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Alde heating with a surecal calorifier

allan tryfan

By allan tryfan
in Boat Building & Maintenance

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allan tryfan Explorer

allan tryfan

Posted
Posted

Hello everyone,

 

Is there any good hearted soles out there, who could help me out at this festive time of year! I'm in the middle of fitting out my 57' narrowboat, having just finished the lining out I'm just about to start the plumbing! I'm installing an Alde 3010 boiler, along with a surecal twin coil calorifier, fitted over the swim, along with 3 radiators. If anyone could provide me with a suitable fool proof plumbing diagram or the details of a plumber who works in the South Manchester area with marine experiance, then it would be greatly appreciated.

 

Kindest regards

 

Allan

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frangar Veteran II

frangar

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Posted

Just to check....is it a stainless calorifier? I don't think the new alde's are supposed to be linked to a copper one due to the Ali in the heat exchanger.

 

There is quite s lot of info on the Alde website about how they should be connected.

 

Cheers

 

Gareth

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MtB Veteran II

MtBDonate to Canal World

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To quote the manual: "Copper should not be used in the heating circuit." (My bold.)

 

Doesn't say anything about not using it in the hot water circuit. Although if you called them for clarification they'll probably so 'NO' too! But then they'll also point out the boiler stores its own hot water so no calorifier is necessary.

 

Manual here:

http://www.alde.co.uk/downloads/alde_3010_instruct_marine.pdf

 

MtB

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dor Veteran II

dor

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Posted (edited)

The Alde 3010 is designed with caravans, portacabins and camper vans in mind. For this it is intended that the main heater is used for heating and hot water is provided by the built-in water jacket. For this reason they don't usually think of it being used for providing hot water through the main heater.

 

In a boat, you ignore the connections for the water jacket and connect up the main, pumped, 22mm connections as you would any other boiler. You could have a motorised valve or manual T valve, but in my experience these are quite restricting and can put up quite a bit of resistance to the relatively low powered Alde pump.

 

So, just like any other system, you take the hot output and split it in 22mm between the calorifier and heating. Some people leave the calorifier connected all the time and control the rads by the valves, bearing in mind there should be at least one radiator uncontrolled to provide a heat dump.

 

So, on my Alde 3010 system, the pumped hot water comes off the boiler, with a branch going to the bathroom radiator. This will always be on. Then the pipes are further split between the calorifier and heating circuits. Each of these has a manual 22mm full flow ball valve so that heating, hot water or both can be selected. I also have a tall cupboard with about 30cm of finrad on the return from the calorifier to the boiler and similar on the engine circuit coil on the return from the calorifier to the engine. This provides a bit of warmth to act as an airing cupboard.

 

 

ETA: whilst you could use the built-in hot water jacket to supply hot water, it only holds a few litres and is designed for washing hand etc rather than the typical 60 litre calorifier on a boat which will be used for showers etc.

 

Edited by dor
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MtB Veteran II

MtBDonate to Canal World

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Posted

 

ETA: whilst you could use the built-in hot water jacket to supply hot water, it only holds a few litres and is designed for washing hand etc rather than the typical 60 litre calorifier on a boat which will be used for showers etc.

 

 

 

So is yours copper? And if so, how long has it been installed with no problems?

 

 

MtB

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dor Veteran II

dor

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So is yours copper? And if so, how long has it been installed with no problems?

 

 

MtB

 

Mike: The calorifier is stainless steel. There are a few brass fittings in the circuits (most is Hep20) and Alde told me there should not be a problem with some brass. System was commissioned in 2007 (one of the first 3010s to be installed in a narrowboat) and is generally used for a few days a week, mostly just for hot water as SF stove provides most of heating requirement in the winter.

 

ETA: interestingly I was looking at a spec for a domestic combi boiler recently that had an aluminium heat exchanger (made a point of saying it was more efficient than steel) but nowhere suggested that copper pipes should be avoided. Is it down to using a suitable inhibitor, and if so, couldn't that be used with the 3010 and a copper calorifier?

Edited by dor
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frangar Veteran II

frangar

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When we put a 3000 series on a new build Alde were insistent it had to be a stainless calorifier.

 

It's interesting about domestic units though. If I ever need to replace my Alde 2928 it would be much easier if copper was ok!

 

I did wonder if copper on the engine cooling circuit might be an issue with a twin coil calorifier but never really got an answer.

 

Cheers

 

Gareth

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ditchcrawler Veteran II

ditchcrawlerDonate to Canal World

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Yeahbut I'm puzzled. Why has no-one arrived being mortally offended on your behalf?

 

Anyone would think it's Christmas, or something...

 

smile.png

 

MtB

I have been here to long for anyone to give a O I mustn't post that word or Dean will have me by the whatsies.

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NMEA Rising Star

NMEA

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Mmm, I have noticed some of the SS calorifiers I have installed have had copper heat exchange coils, as this is the only part of a calorifier that comes into contact with the same circulated heating fluids as the Alde aluminium alloy exchanger then I imagine those would be at odds with Alde instructions and not the jacket material.

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