It’s Warming Up
We had anticipated an October date for works to commence on the church’s grumbling heating system. Instead it came in September and at shorter notice but we are not complaining. It’s good to get the works out of the way before the winter sets in.
Addressing the problems with the church’s heating system was first raised at the tail end of the Pandemic. But with no one in the role of Property Convener there was no one to take oversight of the issues we were facing. A big thank you then goes to Robert Porterfield for being brave enough to take on that role just as he entered retirement. So we can in reality say it has taken years to get to this point where work has commenced.
We noticed long ago that we were getting an increased number of leaks at radiators arising from corrosion of the steel pipework. Sections of pipe work were replaced alerting us to just how corroded some parts of the system had become. Every time the system pressure dropped due to leaks fresh oxygenated water was introduced to the system promoting further corrosion – a vicious circle. Radiators were getting blocked with sediment.
As required by the Church of Scotland we had to get a professional survey of the system by Andrew MacOwen. The survey pointed out that the output of the boilers was not sufficient for the size of the system and that should be addressed. Nor was the combi boiler providing hot water to such large premises a very good option. The work and cost of what was to be done was growing steadily!
You might think that getting quotes for a fairly big job would be easy but it’s not. Finding Heating Engineers that want to tackle a commercial sized system that is unfamiliar to them is not easy. It took months just to get quotes. And having chosen our favoured contractor as the Trustees did in March of this year we then had to process this through Presbytery. There was some coming and going in the application process but it still took 6 months to get approval for the expenditure and works.
All radiators are being replaced. Lockable thermostats will be on each radiator allowing halls to be warm without radiators running constantly as they do just now which should represent a saving in itself. The tandem boilers are being replaced with a commercial boiler commensurate with the size of the heating system which will allow the entire building to heat up more quickly with less stress upon the boiler. The tandem boilers (which are domestic boilers) run non stop and are subjected to the full fluctuation in pressure of a large system which they were never designed to handle.
Apologies then for the inconvenience that the works will cause to groups that use the halls and all our mid-week activities within the church. We hope that the outcome will be a warm church, zero repair bills, and a system that is fit for purpose.