The Sapphire, fully modulating stainless steel kerosene or HVO liquid fuelled boiler with OpenTherm options can be utilised to enable and exceed compliance requirements with the new Approved Document L Requirements for England both for new build and replacement works.

We sat down with our Managing Director, Martin Cooke, and asked him some questions regarding ADL, Sapphire, and the importance of correctly sizing Boilers.

• Q:           Can I simply measure the existing radiators to size the replacement boiler?
• A:           No. Who knows if the existing radiators were sized correctly in the first place?

 

• Q:           Can I just measure the volume of the building or room and estimate the boiler size from that?
• A:           No, not to be able to demonstrably prove that the replacement boiler is the correct size considering different room temperatures and wall, floor, and ceiling U values and different air change rates for different room usages.

 

• Q:           Do I have to carry out full room-by-room heat loss calculations for quotation purposes?
• A:           Not necessarily as quotations are not covered by the Building Regulations, however, full calculations will still be needed, should you win the job, to demonstrate installation compliance with the Building Regs.

 

• Q:           Why can’t I replace an existing boiler with one the same size?
• A:           How do you know whether the existing boiler is the correct size today? Property improvements such as replacement UPVC double glazing, loft and cavity wall insulation added to a property over the year can leave a boiler that was originally correctly sized, twice the size that the building now needs it to be

 

• Q:           What’s the point in all this when oil-fired boilers are fixed output based on an external temperature of say -3C meaning that the boiler when “correctly sized” will pretty much always be running at an output grossly greater than necessary, i.e. oversized?
• A:           Good question, that is why here at EOGB we invested heavily in first creating a domestic-sized low NOx fully modulating (15 set points) package burner able to be controlled by OpenTherm load compensating controls and then created a specially designed heat exchanger to accompany full room by room heat loss calculations and 55C max flow temperature system design for a new wet central heating system installed in either an existing or new build dwelling.

 

• Q:           If I replace night storage heaters with a wet central heating system in an existing property house do I need to comply with the design max 55C flow temperature?
• A:           Yes, as this is an entirely new system, the requirements apply irrespective of whether the new system is installed in a new or existing property.

 

• Q:           Are there any times when this does not apply?
• A:           Yes, this does not apply if it is an existing system i.e. it is not “newly installed” or where a wet central heating system is not “fully replaced in an existing building.”

 

• Q:           A 55C max flow temperature design limitation means that oil boilers are effectively banned from new build because of their traditional mild steel construction or else they would rot out in no time! Can anything be done about this?
• A:           I understand your concern and hope that you will appreciate that I cannot speak for other boiler manufacturers but here at EOGB with the Sapphire boiler we designed out any potential and historically demonstrated material failure problems associated with oil boilers by simply adopting a bespoke fully stainless steel 316Ti heat exchanger which has been tested and proven to be able to operate on high, medium, and low water temperature heating systems. So confident are we in the exceptionally high grade of stainless steel used that we even guarantee them for 25 years!   An alternative fuel and/or technology applied to an existing dwelling shall not result in an increase in emissions from that property.

 

• Q:           How do I know if I can use a Sapphire boiler to replace other boilers and fuel types like LPG regarding emissions?
• A:           The information that you require can be found in Table 12 of SAP 10.2 this gives you the carbon emission values for the fuel and its primary energy factor to enable you to compare what is existing to what is proposed to replace it to make sure that it is compliant.

We have calculated the values for the Sapphire boiler for you as follows:

 

Sapphire Kerosene Boiler   

0.298 kgCO2e kWh / boiler eff of 93.0%                               =             0.32kg CO2e/kWh

 

Sapphire HVO Boiler

0.036 kgCO2e kWh / boiler eff of 93.0%                               =             0.04kg CO2e/kWh

 

Bio-mass boiler

0.053 kgCO2e kWh / boiler eff of 75.0%                                =             0.07kg CO2e/kWh

 

This clearly demonstrates that you could not compliantly replace a bio-mass boiler with an oil boiler as the emissions per kWh would be greater, as expected from fossil fuel, but, applying an HVO Sapphire boiler would be compliant and as demonstrated here could be approaching 60% less environmentally damaging in terms of emissions than a Part L compliant bio-mass boiler!

 

Sapphire Kerosene/HVO Boiler Primary Energy

 

Kerosene/HVO Primary Energy  

1.180     kgCO2e kWh / boiler eff of 93.0% =          1.269 kWhPE/kWh

 

Bio-mass boiler

1.325     kgCO2e kWh / boiler eff of 75.0%=           1.701 kWhPE/kWh

 

Again, this clearly demonstrates that a Sapphire boiler, either kerosene or HVO outperforms a building regulation-compliant bio-mass boiler in terms of primary energy by some 25% reduction in Primary Energy.

 

 

With the release of the OFTEC updated training and assessment syllabuses for compliance with the new Approved Document L requirements for England, we invested in our training and assessment staff by engaging Alan Black of Oil Heating Consultancy Services Ltd to write and present a “Train the trainers” session covering room by room heat loss calculations based on the CIBSE Panel Domestic Heating Design Guide as the new ADL requires that “An appropriate heat loss calculation for the dwelling” is carried out even when simply replacing an existing boiler.

The training was presented in two parts to twelve of our staff and contractors. The first session covered the first principles in heat loss calculation including the calculation of U values and how heat transfers through the elements of a structure such as a cavity wall and how the rate of heat loss is based on temperature differential, ventilation, and factors which affect losses such as those caused by building air leakage, infiltration, and thermal bridging.

The second part of the training consisted of a detailed presentation of a bespoke PowerPoint training presentation, written for OFTEC engineers following the OFTEC revised training syllabuses, working through the Domestic Heating Design Guide which includes radiator sizing and factors affecting heat output such as flow temperatures and the differences in radiator outputs when the system flow temperature was designed for an 82C flow for standard efficiency boilers, a 70C flow temp for condensing boilers and as per the new ADL low temperature (max) 55C flow temps, added to this the effects of differential temperatures between flow and return.

The second session raised a number of questions with our staff eager to learn more and what this meant in real terms regarding boilers and equipment available in the market such as our Sapphire fully modulating kerosene and HVO boilers with a one-piece stainless steel heat exchanger and OpenTherm weather compensating controls capability, so that when training and assessing candidates we would be confident that our training would be based on the impartation of knowledge and understanding and not end up as a candidate coaching exercise simply to pass a new assessment.

Our team quickly realised that our stainless steel Sapphire fully modulating boiler and OpenTherm weather compensating controls would not only enable compliance with the new ADL, but due to Sapphire’s one-piece stainless steel design it is eminently suitable for any of the system design flow temperatures covered enabling it to be safely fitted to existing systems and future proof for new systems going forward to 2050 alike! This means that customers can still benefit from liquid fuel rapid heat energy transfers to rooms as well as maintained temperature systems all from one boiler and with the choice of going fully green and decarbonising with renewable and sustainable liquid fuels such as HVO.

So, how did the staff get on when, unexpectedly, they were presented with a mock OFTEC assessment at the end of the training session? The assessment had a time limit of one hour and every one of our staff completed the assessment within the first 15 minutes. All present and correct, Sir!

Ed Minett joined EOGB in July 2021 as our R&D Mechanical Design Engineer and uses his excellent skills to enhance EOGB’s product offerings. Since then Ed has excelled in that role and has recently been promoted to Technical Manager.

Tell us about your degree and your University experience

At university, I studied Motorsport Engineering BEng degree. The course included numerous subjects throughout the three years I attended. These years included different subjects for instance Engineering Maths and Science, CAD, FEA, CFD, Thermodynamics, Composite Material, and many more.

During my time at university, I participated in the student race teams on offer, in the first year I took part in the Morgan Motor Company race team in which we travelled around the UK to various different circuits in the pit crew. Also spending a few Fridays working at the Morgan factory building their production cars for customers. In my second year I took part in the Formula 3 race team which ran in the F3 CUP, my role was front left mechanic on this team. In my third year, I ran our formula student team as the team principal. This role involved managing deadlines and responsibilities which I use daily in my current position at EOGB.

After University I worked as an assembly technician at FIRECO, a company that manufactures door guards for hospital doors, which sense an alarm going off in the event of a fire and force the door to close to contain it.

After this role I worked for The Food Machinery Company as a mechanical design engineer, this helped to improve my CAD skills and harness my experience within a work environment dealing with customer relations and meeting their requirements.

 

How do you use those skills with your job at EOGB?

I started off at EOGB as R&D Mechanical Design Engineer, this position was more hands-on than my previous role, allowing me to use more skills. I was able to harp back to previous experiences when facing different challenges on the job.

My position at EOGB is now Technical Manager which I enjoy as it is rewarding and always a learning process.

 

What does your typical day look like?

A typical day varies dramatically, but normally I come in and look through the list of tasks. Delegate to the team different tasks then do some CAD work on our products, go into our lab, and work hands on physically setting up products for testing. We also have four 3D printers which need continuous attention.

 

What is the best aspect of your job?

The aspect I most enjoy about the role is having variety and doing something different every day. I also admire the company’s ambition to evolve and produce different products to meet the industry’s ever-changing needs.

EOGB are delighted to announce the appointment of Cormac McCann as Trainee Technical Engineer. 

20-year-old Cormac will undertake various roles within the Technical Department such as learning Solidworks, combustion theory and all aspects of oil/gas domestic and commercial heating. 

He has already undertaken his OFTEC 50 introduction to oil course, before moving on to do the main OFTEC 101, 105e & 600a course where he has gained his oil qualifications. 

Following this Cormac has started creating his Gas portfolio to gain his full Gas qualifications. 

Commenting on joining EOGB, Cormac said: “I’m really excited to have joined EOGB. The team are extremely knowledgeable and experienced, and I know that training here will provide a very strong foundation for my future career in this industry.” 

Reece Summerfield, Technical and Training Manager at EOGB said: “We’re delighted to welcome Cormac to EOGB. Unfortunately, training for new entrants in the heating industry has gone into decline over the past few years, so we’re pleased to be doing our bit to support the engineers who are the future of our industry.” 

EOGB are one of the UK’s leading manufacturers and distributors of oil, gas and dual fuel burners and boilers for domestic, commercial and industrial applications. 

We are pleased to announce we are continuing to offer Sapphire Boiler Training to all OFTEC trained technicians in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

EOGB have partnered with 3 Training Centres, to provide the training on Sapphire. These are Aberdeen Training Centre, Inverness College and South Eastern Regional College in Newtownards.

The courses started running in December last year and we are continuing to provide them this year.

If you are interested in attending a free of charge course on our award-winning boiler, please contact our Technical Sales Manager Gary Stronach here.

Once you complete the training, you will then be offered the opportunity to become an Approved Sapphire Agent.

We look forward to welcoming you here.

EOGB, incorporating the Baltur UK Brand are one of the UK’s leading manufacturers and distributors of oil, gas and dual fuel burners from 12KW-50 MW for domestic, commercial and industrial applications.

EOGB Energy Products are pleased to announce the appointment of Paul Fretton as Commercial Sales Manager for EOGB’s Commercial Baltur Burner range.  

Paul joins EOGB having amassed 20 years’ experience within the industry working for companies like Nu-Way and Wolseley UK.

Commenting on his appointment, Paul says “I’m delighted to have joined the team at EOGB as Commercial Sales Manager. It is a great company with a very positive future and I’m excited to be on board during this time of growth for EOGB and Baltur UK.” 

Martin Cooke, Managing Director at EOGB, said “Paul will be a great asset to the company moving forward. He has excellent experience in his previous roles in the heating industry. Paul’s knowledge and experience will be vital as we look to develop our business even further with providing Baltur Burners to the UK Market.” 

EOGB, incorporating the Baltur UK Brand are one of the UK’s leading manufacturers and distributors of oil, gas and dual fuel burners from 12kW-50 MW for domestic, commercial and industrial applications. 

Don’t risk an oil spill – if you are in any doubt, replace consumable items.

With the winter season well underway, EOGB is reminding heating engineers of the importance of replacing oil hoses during their annual servicing to maintain efficiency and prevent avoidable accidents. 

Home insurers may try to pass the cost on to the technician who services the appliance, of a fuel spill originating from a flexible fuel line.

How can you protect yourself from this risk? 

Flexible oil hoses should be inspected during every service visit and in the interests of safety, changed at regular intervals. There are different types of flexible oil hoses available and guarantee periods can be as short as one year. Where flexible oil hoses are marked with a date stamp, the age of the oil hose should be established and if out of its guarantee period, replaced immediately. 

Where no date stamp is visible or where an oil hose is kinked, damaged or any doubt exists as to its integrity until the next service visit, it is recommended that it is replaced at the time of the service. 

EOGB is the original manufacturer of the biogreen long life flexi oil hose and has supplied over half a million of these to the industry since 2009. 

The latest in protection for your home – The Ruby Red Flexible

A Dual Containment flexible, PTFE tube, stainless steel over-braid, with a translucent- red PU cover, Ruby-Red Flexi offers the very best solution for your oil-fired boiler hose. 

Dual Containment Explained 

In the oil lines above (pics 3 & 4) we have deliberately pierced the PTFE tube (to represent a failure) filled the hose with liquid food colouring (to represent heating oil) and applied air pressure, to replicate a leak. The PU cover successfully contains the fluid, even at twice working pressure! 

Avoid the risk of oil leaks and costly clean ups – install the Ruby-Red Flexi 

Contact your local stockists for details on purchasing.

View the data sheet here

For more info email technical@eogb.co.uk and we’ll be happy to help.

EOGB Energy Products are pleased to announce the appointment of Gary Stronach as Technical Sales Manager for EOGB’s Sapphire fully modulating low NOx boiler range. Gary has joined us having recently covered Scotland as the Regional Inspector for OFTEC and comes with a wealth of knowledge and experience from the plumbing and heating industry.

He served his apprenticeship with CSC Fuels Ltd in Perth, which was a subsidiary of Shell UK and specialised in all aspects of domestic and commercial oil installations.  He then moved on to work for several manufacturers in the industry including Pegler, Sunvic and McDonald Engineers. Gary gained vital experience working for these companies, and went on to work for the merchant Dobies Heat Centre.

Gary has been fortunate to have worked for several small and medium sized plumbing and heating contractors over the years and has also experienced the ups and downs of establishing and running a couple of his own businesses in and out of the industry.

Commenting on his appointment, Gary says  ” Having gained a solid grounding on business from all aspects of the industry and beyond, I look forward to being able to culminate all my work experience to date here at EOGB, in particular with the new Sapphire Boiler and all the new technology that it includes. This is an exciting time for our industry and I can’t wait to get started.”

Martin Cooke, Managing Director at EOGB, said “Gary will be a great asset to the company moving forward. He has excellent experience in his previous roles in the heating industry, with many exciting new products coming soon, Gary’s knowledge and experience will be vital as we look to develop our business even further with the Sapphire range of boilers.”

EOGB, incorporating the Baltur UK Brand are one of the UK’s leading manufacturers and distributors of oil, gas and dual fuel burners from 12KW-50 MW for domestic, commercial and industrial applications.

We are excited to announce the release of our brand new online HVO training.

Liquid biofuels in form of HVO is a true sustainable and sensible approach to off gas grid decarbonisation. HVO has an essential role to play and the deployment must be supported.

“HVO” Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil is a certified net zero carbon fuel produced from waste cooking oils and fats. Homes currently on Kerosene heating can easily transition to this fuel with minor conversions to their existing system to make a true environmental change now.

Minimum capital expenditure for end user will mean greater uptake compared to complete invasive/disruptive works required to fit alternative energies for no actual benefit to homeowner nor environment.

The Instructor for this course is Alan Charles Black FCIPHE, Eng Tech, Dip.C.Eng.

If you have any questions regarding HVO and the future of liquid fuel heating, call us on 01480 477066 or email technical@eogb.co.uk

EOGB recently became a member of the OpenTherm association, and with that the Sapphire Boiler became an OpenTherm certified product.

The Sapphire Fully Modulating Blue Flame Boiler is due for release this summer. One of the key features of The Sapphire is the use of OpenTherm technology, which works perfectly with our totally unique fully modulating burner control system.

 

Here we look at how OpenTherm works, the advantages of it and how you can get the best out of it with use of smart controls.

What is OpenTherm?

OpenTherm is the name given to a form of communication of information between modulating central heating appliances and room thermostats.

The term “open” in the title means that boiler and controller manufacturers can easily bring their products together and work in partnership – something that has not been so easy in the past.

How does it work?

Most boilers currently have a simple on/off control system, often with a mechanical room thermostat and time clock which means that the boiler is switched on and off at intervals to either provide full heat power or no heat at all. On the other hand, modulating control means the heating power is increased or reduced based on the actual output needed.

Boilers which are the actual “Slave” are controlled by the “Master” which is the OpenTherm Thermostat. This calculates exactly what the system needs every few seconds and sends information to the “Slave” to either increase, decrease or stay where it is.

So to put it in simple terms if you only require a small amount of heat for a particular part of the property, the OpenTherm master control will tell the slave to run at minimum power or whatever power it calculated until it sees a change in the temperature. It then continues to regulate the heat output as required via load compensation, and if another zone comes on it will keep adjusting to suit the load to suit.

To get the best from OpernTherm a multi zone system such as Genius Hub or Honeywell Evohome is advised.

The Advantages

Opentherm has many advantages such as plug and play installation, fault code diagnosis, water temperature, outside temperatures, plus the add on features so Opentherm controls can integrate with other parts of the system such as solar thermal, if it were fitted to the system.

Also, fuzzy logic incorporated in Opentherm system such as Genius Hub and Honeywell EvoHome enable the system to self-learn and make the heating system work as efficiently as possible by optimizing heating up times in the most efficient way.

Other advantages include efficiency increase, increase of boiler life, use of smart controls, and remote appliance monitoring.

Even Smarter!

If Genius Hub controls are chosen to control your heating, you can incorporate a wireless room sensor that not only allows you to control the room temperature, it also monitors room occupancy. It self learns your occupancy levels and adjusts the heat up times according to how often you use the room.

Any upfront installation overheads will soon be offset and you will find the investment is certainly worth it with reduced heating bills in the long run. Certified testing has proven a minimum of 15% fuel reduction using a single Thermostat and real world usage is as much as a 25% reduction fuel consumption using a multi zone installation.

This really is a fantastic addition to the heating system.

Martin Cooke, managing director has his say on why we should be looking at OpenTherm and Modulating Boilers in off gas grid areas – If we chose the best available technology such as modulating boilers with smart OpenTherm controls on new installations, the carbon emission reductions are significant and you will see a rapid return on investment due to the reduced running costs make this a truly cost effective alternative to the high costs of heat pumps or biomass”.

 

For any enquiries on The Sapphire, OpenTherm controls, HVO or any technical questions please contact us at technical@eogb.co.uk or give us a call 01480 477066.