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Heating a castle the Firebird way

Walworth Castle, Darlington, heated by Firebird oil boilers
Walworth Castle, near Darlington, resplendent with its new Firebird 70 radiator heating system
In 1981, Walworth Castle, near Darlington,  which can trace its history as far back as 1159, was transformed into a privately run, luxury 34-bedroom hotel.

Since its total refurbishment, the hotel has continued to use an antiquated boiler – originally solid fuel, it was converted to run on kerosene. Having maintained the inefficient system to the best of their ability over a number of years, Blackwell Heating & Plumbing of Darlington, a family run business with 20 employees,  recommended a long overdue replacement and upgrade to a modern and economical heating system.

Blackwell chose to use three cascaded 73kW Enviromax boilerhouse oil-fired boilers and designed a complete new system. The new boilers were installed in a planned installation programme which included over 70 radiators, pipework and efficiency controls.  Firebird recommended fluing prefabrication so that the whole changeover could be completed in one day.

Blackwell’s Andy Thomas is pleased with the finished job. “I promised they’d save a lot of money with the new system and I estimate they’re now saving well over 50% on fuel usage. Our reputation depends on using the best products so we use Firebird boilers as our preferred choice.”  

www.blackwellheating.com