Blog Posts

Blog Post 10 - 01/05/2017

1/5/2017

More At The Farmhouse

Main bedroom in 1st half of house

Since we last updated you, we have continued our work at the Farmhouse. We have now finished the first half of the house and are on to the second half. Around the edge of the Farmhouse is an old tunnel which we facilitated for getting the pipework from A to B without being on display. Whilst this created a great finish for the pipework you could see, it was certainly a tight squeeze!

A quick selfie in the Tunnel

The pipework travelling through the tunnel

A Small Building Job

Over a period of 2 weeks, we worked hard to convert a small, impractical utility room into a much larger one. We did this by building a new wall further along in the garage than the current wall, knocking down the wall that was in place, and making an archway into what was the previous utility.

We also knocked down a small wall in the back of a cupboard that backed onto the garage to create a new entrance into the utility. With some careful plastering, tiling and decorating, the utility was complete!

(please note the curves in the archway are due to the panoramic shot of the camera)

Work On Our Own Bathroom

The last you saw from the work on our own house was the completed chimney and continued work on the pillar downstairs. We are now working full steam to get our dream bathroom completed! Previously our bathroom consisted of a toilet and a bath, there was no flooring other than the floorboards and no tiles on the wall. As you can imagine, with work being carried out on our bathroom the use of the facilities is limited, so we use every spare minute we have each evening after work to carry on. You can see our progress over the past week below.

Starting the work

Insulating the walls

Tiling in the shower enclosure

One finished wall

All the tiles are now done in the shower area, just the grouting left

Make sure you check back next week for more progress on our bathroom

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Blog Post 9 - 18/02/2017

18/2/2017

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Another busy week

You may remember from posts 2 and 3 we have been doing a long term heating install at Gorran Haven.
This week we went back to
the job to install the heating and hot water to the ground floor so the family could
move back into the property while renovations continued upstairs.
To get this job done as quickly and efficiently as possible, we split up and worked on different parts of the job rather than doing the same thing together.
Our apprentice has now gained a lot of experience in different areas and is confident to fit radiators unaided, so she fitted and connected 6 radiators on the ground floor whilst our heating engineer fitted and connected the cylinder.
By doing different jobs separately, we managed to get the heating connected and running for the client in just 2 days!

Back to the farmhouse

At the end of the week we returned to the farmhouse renovation to fit pipes to the locations of the lounge radiators.

The pipes will then be plastered over, causing them to be hidden in the wall, we shall show you a picture of this when it has been done in a later blog post.

This part of the job certainly took its time as it involved a lot of drilling through thick walls and as the walls are old, they have a lot of lime in them which can cause damage to the copper pipes. To prevent damage to the pipes, they all had to be wrapped in tape as you can see in the picture so the pipes do not come into contact with the walls.

That's all we have this week, be sure to check back next week for our new blog post.

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Blog Post 8 - 14/02/2017 (Part 2)

14/2/2017

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Happy Valentines From Eco Dragon

As you know from our last post, we have been up to so much lately that we couldn't fit it all into one post. So please enjoy part 2 of this blog and don't forget to let us know what you think.

Old Systems and new boilers

Before

A lot of people believe that having a new boiler will fix their problems with their heating. Whilst this is true, it's not just the boiler that can be an issue, but also the rest of the system.
Many of our customers opt to have a new boiler without replacing their radiators as it is the most cost effective method of replacing a system, however black sludge that builds up from dirty water in your heating system can cause damage to your new boiler and needs to be cleaned out using a power flushing system.
As you can see from our results we cleaned out a lot of dirty water and by the end of our treatment, the water was clear as tap water again.

After

A New Large-Scale Renovation Project Near Liskeard

Bringing the pipes through the wall where the cylinders will go

Eco Dragon has now begun a large renovation of a very old farmhouse near Liskeard. This involves removing an old heating system and installing a new one, whist also changing the hot and cold water feeds.
So far we have been first- fixing the system which means installing all of the pipework leading up to where the appliances will be.
Take a look at our progress so far by looking at the pictures. You can follow our progress over the following weeks.

Drilling through to allow the pipes to enter the wall

The old pipework being removed compared to the new pipework being installed

You can see how damaged the old pipe has become through corrosion

Fitting In Our Usual Work

We may be very busy with large jobs at the moment as you have seen in the past 2 posts, however it is important that we remain loyal to our trusted customers and try to fit everyone in where we can.
Two of our recent jobs have included fixing a locked-out boiler and installing a towel rail.

After receiving a call to tell us that a boiler had locked-out, we went to the customer to see what we could do to get their heating back on. After a bit of problem solving, we discovered the fault lay with the AAV (Auto Air release Valve) that was allowing water out of it as well as air. As you can see in the picture below, this allowed limescale to build up inside the boiler and seal the AAV closed. We advised the customer that their 12 year old boiler may not last much longer and they should consider a replacement boiler, but to get them by for now we cleaned off the AAV to allow air to release again and reset the overheat lockout and the boiler began to work again.

The installation of the towel rail was one of our more straight forward jobs. Any job no matter how big or small can go right or wrong, and luckily for us this job went very smoothly. The customer is installing the rest of the bathroom themselves but asked us to do the towel rail for them and all went very well leaving the customer very happy. You can see the results below.

The Sealed AAV

The installed towel rail, All that is left now is for the electrician to wire it in

That's all we have to show you this week but make sure you check back next week to see more of what we have been up to.

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Blog Post 7 - 12/02/2017 (part 1)

12/2/2017

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Keeping Busy

Here at Eco Dragon we have certainly been keeping ourselves busy. A lot of work recently has involved quoting for new jobs including full heating systems and refurbishments. Winter is definitely the busiest season for work so it is important to give us a call before you need work doing to make sure we can fit you in.

We don't want to overload you with how much we have been doing, so our recent work will be split over 2 blog posts, with the 2nd one following on Tuesday.

A Very Unhappy Boiler

Recently we were called out to repair a boiler that wouldn't fire up. Our first inspection found that the oil pump didn't work anymore. After replacing the oil pump and firing the boiler up, it locked out again.

When a boiler wont fire up correctly it is usually down to poor air flow or fuel flow. So we checked the fuel flow first and discovered that the fire valve had also stopped working, as fuel was flowing to the valve but not flowing through it. This is likely to be the reason that the oil pump stopped working as the pump was starved of oil.

changing the oil pump

extremely poor analyser readings

After replacing the fire valve it was time to fire up the boiler again and this time it worked! This is where the importance of our analyser comes in. If we did not have our analyser we would have thought everything was fine and left the job, however as you can see from the picture above, the results could have been fatal if not checked.

the old broken fire valve

replacing the fire valve

The 2nd result on the analyser measures how many parts-per-million of carbon monoxide there is in the air. Anything above 400PPM is considered dangerous and usually the boilers we check are between 1 and 20, however as you can see this boiler is reading at 1228PPM, more than 3x the safe limit. Fortunately for the customer we spotted this and managed to alter the flow rates of the oil and air to bring the level back down to well within the safe zone. Finally after 2 days of repairs and alterations, this boiler is back up and running.

Sometimes, a plumber's work is not for everyone.

We were called out to a job where the client said another plumber had replaced an existing radiator for them. According to the client the plumber had done a terrible job of the install and it was leaking right from the start. When we got to the job, we were shocked to say the least.

As expected the radiator was leaking, but we weren't quite expecting to see such a poor finish on a job by a qualified plumbing and heating engineer. The pipes were extended above the floor by more than half a meter each and were fitted slanted to make up for the change in depth of the radiator away from the wall. As well as this, holes were left in the clients wall from where the previous fittings had been removed.

the old radiator

the "solution" to fitting a rad where the pipes don't line up

We removed the radiator that had been damaged during it's install and re-altered the pipework under the floor to come up straight into the valves at either end of the radiator. We also installed a larger radiator to meet the heat loss requirements of the room and cover up the previous installer's handy work. Another Customer happy with our work.

leaking from the start!

our replacement

That's all for now but make sure you check back on Tuesday for part 2 of this weeks blog post

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Blog post 6 - 03/01/2017

3/1/2017

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Eco Dragon's first blog post of 2017!

We hope you have all had a fantastic end to 2016 with lots of festivities and hopefully a well deserved rest. You will be happy to know that Eco Dragon is now back up and running after having some time off and the phone is going crazy!

It is so important to us that all of our customers are kept warm and safe throught the winter so please give us a call if you find yourself having some issues. As usual this winter we have had a lot of calls about boilers breaking down and we do our best to get out to you as soon as possible, but it's not just boilers.

We have all sorts of calls from leaky taps to new heating system installations, whatever your problem, Eco Dragon can help. Recently we received a call from a couple who had just moved into their house and needed help understanding their heating system and we were more than happy to help. Never be embarrassed to call if you just need showing what to do with your plumbing or heating appliance because you are not the only one!

What have Eco Dragon been up to over Christmas?

In our own home, we have completed our chimney renovation and are happy with the result! The scaffolding has come down and our house is beginning to look normal again.

Inside the house we have been building framework around the steel beem from when we made the downstairs open plan. The framework will be boarded and plastered with the rest of the walls and ceiling so the beam will really become part of the room.
With our spare insulation from renovating downstairs, we have begun to insulate the upstairs bedrooms. The bedroom in the picture shown was the coldest room in the house before we began, however now it is just as warm as the rest of the house.... and we aren't even done yet!

Back to work!

The repaired boiler happily running again. You can see the damaged circulator in front of it.

You can see the corrosion effect the water had on the circulator

To start us off this week we received a call asking for our help with a boiler that wouldn't work. When we got there and took a look inside the boiler it was clear to see there was a substantial leak coming from inside the boiler.

We successfully managed to repair the leak points in the boiler, however when we went to test the boiler afterwards it still would not fire up.

Unfortunately we discovered that the leaking water had managed to penetrate the electrical circuit of the circulator. Luckily for the customer we had a replacement circulator in the van

already for emergencies such as this and were able to replace it immediately. After replacing the circulator the boiler fired up and the customer had heating and hot water once again. In the above pictures you can clearly see how bad the corrosion was of the circulator which had a leak directly above it. This is why it is important to have your boiler regularly serviced so we are able to detect any signs of issue early on.

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Blog post 5 - 10/12/2016

10/12/2016

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This week- doing what we can to have you sorted for christmas

Monday -

Monday was our usual services and repairs day, where we attempt to get as many of our customers up and running before christmas as we can. We understand that the time surrounding christmas is the worst time to have to pay for repairs, so our expert heating engineers carry out a careful analysis on your boiler to find the problem and keep the cost as low as possible for you.

The inside of a Worcester Heatslave Oil Fired boiler

Removing the cover to clean out the Combustion chamber

Carrying out an analysis to ensure all is running correctly

More on the analyser

Here you can see our Flue Gas Analyser which is used in every service and after every repair to ensure that your boiler is running as it should be.
In picture 1 you can see CO2 emissions are 12.01%. we would hope the emissions for this particular boiler we would hope to see the emissions at 12% so we are happy with this result. PPM stands for Parts Per Million and measures the level of carbon monoxide being released into the air, as you can see we

Picture 1

Picture 2

are reading 7PPM and we are happy as long as it is below 500PPM so this is a good result. The ratio measures the difference between the CO2 and the PPM and as long as the reading is below 0.004 the boiler is still safe to be using, and as you can see from the picture the ratio is 0.0001 so this is the best result we can ask for.

In picture 2 we can see the Net efficiency (EFFN) and the Gross efficiency (EFFG). Looking at the Gross efficiency we would expect a new oil boiler to be running at this level, so all in all after a good clean this boiler was running as good as new!

Continuation of the bathroom

As you can see the bathroom is coming along nicely, however due to an unrelated injury it was unable to be completed this week. The shower tray is now bedded and the tiling is done, you can even see our apprentice building upon her tiling skills! All tiles were chosen by the customer and we have worked closely with him to design the bathroom just as he likes it!

Fitting gas bottles with a 4 Bottle Regulator Valve

This week we fitted gas bottles to a mobile home stationed on a farm to provide gas to the boiler for heating and hot water as well as to supply gas for the hob and oven.
In a short space of time we made a small family warm and happy as we try to achieve with all of our customers as your happiness is key to running our business.

Finally - our chimney

Unfortunately we were unable to finish the chimney this week as planned, however we have completed the lead work and all that's left to do is the pot!

Check out our Full progress on the older posts and don't forget to comment on what you think of this weeks post!

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Blog Post 4 - 03/12/2016

3/12/2016

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With winter quickly drawing in, we are certainly getting busier!

We started off this week with a call out to a customer who required his heating system to be powerflushed before he was able to have a repair carried out under warranty.
This particular system was not fitted with an inhibitor to clean sludge out of the system, so after powerflushing the gentlemans system, we fitted the latest mag filter to draw out the remaining sludge and keep it clean in future.

Tuesday - a day full of servicing!

Unfortunately no pictures were captured of the boilers we serviced this day, however feel free to browse our website (especially the gallery) to view other boilers that have been professionally installed and serviced by us!

Installation of a new bathroom

Throughout the rest of the week we have been removing an old, damaged bathroom suite and replacing it with a new one. You will be able to see the finished bathroom in next week's blog post, but for now have a look at the progress so far below.

The newly installed toilet and basin

The framework installed ready for the shower tray. Installing framework will aid in the strength and support of the tray to keep it even and make it last longer

And finally - how's the chimney?

As you are most likely aware from old blog posts, Eco Dragon have been conducting renovations of our own home. With the increasing demand for work as winter draws in it's hard to find the time to continue our own renovations, but we are nearly there! Despite the bad weather we hope to have our chimney completed and the roof sealed by the end of this weekend .

Don't forget to comment on our blog to let us know what you think and check back next week for more Eco Dragon updates!

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Blog post 3 - 26/11/2016

26/11/2016

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What have we been up to this week?

Our regular services and repairs (click on each picture to expand)

With winter seeming to come quicker and quicker each year, everyone is beginning to put their heating on for the first time since the beginning of the year.
Unfortunately, this is the time you are most likely to discover your boiler has developed a fault whilst it's been sleeping through the summer! We have had no end of calls from our loyal customers asking for our help, and we try to give each and every one of you our fullest attention.

while a fault is no good for you, they are certainly helping with the training of our apprentice. Once she is fully trained, we will have an extra member of staff on hand so we will be able to get out to more calls with an even faster response rate!

New heating and hot water system at Gorran Haven

Our apprentice working hard to pump the system up to 10 bar of pressure

The pressure gauge, exactly where we want it!

Over 2 hours of hard work and dedication to ensure everything is right

We have now completed all the pipe work at the renovation project in Gorran Haven. The next step of the process is to pump water into the system up to 10 bar of pressure. The MAXIMUM your system would ever run at of its own accord is 3 bar of pressure, so if there was any fault in our pipework we would certainly know about it now!
If you would like to read a bit more on water pressure in a heating system, you can do so on the Baxi website -> HERE <-
This is a very important stage of the project as we need to be positive that there are no faults, not only for our peace of mind, but yours too! All of the pipework at this project is currently exposed so we can check that our work is perfect before the floor is put in place at the project.

Just a little bit of space to squeeze in the installation of a toilet, shower and basin.

A house in Ashton near Penzance has recently undergone extensive renovation, converting a bungalow into a 2 story house. The company carrying out this renovation is one we work closely with on a regular basis- Prestige Property Services.

This week we completed our work on this project by completing the finishing touches on the bathroom by installing the toilet, shower and basin, then neatly sealing the gaps with silicone.

Unfortunately we forgot to get a picture of the finished product, however here are some pictures of our work in progress to enjoy.

Fitting the toilet to sit neatly inside the unit

Drilling a hole in the unit to fit the toilet bowl

Attaching the wall fixings to the tiles for the shower

The finished shower

Progress on our chimney

Last weekend we made even more progress on the rebuilding of our chimney at our own home. It may not be finished yet, but it is certainly coming along nicely.

The brick work is now half completed and the slates have been replaced along the front elevation where the old chimney used to extend to.

Don't forget to add any comments you have about our most recent post, check out our old posts and check back next week for a new post!

Have a great week.

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Blog post 2 - 17/11/2016

17/11/2016

1 Comment

What have we been up to so far this week?

The work of our apprentice:
Eco Dragon South West Ltd's apprentice has been hard at work learning the trade. In the pictures below she can be seen creating a run for the pipes under the floor at a current renovation project in Gorran Haven, as well as soldering pipes leading to the hot and cold feed in a future bathroom. You can also see an example of our apprentices pipe work under the floor where she has been shown how to overcome the obstacle of crossing pipes through the bending of pipes and careful placing of elbows and Tee's.

Ground Source Heat Pump

This week Eco Dragon has been out at one of our Eco new-builds in Porthtowan commissioning our Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP) unit.
GSHP's work by extracting heat from the ground by circulating a mix of water and Glycol through pipes that have been buried under the ground (you can see this process in the video that will be attached on friday). The Heat is then concentrated using a vapour compression cycle and then transferred into buildings to provide heating and hot water without the need to burn fossil fuels.
You can find more information by clicking on
-> THIS <- link to the Kensa website whose GSHP's we install.

Our usual annual services on boilers, as well as repairs
on faulty appliances

What does Eco Dragon do in their spare time?

The staff at Eco Dragon are currently undergoing renovations at their own home. In the weekend passed, we have been on the roof knocking down the four flue chimney to be rebuilt and replaced with a one flue chimney. This is due to the old chimney leaking, causing damage to the internal walls.

You can follow our progress by regularly checking back for a new blog.

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Eco Dragon's First Blog Post!

8/11/2016

163 Comments

We at Eco Dragon pride ourselves on being close to our customers so you know that you are valued by us.

Every effort is made to ensure customer satisfaction no matter what the job, whether it is a boiler service/ breakdown, a new build project or just a leaky tap!

By creating this blog we are enabling a new form of contact between our staff and our loyal customers so you know what is happening in our world, and more importantly we know your thoughts and opinions on what we do.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated as it can help us develop ourselves to be the business that you deserve to have working alongside you so feel free to leave us a comment (perhaps commenting on a previous job we have done or letting us know what you would like to see) and we will do our best to learn and grow based on your feedback.

Just click on the word "comment" at the top of the blog post to add your thoughts.

Thank you :)

163 Comments

Forward>>

Keeping up to date with all the latest from Eco Dragon

We love pictures! By taking pictures regularly of work we are carrying out, we can be sure that you are seeing the best of what Eco Dragon has to offer. Remember, if you want to see the most recent pictures of our work then head on over to our Facebook page or check out our Facebook and Instagram feed on our home page!

Eco Dragon South West Ltd are proud sponsors of Hiryu Budou-Jyo (Flying Dragon Martial Arts Club)

Our plumbers, Heating Engineers and Construction Workers are based in St Austell and cover most of Cornwall!

More At The Farmhouse

A Small Building Job

Work On Our Own Bathroom

Make sure you check back next week for more progress on our bathroom

Another busy week

Back to the farmhouse

That's all we have this week, be sure to check back next week for our new blog post.

Happy Valentines From Eco Dragon

Old Systems and new boilers

Before

After

A New Large-Scale Renovation Project Near Liskeard

Fitting In Our Usual Work

That's all we have to show you this week but make sure you check back next week to see more of what we have been up to.

Keeping Busy

A Very Unhappy Boiler

Sometimes, a plumber's work is not for everyone.

That's all for now but make sure you check back on Tuesday for part 2 of this weeks blog post

Eco Dragon's first blog post of 2017!

What have Eco Dragon been up to over Christmas?

Back to work!

This week- doing what we can to have you sorted for christmas

Monday -

More on the analyser

Continuation of the bathroom

Fitting gas bottles with a 4 Bottle Regulator Valve

Finally - our chimney

With winter quickly drawing in, we are certainly getting busier!

Tuesday - a day full of servicing!

Installation of a new bathroom

And finally - how's the chimney?

Don't forget to comment on our blog to let us know what you think and check back next week for more Eco Dragon updates!

What have we been up to this week?

Our regular services and repairs (click on each picture to expand)

New heating and hot water system at Gorran Haven

Just a little bit of space to squeeze in the installation of a toilet, shower and basin.

Progress on our chimney

What have we been up to so far this week?

Ground Source Heat Pump

Our usual annual services on boilers, as well as repairs ​on faulty appliances

What does Eco Dragon do in their spare time?

Keeping up to date with all the latest from Eco Dragon

Our usual annual services on boilers, as well as repairs
on faulty appliances