Boiler expansion vessels

The expansion vessel within a sealed system boiler takes the place of the feed & expansion tank in
an open-vented heating system. It allows the system to be pressurised and maintain a fairly steady
pressure while the water inside expands as it heats up. Having an internal pressure above that of the
atmosphere prevents air getting in and causing corrosion.
The way water behaves with temperature is shown in one way in the following graph, which shows
the percentage change in density relative to 4oC, where its density is highest. At low temperatures,
below 20oC, changes are relatively small, but by 80oC, the density has fallen by 2.8%:

Percentage density change

Percentage change in density of water v temperature

0.00
-0.50 0
-1.00
-1.50
-2.00
-2.50
-3.00
-3.50
-4.00
-4.50

20

40

60

80

100

120

Temperature celsius

Another way of putting this is that under the same pressure, the water occupies 2.8% greater volume
than it did when cold.
Water isn't, as you sometimes hear, incompressible, but it is pretty hard to compress. If you apply 1
bar of pressure, its volume shrinks by only around 46ppm (parts per million). If you had 100 litres
of water and wanted to pressurise it to 1 bar using a piston in a 22mm pipe, that piston would only
have to move 14.5mm.
If instead of allowing the water volume to increase by 2.8% as it heats up to 80oC, we kept it in a
pressure vessel and didn't let it expand at all, the vessel would have to withstand 603 bar, that is,
603 atmospheres of pressure! (Not in my house, thanks!)
The expansion vessel is a practical solution for a sealed system. The water is allowed to expand,
pushing a membrane behind which is pressurised air. This is a very neat solution: a vessel of only
around 10 litres in capacity can cope with small to moderate sized domestic heating systems: no
feed & expansion tank, and no pipework in the loft, at risk of freezing in winter.
However, everything involves a trade-off. Over time, as with a tyre, air escapes from the expansion
vessel. (At worst, its internal membrane can split.)
As the internal air pressure (with the system cold) falls, the air is less able to resist the expansion of
water, and the heated pressure rises. When it reaches (generally) 3 bar, the boiler's pressure relief
valve opens, allowing water out of the pressure relief outlet pipe. When the system cools, the
pressure will have fallen. As the process repeats, eventually the system pressure will fall below
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what's needed to operate the boiler, and it will decline to fire.

The remedy seems simple re-pressurise using the filling loop pressure restored job done.
Unfortunately, it isn't so the cycle will repeat itself use of the filling loop will become more
frequent, as will the discharges of water. Worse, the pressure relief valve spring may weaken over
time so that it releases water at lower and lower pressures and needs to be replaced.
What needs to be done is to isolate and drain the boiler to release the water pressure, and re-charge
the expansion vessel using, typically, a foot-pump. The main bugbear for me at the moment is the
inaccuracy of air pressure gauges (and just because a gauge has a digital readout doesn't make it
more accurate). That noted, I've yet to come across an expansion vessel that didn't need recharging.
Here are some facts and observations, some resulting from calculation:

When an entire system has been drained and re-filled, some of the pressurising air will be in
pipes and radiators and not just the expansion vessel. This air has to be released first.

When a system is pressurised, the expansion vessel's internal air pressure equals the water
pressure as indicated on the system pressure gauge (usually in the boiler).

For this reason, in order to pressurise a system at all, the water pressure has to exceed the
expansion vessel air charge pressure (or the water isn't pushing on the membrane).

If the air charge pressure is low, more water will enter the expansion vessel, leaving less
room for water expansion due to heat.

So, allowing for gauge inaccuracy, charge the expansion vessel to the upper end of the
range allowed by the manufacturer (usually somewhere between 0.5 and 0.9 bar, depending
on the vessel).

Go easy on over-filling with water, and stick to the manufacturer's recommended cold
system pressure, commonly 1 bar.

Keeping the system water temperature low helps to keep the pressure rise down. It also
helps to increase the efficiency of a condensing boiler (return water that's too hot prevents
condensation of the combustion water vapour). That's achieved by radiator balancing,
though people seldom want this done unless there's an acute problem.

Since the volume increase in heated water is in proportion to the total volume of water,
large systems will need an additional expansion vessel fitted external to the boiler on the
return. To take an extreme example of 80oC water expanding by 2.8% and an 8 litre
expansion vessel, a cold system containing 8 x 100/2.8 = 286 litres would expand by the
entire 8 litres of the vessel. One manufacturer with an 8 litre vessel states a limit of 143
litres before an external vessel is needed, exactly half of this, allowing at most half the
vessel to be taken up by expanding water.

Different manufacturers have different criteria for specifying when an external expansion
vessel must be used, so it's best as always, to follow their instructions.

End of document

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