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Commissioning
Following installation of an oil heating appliance, your technician should ensure that the appliance is commissioned. This means that your appliance is set up for the particular circumstances to which it has been installed. Your manufacturer's warranty may not become effective if they have not received a commissioning report from your technician. Following servicing, the appliance will need to be recommissioned to ensure that it is running as safely and efficiently as possible. Please ask your Technician for a copy of the Combustion Efficiency Figures.
Space heating
Providing heat for rooms.
Water heating
Providing heat for domestic hot water.
Heating appliance
Boiler or Roomheater.
Cooker
A cooking appliance that will often also provide space and water heating.
Regular Boiler
A boiler that can heat domestic hot water through a storage cylinder.
Combination Boiler
A boiler provides an instant domestic hot water supply as well as space heating.
Condensing Boiler
A boiler that recovers the heat from the steam that forms part of the flue gases.
System Boiler
A boiler that includes the circulating pump, expansion vessel and safety valve within it's casing.
Vaporising Burner
A type of burner often used in cookers and roomheaters which burns the oil by heating it so that vapour is given off to maintain the flame.
Pressure Jet Burner
A burner used on all boilers and a number of cookers which includes the pump to force the oil through a nozzle and burns the resulting spray.
Open Flue
A chimney taking flue gases from an appliance which terminates in the open air, usually above roof level. Masonry chimneys must always be fitted with a flexible flue liner to prevent the gases coming into contact with the chimney itself. The liner needs to be replaced each time a boiler is fitted. An appliance connected to an open flue must be provided with a combustion air supply directly from the outside.
Balanced Flue
A flue system included in the boiler which can discharge flue gases at low level, vertically or horizontally.
Motorized Valves
An electrically powered valve for the control of water flow through pipes, it can be operated by a time switch or thermostat.
Zoning
Providing separate space heating control for different parts of a building, i.e. ground floor or first floor usually achieved by the use of motorized valves.
Room Thermostat
A device which switches heating control equipment on and off according to the temperature which has been set into it by the user.
Thermostatic Radiator Valves
Non electric valves which regulate water flow through a radiator in accordance with the amount of heat required to maintain a pre set temperature in a room.
Domestic Hot Water Cylinder
A storage vessel normally made of copper in which domestic hot water is stored. Inside the cylinder is a coil of pipe through which water from the boiler passes to heat the water which becomes available through your hot water taps.
Cylinder Thermostat
A switching device fitted to the domestic hot water cylinder which controls the temperature of stored water. This should not be higher than 60 degrees centigrade.
Programmer
A time activated switching device used to regulate the times when space and water heating services will be operated by the boiler. A single channel programmer uses one set of times to operate both services. For space and water heating control it is better to use a two channel programmer which enables services to be operated independently to each other.
Bund
A enclosure inside which an oil tank can be located which is capable of holding the contents of the tank plus 10% so as to prevent oil damaging the environment in the event of a leakage or spillage. Bunds used to be known as catchpits.
Integrally Bunded Tank
An oil storage tank that is constructed at the factory to include a bund facility plus a lid to keep the bund clear of rain water.
Sight Gauge
A transparent tube fitted in the outlet pipe close to the tank and run vertically up to just above the highest part of the tank. Where the tube joins the draw off pipe there is a push button valve which when depressed enables oil to rise up the tube to the same level as the oil in the tank.
De-aeration device
A device fitted in the oil line close to the heating appliance to help the drawing of oil up to a level higher than the level of oil in the tank. It does this by removing the air and vapour created when the pump in the oil boiler applies suction to the high level oil line. Plastic bodied de-aeration devices are always fitted outside buildings.
Remote Acting Fire Valve
A valve fitted in the oil line external to the building which incorporates the sensor that is located inside a boiler casing so as to shut off the oil supply to the building externally in case of a fire.
Kerosene
This is a light heating oil suitable for use with most types of oil and cooking appliances. This is a low sulphur very clean burning fuel.
Gas Oil
A clean burning oil heating fuel suitable for use with appliances that have pressure jet burners.
OFTEC’s helpful guide to those mind boggling terms!
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If you can’t find the answers you are looking for here you can contact the OFTEC Technical Helpline on 0905 757 0135 (calls are charged at 95p a minute, but some service providers may vary) and speak to a member of the OFTEC Technical Team.
Alternatively, you can send in a technical enquiry form. We aim to respond to technical enquiry e-mails within 3 working days.