Condensate Neutralising

[MDBS555]

Hi all, new to the forum. Ive come across a commercial plant room with around 500KW of boilers where the condensate terminates outside about 4 inches under the ground directly next to the wall of the building...... no drain, no soak away, no neutraliser. My understanding is the acidic content apart from not being suitable to put into the ground and water table, can actually damage concrete including the foundations of the building all be it a long term risk its simply not ok. A simple neutraliser installation will solve these problems but what are the relevant regs ? i should like to quote these when justifying to the client why it needs sorting. Ive looked and looked with no luck....ive discussed with Gas Safe, the boiler manufacturer and the environment agency none of which were interested, they all passed the buck eventually directed me to the local council and the contaminated land department whom i have written to but not yet had a response

Any one have any experience ?

Thanks in advanced

 

[gmartine]

Suprised the manufacturer wasn't able to offer some guidance, who makes them?

Maybe of use or contact them...

https://hhic.org.uk/uploads/5BD6D5A19764A.pdf

 

[Chuck]

I think what you are looking for may be in British Standard BS 6798:2014, sections 6.3.8–9 but I don't have a copy currently to hand to check. There's probably another BS for commercial boilers, BS6798 is for less than 70kW, but condensate disposal is obviously going to be even more of an issue for bigger boilers.

IIRC, the potential problems caused by condensate discharge into the ground/sewage systems had not been thought through when BR 2005 made condensing boilers a requirement. The issues are now well known, and this is a concise summary, which may persuade your client:

Condensing Boilers | Condensate | Sewage | Septic Tank

The Condensate from condensing boilers should not be discharged into the sewage or septic treatment system.

www.wte-ltd.co.uk

I think the '800 litres per year' referred to is for a domestic boiler, you're going to have more like ten times that.

Worcester Bosh TB0028 that talks about installing condensate pipework and includes the statement:

"The waste system into which the condensate is terminated must be suitable to withstand the mildly corrosive nature of condensate".

Something similar seems to appear in just about every set of modern installation instructions.