Boiler packed up.

ic

I can second the points about the cost of heating with portable electric heaters. My grandparent's gas fire places were all condemned as the chimneys were all leaking. They began using electric fan heaters and oil filled radiators for a winter. Their electric bill lept from about £15 a month to £90, and the house was permanently cold - you had to be sat next to the heater to feel any benefit. They've since had gas central heating fitted and had the loft insulation topped up (sadly the walls aren't suitable for cavity wall insulation). The electric bill has dropped right down, and the gas bill is a more normal £50 a month - plus the house is warm and toasty throughout - no need to hug the nearest electric heater!

kmmr

macman wrote: »

I suggest you post the make and model of the boiler, then one of the CH gurus on here should be able to advise if the fans are available or not. I would certainly not accept the opinion of BG on this without further simple research.

I would agree with this. I quite like BG's boiler service, but they do have a tendancy to walk in the door and say 'the boiler needs replacing'. They can be talked out of it though!

Also, if the part is available, but not easily, you could source it yourself and get BG to install it. I think they allow that. Would probably be a similar price to getting a number of electric heaters.

kmmr

fedupwiththeworry wrote: »

He replaced the other 2 bits and did some tests and said that even if he had the fan it still wouldn't work. If so - what did he say WAS the fault. He should be able to tell you why replacing the part won't fix it, what is the underlying problem that is so unfixable?

He said the cover didn't apply to so many faults and it would be cheaper to get a new boiler. He cancelled the policy.

Cheaper for who? Not for you...

Robbo77

www.boilersparesdirect.co.uk will supply you a fan for your boiler for £105. Even if a local GasSafe engineer charges you £150 to fit the part, its a LOT cheaper than a new boiler. If i were you, i would be getting another Engineeer to check the boiler. It sounds to me like your previous engineer simply didn't know what the problem is.

EliteHeat

I think it is very unlikely that the BG engineer did not know what was wrong with a simple boiler like this.

Robbo77

EliteHeat wrote: »

I think it is very unlikely that the BG engineer did not know what was wrong with a simple boiler like this.

No offence my friend, but the BG engineer ordered an ignition pcb, fan and stat. Ok, he had the wrong fan but fitted the pcb and stat. He "did some tests" and said that, even with the fan, the boiler wouldn't have worked. I'm sorry but, in my experience, if you order 3 parts for a boiler, fit 2 of them, and carry out tests which show the fan wont fix the problem, the you don;t know what is wrong.

bryanb

dander wrote: »

The difference is though, that the oil-filled don't run at full power all the time. They run to maintain themselves at a certain temperature and they will use up to 1kw of energy to maintain that temperature, whereas the 1kw fan heater will chuck all its power out all the time.

I have heard of fan heaters with a thermostat fitted, have you?

dander

bryanb wrote: »

I have heard of fan heaters with a thermostat fitted, have you?

Not that work in the same way as an oil-filled radiator, no. A fan heater doesn't bring a solid body up to a steady temperature in the way an oil-filled heater does.

I'm sorry you want to argue about technical specifications, I am merely trying to offer the original poster practical help on their situation. The fact is that if I try and heat my house with fan heaters, I will very quickly eat up a lot of electricity in an uncontrolled manner and if someone is on a tight budget, they need to know how easily that can happen before they bankrupt themselves on energy bills.

Your snippy pedantry might give you a warm feeling, but I don't see how it's any help to the OP.