Your boiler is the heart of your central heating system and sends heat and hot water to the radiators and taps in your house. There are many components to a boiler and each type of boiler works in different ways therefore unless you’re a gas safe registered engineer, it can be confusing to know exactly how boilers function.
A basic understanding of your boiler, it will burn a mixture of gasses together in a pressure vessel to heat your water and radiators. The boiler is the most important section of a central heating system as it is the part that powers all other parts. Most boilers are powered by gas and connect through a pipe to the gas main in the road. This allows the boiler to have a continuous supply of natural gas streaming into it so it is ready to fire up whenever you choose to switch it on. It is possible to have other fuel types powering your boiler such as oil, LPG, and electric.
Both gas and oil boilers use controlled combustion of the fuel to heat water. The most important parts of a boiler that affect how well it works in this process are the burner, heat exchanger, combustion chamber and controls. The burner will mix together the gasses and oxygen so that they are able to burn more efficiently and provide energy to heat your home. Hot water and heat that is produced by the boiler is then pumped through the pipes to supply the radiators and taps giving you hot water and heating.