'my central heating' - a step-by-step guide.     >> this page has lots of pictures, so can take a few moments to load <<

bear with me here - it's not every day one gets the opportunity to do this type of thing, and it is a learning curve for us all   8-)

 it is getting cold - watching tv with an oil radiator up your jumper aint much fun - let's heat this place ..!!

size the system

  take measurements of all the rooms - width x depth x height + # of outside walls.

  your local plumbing centre will calculate the amount of btu's (british thermal units, sometimes described 

  in Kws, Kilowatts) for each room - add these up and this tells you the size of boiler required.

choose the radiator sizes / dimensions / thickness required for the rooms

  these can come in any size you like, plus single, double even triple core

choose the make / size / fuel type / style and case finish of boiler

  this was tricky - so many to choose from.

  in my case the fuel type was easy as we dont have gas, so oil it is.

  i chose a worcester boiler as they are owned by bosch and they've never let me down in the tool dept.

  an 'r.s.' boiler is a 'room sealed' meaning it gets its air from outside, also known as a balanced flue.

  i chose the utility model as it is the cheapest and frankly the ugliest, but suitable for my boiler-room housing.

so - again, bear with me, it gets more exciting - order the components, hand the best part of £4K to your local

dealer (this was with a trade discount of up to 40% on some parts, never dropping below 25% !!!) and wait for the delivery;

the water tank on the right, boiler in the middle and half the radiators + associated boxes of bits and pieces.

next assemble the tools for the job;

during the job these can be stored in a much more informal way ..!!

now - very important - design the system and installation.

  firstly read all the instruction books and try to make one component relate

  to another as each comes with its own version of how to plumb / wire to the next ..!!

during the installation you will go to the local plumbing centre on average 3 times a week, peaking 

at 3 times in the same day at the height of the job...  it is advisable to strike up a rapport with the local

staff and to know every page of their parts list (far left) so as to appear knowledgeable on the subject.

begin installing - at this point it is a good idea to familiarise yourself with components that you have no

idea what they are for, having lived in normal houses with normal plumbing all your life.

this, errrr, thing is an expansion vessel - modern systems do not have water tanks, so the upper pipe is water in 

and the lower pipe is water out to the heating and hot water pipes.  

the water is filled so as to preassurise the system - hence the pressure gauge on top. when heated the water will expand and

needs somewhere to go - ahhah you say - of course, into the red bit - simple and good as it also looks complicated ..!!

skipping on a bit now - most of the plumbing done - it's time to install the boiler;

knock a blooming great hole through the wall for the flue,

then connect it up and flush the system;

i decided it was a good idea to flush the system into the bath, though the basin or loo will do ..!!

except when it came to this radiator, where i decided it a good idea to flush it onto a large part of the floor ..!!

finally wire it up and put the covers on to make it look nice;

if you so desire a cupboard can be built to hide all this - but for me i'm so proud of it i

want it to be part of our day-to-day lives ..!!

well - you know you've done a lot of soldering when your heat-proof matt looks like this;

and isn't it always funny to count how many bits are left over after the jobs 'complete' ..!!

so - in short - the central heating is in, it's connected, plumbed, wired, oil tank in and filled, and it all fired up first time

 - i am, as you can tell, very excited about this, and proud of the work - plus you can no longer see your breath while watching telly ..!!

a result all round...