Fuel savers

Danpad

I like to stock up on multi fuels for the fire (it's one of my favourite preps). Whilst searching for an option that would allow me to light my fire but not heat the back boiler - (in the event of a power cut the fire would heat the back boiler but I wouldn't be able to turn it on!) and I discovered fuel savers. They are essentially free standing fire bricks that you insert into your fire grate. Essentially they are used to decrease the size of the fire you build and therefore save fuel - a great idea in itself! But for those of us with back boilers am I right in saying these would do the job in blocking the heat from going up the back and to the boiler?

Mods: I was going to post this in the heating/plumbing forum but it's a prepping issue for me, please move if inappropriate.

frankdefinger

Why in God's name would anyone not want to take advantage of the back boiler? If it has been installed properly the power going off should not be a problem as a gravity circuit will route the excess hot water to the cylinder and at least one radiator. Meanwhile, it will help with your heating system and hot water with only a small fire..

Danpad

frankdefinger wrote: »

Why in God's name would anyone not want to take advantage of the back boiler? If it has been installed properly the power going off should not be a problem as a gravity circuit will route the excess hot water to the cylinder and at least one radiator. Meanwhile, it will help with your heating system and hot water with only a small fire..

I don't know why anyone would not want to take advantage of a back boiler!? I'm not 'versed' in plumbing etc and assumed that when the power goes there was no other way to power the pump. So, you're informing me that all back boiler systems have gravity circuits as a backup measure in case the power goes off? I hope I never have to put that to the test.

Orion

How much do they cost? You could go to any builders providers and get a few firebricks for a tenth of the price I'm betting.

Dawn Rider

Those bricks won't stop the heat from going into the back boiler.

We had them in my parents house.

frankdefinger

You should have a pipestat on the flow pipe nearthe back boiler. If you turn this up relatively high (say 80 degrees) and light the fire you will heat the hot water without having the central heat pump come on. If the water gets too hot you can simply run some off. Pipestats are not 100% accurate so you can play with the setting but the higher the better for this test. You are now running as if you had no electricity until your domestic water boils, which is not going to happen in a few minutes.

Danpad

So, all back boiler pumps have a gravity circuit which acts as a back-up in case the power goes?

frankdefinger

Back boilers which are installed properly have an independent gravity circuit which is not affected by the pump.

ShadowFox

The back boiler in my parents house heats the water in the boiler if you heard the water boiling you turned on the hot tap to release some. Now they have gas heating in and a switch on it so the rads heat from the back boiler or gas its handy to have your rads run off of both if you can in case of power cuts