ALL
SAINT'S
CHURCH
LLANELLI
CARMARTHENSHIRE. WEST WALES
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Note the unusual shallow pitch of the
roof covering the tower.
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The church was erected circa.1872 when it is
believed that a warm air stove system was installed
in the church. Evidence of this can be seen in the
furnace room where an old chimney flue has been
bricked up, and also internal floor gratings.
The church was enlarged in 1887 and this has to have
been the time period when the Perkins HPHW heating
system was installed to replace the warm air stove.
This 5 circuit Perkins heating system is the
largest system so far discovered by the Heritage
Group.
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In this Welsh church for the first time the
name of the original installer of the
Perkins system has been found and
identified.
Their
named wall plaque has been left fixed to the
furnace wall.
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Brickwork
furnace now oil fired. Note
the 5 return pipework circuits.
The
Perkins HPHW heating system is a 5 circuit system complete
with its original solid fuel fired brickwork furnace
which has now been converted to oil firing. The system has
3 expansion pipes fitted which are necessary to cope with
the larger expansion volume of the heated water due to the
long lengths of the pipework circuits.
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Good maintenance proceedures recommend that Perkins
systems should be hydraulically checked and
re-charged every two or three heating seasons. The
Heritage Group therefore, were fortunate to be
visiting the church on the same day that the system
was having a pre-heating season maintenance service.
This involved checking for any leaks, opening the
filling and air vents points and then flushing fresh
water through the pipework to remove any pockets of
air that could have built up inside the pipework
circuits since the last service. The system was
topped up with fresh water to the fill point and
then fired up to check for leaks and prove effective
circulation of heat within the pipe circuits.
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Maintenance engineers at work carrying
out the flushing
of the pipework
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The
skill
and craftsmanship of the Victorian engineering Artisan can
be readily illustrated in these two pictures which show a
double row of pipework bent and formed to follow the
radius of the circular column. The two pipes form a
perfect semi-circle around the base of the column. This
example becomes even more remarkable when we understand
that it was fabricated without the help of hydraulic benders or electricity which
was not yet available. All bends in pipework had to
be hot forge formed.
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Several purpose made manual air vents
have been fitted at the high points in the 5
circuits. These are similar in design as
with the other Perkins heating systems found
in Churches and Chapels in South Wales.
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AUGUST 2003