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Northaw. Herts |
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Northaw. Herts |
The Church was built in 1885 when the A M Perkins
high pressure hot water heating system was installed.
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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.
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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. |
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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. |
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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.
