That was tight, penetrating oil.

[macafee2]

I have been fixing leaks on my central heating as it leaks like a sieve. At least half a dozen if not more leaks at various joints or valves in a small area. Some of the olives in the compression fittings were lose.
The isolating valves each side of a circulating pump were leaking via the valve shaft. I managed to get spanners for the nuts that held the valve to the pump, I needed two spanners as the old nuts were a mm or so bigger then the new nuts on the new valves.
The spanner to remove the old nuts is about 19 inches long and heavy. I could not budge the nuts in situ, removing pump and valves and holding in the vice.... I just about removed one nut, the other, would not budge. Try as I might it would not budge.
I was going to try a grinder but used penetrating oil instead. 3 or 4 applications and an hour or so later the nut came undone, it moved surprisingly easily at first but became tight as it was undone. I cannot believe how tight the nuts were.

As the heating is drained down I am cutting some pipes and adding open/close valves and drain cocks so I can drain either the upstairs or part drain downstairs without draining the whole lot. Refilling is a worry as I do not know what each circulating pump is for, when it runs or when each motorised valve should open. I think I may be manually opening the motorised valves and running power the some of the pumps. I will have to disconnect the existing power cable to each pump to avoid the possibility of inappropriately sending power the wrong way and damaging a circuit board.

I have never seen so many leaks on a system, the blue corrosion telling a story.

Once the leaks are done I will look at seeing what I can do to make the heating more efficient. I can't cope with fixing the leaks and making it more efficient at the same time.

To give you an idea of the whole installation, last summer were were getting electric bills of £200 + a month. Now with understanding and turning off what I think is an incorrectly wired heat source pump were are down to £81.25 this month at that is at the new tariff.


macafee2