Posted on 12/30/2010 6:05:27 PM PST by Rashputin
Freezing Brits steamed over new green boilers
Phil Boehmke
Five years ago the global warming crowd and their comrades in the Labour Party mandated the use of new green technology boilers in Great Britain. Government and environmental experts said that the ‘condensing boilers’ would not only greatly reduce the consumer’s carbon footprint, but would also lower their heating bills. Saving money and saving the planet, what could be better?
The UK Daily Mail reports that during the recent record cold spell in Great Britain, tens of thousands of people were without heat due to a serious flaw in the new boiler’s design.
British Gas is understood to have had 60,000 call-outs in Yorkshire alone. And the cost to call out a plumber? It can be between £200 to £300 on a bank holiday. And don’t forget about VAT.
‘We’ve had double the number of call-outs as in the same period last year,’ says Charlie Mullins, MD of Pimlico Plumbers in London, the country’s largest independent plumbing company.
“It is a massive problem. Some customers were ready to move out because their condensing boilers broke. If I had a choice, I’d put in a non-condensing boiler every time.”
It’s all the more infuriating because the problem causing these breakdowns is so simple. In cold weather, the pipe that takes waste water from the back of the condensing boiler-which isn’t there in a normal boiler-freezes solid, shutting down the system and in many cases causing permanent damage.
But this problem is just one of many that have plagued this boiler design since they became popular in the Nineties. Many plumbers consider them to be little more than a multi-billion-pound con-trick.
The condensing boilers were designed to recycle the CO2 emissions and steam that would normally be vented outside and then feed it back into the system through the waste water pipe. The new system was touted to increase efficiency by as much as 93%.
In 2005 Labour deputy PM John Prescott made the condensing boiler mandate a key part of his plan to meet the CO2 reduction targets called for in the Kyoto Protocol. Three years later in an effort to sell the green technology boondoggle to the people, the government initiated a program which paid homeowners £400 towards the purchase and installation of the new boilers.
Sales people quickly jumped on the new market and produced glowing savings estimates for their customers. Boiler manufacturers and installers enjoyed a boom as they removed perfectly good boilers and replaced then with the new eco-friendly units. Everything was going smoothly until frustrated consumers discovered that their new boilers didn’t work in really cold weather.
To make matters worse, the new boilers typically last only 3-6 years and the costs of parts to repair the units are outrageously high. One of the bi-products of the condensation process is the creation of acidic water vapor from the dissolved nitrogen and sulfur oxides which corrode the delicate system components. Gee, the old boilers were very reliable and lasted 20 years on average.
December 30, 2010
meanwhile the windmills and solar panels are pointless and they’ll be buying their electricity from France like Ireland.
Whow! They have been bitten by one of the most immutable laws... the law of unintended consequences! It most frequently hits do-gooders and liberals.
Unfortunately, none of them work.
Governments everywhere are failures at designing consumer products. No one should buy anything that the government hacks are pushing as “green.” Mark Steyn, filling in for Rush today, did a hilarious bit about how to safely clean up a “curly fry bulb” (the mercury-laden compact florescent bulb), as recommended by the Maine energy conservation geniuses.
Al Gore strikes again, across the Pond.
Hey Brits! I’ve got some land in Lexington and Concord that I want to show you.
Yet another example of a government “fixing” a problem that didn’t exist, thereby creating a real one.
That and "Gods of the CopyBook Headings". They did it once, they can do it again. If they summon the will.
/johnny
And here in the United States, GM is about to introduce the first coal-powered vehicle since the decline of the steam locomotive...
Unfortunately we (the royal we BTW) put these people in charge (see EPA here) and they are going to damage all of us, with there regulations.
As always the average citizen gets screwed
There’s nothing wrong with the condensing boiler concept. This is just one particular model with a poorly designed condensation drain. About every 2 to 3 years they need a thorough cleaning, however. That’s more often than the non condensing boilers need. Other than that, there’s nothing to gripe about. On a small house, you may not save enough to make up for the more frequent servicing plus the extra installation costs. But over 2000 square feet house in american upper midwest and new england winters the savings is plenty to justify it.
Condensing boilers are stainless so there’s no problem with the products of combustion condensing in the boiler, and condensing boilers don’t use a stack or a chimney. They use PVC out the side of the house just like high efficiency furnaces do.
Another hoax perpetrated by the Greenies!
Traditional heating systems work well enough—so if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
Right you are!
Never buy anything with the “GREEN” label!
"creation of acidic water vapor from the dissolved nitrogen and sulfur oxides which corrode the delicate system components"
I guess stainless steel isn't what it used to be.
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