back-boiler

[Shona Honeyman]

Opinions please

I am having a full new central heating system installed, replacing a traditional system with a condensing-combi boiler.

Part of the old system includes a back boiler within a Parkray coal fire which boosts the hot water tank, but not the radiators. Anyway, obviously the back boiler has to be removed from the new system. My question is, can I leave a drained back boiler in place, simply venting hot air into the loft, or will it burn through creating a fire risk?

David

[Set Square]

The usual trick with redundant back boilers (assuming you still want to use the coal fire) is to fill them with sand and blank off the connections. They then become akin to a solid bit of masonry - and are not considered to be fire hazards.

[Lurch]

On Wed, 21 Jul 2004 14:18:07 GMT, "Shona Honeyman" strung together this:

I've recently had this dilemma and the only 2 options are;

1) Remove the boiler completely.

2) Run a load on the F&R from the boiler, either a radiator somewhere, or towel rails. In my case I used the HW cylinder as the load but obviously yours is going, unless you decide to replace it, as it may be cheaper to add a tank of HW into the system with suitable controls for not emptying cold water into the system for less than it would cost to remove the boiler.

[PeterMcC]

Lurch wrote in

I've recently dealt with one by leaving it in place but filling it with kiln dried sand. Although all the pipe work had been disconnected, I was concerned that, with the right combination of circumstances (someone lights fire, somehow the water jacket pipe stubs have become sealed) that it might become a fragmentation bomb.

[Lurch]

On Wed, 21 Jul 2004 17:18:56 +0100, "PeterMcC" strung together this:

Well, that suggestion was never suggested(!) to me at the time, if it works then that would probably be a better idea than mine.