Church of St Thomas à Becket.  Northaw.   Herts

There are 4 separate pipework circuits each of which has its own bank of looped coils inside the boiler combustion chamber. The boiler has been converted to oil firing and  the surface  condition of the heating tubing inside the boiler is good with no apparent signs of scorching. The system still has gravity circulation  and operates at 30 psi cold pressure and 260ºF.

Similar to all other Perkins systems found in Churches the 1” pipework circuits are all routed  tight to the floor level along the aisles at the side of the pews. The tightness of the return bends is very noticeable and how the Victorian craftsmen achieved this by forging would  be interesting to know. The marks on the pipe sockets made by  the teeth of the assembly tools can be clearly seen. Also noticeable is the excessive amount of exposed thread on either side of the socket.

There is no sign in the Church of the necessary expansion pipes so it must
be assumed that they are boxed in and hidden from view.

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There  are  3  heating coil  banks sited  around  the  walls  of  the Church and  it should be noted how these  coil  banks  are  constructed with  left  and  right  hand  threaded sockets  allowing  the coils to be assembled and built from the base upwards.

CIBSE   HERITAGE GROUP
AUGUST  2001

FOOTNOTE:   Tragically this Perkins hot water heating system, a wonderful example of Victorian craftsmanship was cut-up, removed and destroyed in September 2002.