Saturday 10 November 2012

Kabola C/H and domestic hot water

The Kabola boiler for the central heating and domestic hot water has now been commissioned and after a few glitches the system is working well.
Refer to previous posts for details but to recap the main features:

-The kabola boiler is diesel fired and fed by gravity from a header tank under the back cabin bench seat.
-Water is circulated around the heating circuit and calorifier by a Bolin pump.
-By closing a valve in the wardrobe the hot water from the Kabola can be all diverted to the calorifier to heat the domestic hot water only.

Commissioning problems:

1 The Kabola boiler has been in storage for a couple of years and needed the regulator cleaning out and lubricating with fuel to get it working. Fortunately help was at hand.
The ever helpful John Sanderson who has a Kabola himself and is familiar with its workings took a break from boat painting (and eating pies) to carry out this job in minutes.
On lighting the stove it ran well and with the bolin pump operating the central heating circuit soon warmed through.
But:

2  The calorifier did not seem to be getting any heat and when the valve was closed on the central heating circuit the water temperature climbed quickly.
The calorifier is horizontally mounted and the bolin circulation pump is not powerfull (it doesn't need to be) so an airlock was suspected.
The compression connections to the coil were cracked open and some air and water was bled off as the header tank was able to provide enough flow to move the airlock.
When the Kabola was relit the system worked perfectly and ran without stop for 48 hours.

On the lowest operating setting of less than 1 (of 6) the temperature gauge settled at 62 degrees C and the boat became pleasantly warm. Domestic hot water was too hot to put a hand under.

3 A standard Delphi type engine fuel filter in the supply from the tank had a leak which was eventually identified as a faulty washer on a blanking plug and replaced, thanks once again  to John , so quickly the Kabola kept running.


1 comment:

  1. In applications where sterilization is required, using hot water for space heating would require the use of two separate boilers, which comes at an extremely high upfront cost.

    boiler cooling treatment company in Ontario

    ReplyDelete