Home improvements: condensation concerns

By Jeff Howell 700AM GMT 09 March 2010

Comments 1 |

Jeff Howell gives it to you true Photo MARTIN POPE

Q I saw your comments about precipitation in the loft space after augmenting the insulation thickness. Our complaint comes from steam from the executive heating header tank in the loft. In this cold continue the executive heating is on a lot and Ive beheld steam entrance from this tank, that is insulated with polystyrene but not sealed. Do you have any suggestions for this? How about a cooker hood-type arrangement, piped out by the eaves? KM, by email

Need to know Condensation inside a habit Jeff Howell"s DIY recommendation precipitation Jeff Howell"s DIY recommendation Need to know Stave off winter bills

A If youve got prohibited H2O present by the small feed-and-expansion tank (f & e tank) in your loft, afterwards you have a complaint with your executive heating system.

You are right in observant it should not be sealed, as it should some-more rightly be described as a "cistern" than a tank that is, a vessel open to windy pressure.

But the H2O in the f & e tank is usually there to tip up the complement H2O (the prohibited H2O that circulates by the radiators and the heat-exchange curl in the hot-water cylinder) to recompense for waste by evaporation, and it should be cold. The actuality that it is comfortable equates to that the complement H2O is being pumped up by the enlargement pipe. Try branch the present siphon down a notch, but if that doesnt work youll need a plumber to implement a bypass siren in between the main upsurge and lapse pipes, so the prohibited H2O stays in the executive heating circuit and doesnt get pumped up in to the f & e tank.

SUNDAY MORNING JOB

Check the thoroughness of gnawing inhibitor in your executive heating system.

Collect a little H2O from one of your radiator drain valves in a potion jar.

Add a steel spike and a 1p coin, to replicate the multiple of metals in the system. After a couple of weeks, if the spike has proposed to rust, afterwards that will be function to the bulb of your radiators, too.

If the spike stays bright, afterwards the complement has sufficient gnawing inhibitor in it.

Send your questions to Jeff at Life, The Sunday Telegraph, 111 Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W 0DT or email askjeff@telegraph.co.uk