Decision to upgrade boiler

cmorgan

We currently have a Trianco Eurostar 60/70 Trianco oil boiler which we think was installed circa 1995. We have had a few problems with the boiler but an annual service sees to keep it on the straight and narrow.

Reasons for thinking of an upgrade are twofold. Firstly as we run a day nursery business as well as live in the property reliability is a major factor in going for a new and presumably more reliable boiler. Secondly we are in the process of replacing electric storage heaters in the remaining wing of the nursery with radiators fed from the boiler. However our plumber has advised that we would need to upgrade the boiler to higher capacity if we are to add more than 1 or 2 more radiators (we will need at least 6).

3 questions;

1. Can anyone tell me what the efficiency rating is of our existing boiler. Part of the justification for going new will be payback and as we use in excess of £2,500 of oil per year (and rising!!) even a small increase in efficiency will have a significant impact.
2. Can anyone advise on replacement boiler type? I assume a standard condensing boiler rather than combi or system. Worcester Bosch seems to be most recommended on this site but at approx. 110k BTU is this going to give me the increased capacity required.
3. Finally the time switch attached to the boiler seems to work with the central heating but has no effect on the water heating (which seems to go on 24 hour 7 with the only way of controlling on the boiler control itself). We have asked a number of tradesmen to investigate and nobody seems to have a solution. Has anyone come across this before?

Thanks in advance for your help.
regards
Colin

mute_posting

Is not unusual to have the hot water on 24/7 as with a well insulated hot water tank, the losses if none is drawn on will maybe equate to a few units per day (say 15-20 pence)

http://www.sedbuk.com/ will allow you to view the rating, can't (immediately) see your model but similar are 82 - 85% efficient

HTH

MP

cmorgan

thanks MP you have put my mind at rest regarding the water being on all the time.

The database is interesting but I am not sure that our current boiler will be running at low 80's% efficiency as these boilers were first manufactured in 1997 whereas ours was installed 1995 or prior. I was hoping that it was in the 60% efficiency bracket as this would justify me upgrading with approximately 3 year pay back in saved oil. Would it be possible that a boiler installed in this period would be at that level of efficiency?

thanks

mute_posting

I would think it possible it is in the 60-65% band.. I had a similar query when I tried to find out the efficiency of my folk's boiler - the database only started at about the 1997 model (which was about 70% in their case, but we suspect their boiler is actually 1989 (based on a QA sticker on the gas valve)

Just to clarify on the water that is on a WELL insulated tank (i.e. not just a tank with one of those red jackets wrapped around it)

MP