Old Back Boiler- New regulations - British Gas condem

James_N

Gordon_T wrote: »

My advice would be to ask for an independent Corgi guy to come round and sort your ventilation problems out. It seems to me you may need a core vent fitting to the correct size. I have been and done this on numerous occasions lately. Most were BG customers!
On another point, why didn't BG sort out your ventilation? Do they have a point of not doing this type of work or are they hoping to get a sale of a new boiler from you?

I had the hard sell. The "engineer" after performing with his smoky match and vaccum cleaner (for this I pay £15 a month) told me I HAD to have a totally new system, at the cost of some thousands, and that one "benefit" would be not needing to pay £700 for a powerflush.

When I refused, he got his "district manager" to call round. It was just like a double-glazing sales attempt, complete with "discounts" for signing soon.

Gordon_T_2

With that sort of service, I think I know where I would be telling them to go. Then go to Trading Standards and report them.

space_rider

I fail to understand why if you are told you need more ventilation (for your own sake, not BG or any other decent corgi engineer) do you not want to do it. Now if BG didn`t point it out to you and you died of carbon monoxide poisioning who would you blame?

James_N

space_rider wrote: »

I fail to understand why if you are told you need more ventilation (for your own sake, not BG or any other decent corgi engineer) do you not want to do it. Now if BG didn`t point it out to you and you died of carbon monoxide poisioning who would you blame?

Given that I indeed don't want to kill us (as I said we do have a detector), is there any way to provide the new regulation ventilation via a new chimney flue liner.

I ask this because:
1. We want to share with our neighbour the cost of entirely removing the shared stack between our houses. Her's was lately used by HER backboiler, ours still is.
2. It is next to impossible to ventilate the room by traditional methods of knocking a hole in a wall. These are 2 feet thick solid stone walls front and back. The new gas pipe took a car-sized air compressor an hour to break though just a small dia. hole.
3. Even if you get through the rear wall, there's a small lean-to conservatory.
4. The differing floor levels in the rear and main part of the house make it next to impossible to run new piping through for a kitchen situated boiler.
5. There is no suitable external wall space in the kitchen FOR such a boiler.
6. Boundary limitations would make the fluing from a kitchen boiler illegal.
7. A loft extension makes a new upward flue illegal since it would breach the fire-containement of the third-floor.

You see, I am not a luddite, I just know this house. AND the existing is working just fine.

space_rider

If you can`t find a corgi registered engineer ring this number its the corgi helpline number 01256 372200 and they`ll give you a list of corgi registered engineers in your area. you could then pose the question to them. I`ve just remembered that my gran has a back boiler so will ask her if she gets it serviced.

[Deleted User]

James_N wrote: »

We have a perfectly functionable Backboiler gas fire combination in our terraced house. Until recently we had a BG maintainance contract on the boiler fire and controls. In the past years the engineer has slapped a warning notice on the fire / back boiler warning that it was unsafe to use, whilst saying to us privately it was perfectly OK and the ventilation was adaquate (but not to the new regs) - these are the new regulations that came into force. The whole thing was fitted by BG BTW.

I understand that THIS June the new regs kicked in and that the next enginners visit will DISCONNECT the equipment and that I won't be able to reconnect it unless I eiher have a new (unreliable and very expensive) balanced flue combi boiler fitted, or make so many new ventilation holes that we might as well be living in a cave. Is this true? Will they totally disconnect it and can I prevent this?

If this IS true, and given that fitting a new balanced flue boiler is impractical in our house (no - I MEAN totally impractical, before someone starts to explain otherwise, due to layout and the proximity of boundaries) is it a viable option to switch to an electrical boiler for the rads and HW?

Or can i keep the old sytem running and pay a local bloke privately to maintain it? Will anyone who is any good do that now these new regs are in place.

Oh - and can someone explaiin the economies of "Saving Money / saving carbon" when fitting a new system, given that we scrap a working perfectly system, and make a new one in a big factory. Then the boiler as I understand needs careful nursing for the rest of its life since it's efficient but totally unreliable.

this is weird have the exact same problem,bunch of conmen!except the condemmed mine today!

lrr_2

I thought you were just advised to get it serviced yearly and not against the law if you didnt. Havnt had mine done for a couple of years and know someone who hasnt had it done for many years.