Protection for heating systems

Water plays a crucial role in heating systems: It trans­ports the heat produced in the boiler to around your home or offices. This water comes into contact with almost all the compo­nents of your heating system - including; pipework, radi­a­tors, expan­sion tanks, pumps and valves. For this reason, appro­pri­ately treating the water in heating circuit is a deci­sive step in ensuring smooth oper­a­tion.

Worry-​free with the right water

Heating systems have become more and more sophis­ti­cated in recent years, but this has also made them more suscep­tible to faults. Even minor irreg­u­lar­i­ties can lead to compli­ca­tions. Water and its constituent parts play an impor­tant role in this respect. Deci­sive are factors such as water hard­ness - i.e. mineral content - pH value and the concen­tra­tion of oxygen and salt.

Well-​known heating manu­fac­turers already require compli­ance with certain stan­dard values in their warranty condi­tions, e.g. in the UK this includes filling the central heating loop with hard or natu­rally occur­ring soft water and adding an appro­priate scale inhibitor. Conse­quently if untreated water is used for the heating, the guar­antee may be void in the event of damage. Prop­erly prepared heating water means you are always on the safe side. Get advice from an expert BWT Best Water Profes­sional in your area!

Limescale as a heat blocker

Limescale tends to accu­mu­late more and more at high temper­a­tures. Many of us are all familiar with this phenom­enon from the inside of our kettles, for example: When the water is heated, the limescale settles at the bottom of the kettle as a white deposit. The thicker this layer of lime, the longer the water takes to boil. This is exactly what happens in the heating system too. Layers of limescale have an insu­lating effect and make it harder to transfer heat, i.e. more energy has to be used in order for the heat output to remain constant. A limescale coating of only one millimetre increases energy consump­tion by up to 10 percent. Heating costs can soon start to soar.

Limescale parti­cles dissolved in the water can also be distrib­uted throughout the heating system and, among other things, cause valves to clog.

Avoiding corro­sion

Corro­sion is trig­gered by a variety of factors and usually goes unno­ticed. A mix of iron, steel, aluminium or copper, often found in modern heating systems, leads to elec­tro­chem­ical reac­tions and thus to corro­sion. The most familiar form of corro­sion is rust in iron. In addi­tion, the pH value of the water and the oxygen and salt content also play an impor­tant role. Acidic water with a pH value below 7 corrodes metallic parts. If the salinity - i.e. the elec­trical conduc­tivity - and the concen­tra­tion of oxygen are too high, corro­sion processes are accel­er­ated.

Metal parti­cles detached by corro­sion can get into the entire heating circuit and affect the whole system as so-​called corro­sion sludge. In the worst case scenarios this can reduce effi­ciency and lead to higher main­te­nance costs.

Air in the heating pipes

Although central heating is a self-​contained system, it is never completely airtight. For example, air can get into the system when replen­ishing water or due to leaky fittings and connec­tions. A partic­u­larly "leaky" point: the air-​perme­able plastic pipes used in under­floor heating.

Too much air in the system makes it diffi­cult to transmit heat and the radi­a­tors no longer get really warm. In addi­tion, noise caused by air - such as knocking or gurgling - can be quite annoying.