What is a ‘Condensing’ Boiler?
A. A ‘Condensing’ or ‘High Efficiency’ boiler is designed to extract about 15% more heat from the fuel burned that a ‘Standard Efficiency’ boiler – it does this by having a heat exchanger which cools the burned gasses to a much lower temperature, thus extracting more heat from them. A large part of the ‘products of combustion’, produced when fossil fuels such as gas and oil are burned, is made up of water vapour. In a standard boiler this is sent out in vapour form at a temperature well above boiling point, however, a condensing boiler cools the gasses down well below boiling point and most of the water condenses out inside the boiler – hence the name. A special Condensate Drain is needed to remove this liquid from the boiler to a suitable drainage point. Some of the condensed vapour is carried out through the boiler flue and is seen as a ‘plume’ of steam-like appearance, especially noticeable in colder weather. New Building Regulations, which came into force in 2005, mean that almost
