Air source Heat Pumps are a way of providing you with heating and hot water in one of the most environmentally friendly ways possible; by using air as its fuel source! Imagine it to be like a fridge, a fridge extracts the heat from the inside to make it cooler. An ASHP works in the opposite way; by taking heat from outside to make it warmer! It doesn't just need a warm day though, your ASHP unit can even manage to extract heat from the air in temperatures as low as -15°C ! 

Don't worry! hopefully this diagram below can help you understand the cycle of an ASHP. You can always read more information about this on our > Heat Pump < page.

This week we were called out to Fowey with complaints that although the Air Source Heat Pump was running as it should be, it wasn't actually producing any heating or hot water upon closer inspection it was clear to see that the soft start unit inside the ASHP was not only not working, but had completely burnt out! After speaking to the fantastic support team at Grant Engineering, we were quickly able to replace the burnt out unit for a happy new one!

Above you can see the damage to the old soft start unit that was simply too old and tired to work.
Below you can see the before and after pictures of the unit in its correct placement in the ASHP.

We also discovered that the soft start unit wasn't the only issue, but also the immersion timer no longer worked either. We were able to promptly replace this for a new timer and the system was once again working as it should be!

The Beast from the east combined with storm Emma really battered the UK this week. Like many other plumbers and heating engineers, we were getting calls from all around the St Austell area with no heating and hot water.

The main cause for this if the customer had a gas boiler was the condensate pipe freezing on the outside of the property causing an ice plug to form, when the boilers couldn't drain they were shutting themselves down. For this, we disconnected the condensate pipe leading to the outside of the property and created a temporary one inside the property so it wouldn't freeze again, then went back when the weather warmed up and reconnected the original pipe.

For oil boilers, there were two main causes for the heating and hot water failing. The first cause was the cold water feed leading to the boiler freezing, as if there is no cold water going into the boiler, then hot water can't come out. The second reason for failed heating and hot water is a little more complex; due to the rapid change in weather and temperature recently, a lot more condensation has been building up on the inside of oil tanks (much the same as when you have a shower in an unvented bathroom), this water then drips down to the bottom of the tank and the oil then sits on top of the water. 
This is a problem all year round for customers as when the water gets sucked through the oil line it can damage the oil pump within the boiler, however in this weather the water hasn't been making it that far, instead it has been freezing in the oil line between the tank and the boiler (particularly with external boilers) and causing a plug in the line. For this we have been using a heat blower to defrost the water in the line, then pulling the water through to remove it from the tank.

Have a look below at some pictures of the work we have been doing this week.

Over the past 2 months we have installed 6 boilers to customers with no heating, with a few more lined up to do next. Here are a few pictures of a couple of our recent boiler installs in St Austell and Gorran Haven. If you would like to see any other parts of a boiler installation to see what's involved, please comment on this post saying what you would like to see and we will make sure we include it in our next post!

Just in case you don't remember, here is a little reminder for you. We began working on a renovation project in Gorran Haven just over a year ago now, installing the plumbing and heating throughout the house, whilst the clients carried out the rest of the renovations themselves! (you can see previous progress in older blog posts). The clients have been working hard to create their dream home and have now called us back to the property to finish installation of water and heating pipes to the part of the house that wasn't previously ready for us. 
The room pictured above will soon be the clients' kitchen, but first we had to get our pipework in place so it could be hidden in the walls and floor. Pipes are now in place for hot and cold water feeds and of course the heating, so now the clients can crack on with their home! Good luck guys!

We don't want our blog to be too busy, otherwise it becomes too much to enjoy, so this is all we will show you for this weeks blog. We hope you enjoyed it and found it interesting, feel free to leave a comment letting us know what you think!

See you again Soon 

A lot of the work that Eco Dragon have been doing recently are bathroom refurbishments and installations (but don't worry, we still make time for our loyal customers who need our help with their boilers and other similar issues).

For this weeks blog post, we thought you might like to see what a complete bathroom refurbishment involves. This particular bathroom was requested to be refurbished to allow for a walk-in shower to make access easier for the clients.

Working closely with our clients to get their jobs done exactly as they want it is our number one priority. Our clients worked with our bathroom merchants to design their own bathroom to their specifications, ensuring they had what they wanted from the get-go. From there; we consulted the clients every step of the way, even down to the position of the lights and the pattern of the tiles.

We hope you enjoyed seeing a complete bathroom refurbishment and installation from start to finish. Make sure you check back soon to see what else Eco Dragon have been up to! 

Since the last blog post, we have been working at a property at Castle-An-Dinas (along the old A30) where there has been an issue with water flow and pressure. Upon further investigation we discovered a leak coming through the ground from the water main. We dug up the water main where the leak was and repaired the leak.
Once we found the leak we discovered that the cause was the pipe being buried in sharp rocks which had pierced the pipe with natural ground movement. unfortunately the whole pipe was buried like this, so as we fixed the leak and the pressure built up again; the pipe burst in a new area, the only option this left us with was to replace the pipe and bury it properly. 
This is still an ongoing project, but you can view our progress in the images below.