What do I need new boiler install ?

quixonte

Hi All,

Hope I can get some advice on updating the heating system in a place I recently purchased.

The house is over 3 levels (loft is converted) and has gch throughout. The boiler is noway near adequate (its about 15 years old, baxi, that I think is a 70,000 btu rated unit). It takes quite a long time to heat up the place. Its 7 rooms in total with 3 ensuite, 1 bathroom and one shower room -all run off the same boiler. We have 3 cold water and 1 hot water tanks in the attic.

Problems I have are that it takes a long time for the place to heat-up and the preasure is poor in the upper floors.

I was advised by a local engineer that I should go for a free-standing boiler rated at 127,000 btu + and a circulating pump.

Does that make sense ? Can anyone give me some recommendations of specific boilers to go for and a rough idea of cost for this work (Scotland - Glasgow).

If anyone thinks I should look into a different setup then it would be good to hear.

Thanks
Q.

EliteHeat

What pressure are you talking about?

Anyway, the first thing that you should do is to obtain a heat loss analysis of your property and then ensure that each room has an adequately sized radiator.

There is little or no point in just getting a bigger boiler unless it is (a) needed (b) can be utilised and (c) can actually transfer the heat to the point of need.

A 70,000 BTU (20kW) boiler is capable of heating the majority of properties and it is largely irrelevant that it is 15 years old.

It is a common misconception that increasing the size of the boiler without making any other changes will generate more useable heat. The reverse is often true as it cannot get rid of its heat quickly enough and cycles down, its anti-cycling timer kicks in and will not allow it to start up again too quickly resulting in less useful heat being generated.

If I was you, I would be considering a thorough cleansing of your system and replacing / upgrading the pump before doing anything else.

quixonte

thanks for the quick reply.

By a good clean do you mean something like a power flush from a heating enginner or the stuff B&Q sell that you just drop into the water tanks?

By pressure I mean the force with which the water comes out of the shower of the en-suites upstairs. It's not a dribble, but its not exactly gushing out. I haven't spotted a circulation pump, but will have another look. Are these normally hidden under floorboards or is it something that is usually hooked in-between the radiator pipes somewhere(the radiator pipes are all visible) ?

thanks
Q.

moike

quixonte wrote: »

thanks for the quick reply.

By a good clean do you mean something like a power flush from a heating enginner or the stuff B&Q sell that you just drop into the water tanks?

By pressure I mean the force with which the water comes out of the shower of the en-suites upstairs. It's not a dribble, but its not exactly gushing out. I haven't spotted a circulation pump, but will have another look. Are these normally hidden under floorboards or is it something that is usually hooked in-between the radiator pipes somewhere(the radiator pipes are all visible) ?

thanks
Q.

Sound to me like you have a conventional system, if you have header tanks, then the pressure is going to be directly proportional to the height of these tanks over the shower head outlet, you can fit a single power shower pump to service all the shower outlets if this is the case. This is what I have, you would never regret it.

Pssst

I agree with elite heat. his situation needs a proper analysis if money is to be well spent. You might also consider a pressurised hot water system to meet your hot water requirements.

Mutton_Geoff

Another thumbs up for EliteHeats suggestion. In addition, I'd suggest the radiators are properly balanced. Every system I have ever looked at for people has not been correctly balanced leaving at least one radiator with the valves fully open routing hot water straight back to the boiler causing it to shut down regularly to cool.

Balancing radiators for an optimum 12C drop matches the (conventional) boiler spec and allows the radiators time to dissipate the heat energy from the water into the room thus making the system more efficient.

Replacing the boiler and pump without first investigating will probably lead to more disappointment and a lot of expense!