best boiler please

LittleD_3

Hello, could anyone out there help me out please? the boiler in our house is 36 years old! I've already been told that it is only working at 60% of its capacity a couple of years ago - with the ever rising prices of fuel and thinking back to last years cold winter i was considering changing boilers to a more efficient one - we hava around 8 rads to heat, some small, a couple bigger, and now need to find the best for the job - I've heard of concensing boilers but to be honest I know nothing whatsoever about this sort of thing, can anyone recommend a boiler or a place to go that will explain to a middle aged woman in laymans terms the best for the job, thanks a lot

Pincher

"the best for the job"

http://www.atagheating.co.uk/default.aspx

01243 815770

If you have the budget.

macman

All new domestic boilers are condensing boilers, so no need to worry about that, your only option is whether to choose a combi or conventional boiler, which will depend on your hot water requirements, no of baths/showers, water pressure etc.
A modern boiler will operate at around 90% efficiency, but it will still take you many years to recover the cost of buying and installing a new boiler, depending on your annual gas spend.
Also, with a mid-70's system it is likely that you will have to change more than the boiler alone-is your existing system a fully pumped one? Any TRV's, room stat, modern programmer etc?

gas4you

My choices are

1) ATAG
2) Broag

The rest are all a much of a muchness. ATAG are no longer expensive and are very competitive on their prices.

DUTR

LittleD wrote: »

Hello, could anyone out there help me out please? the boiler in our house is 36 years old! I've already been told that it is only working at 60% of its capacity a couple of years ago - with the ever rising prices of fuel and thinking back to last years cold winter i was considering changing boilers to a more efficient one - we hava around 8 rads to heat, some small, a couple bigger, and now need to find the best for the job - I've heard of concensing boilers but to be honest I know nothing whatsoever about this sort of thing, can anyone recommend a boiler or a place to go that will explain to a middle aged woman in laymans terms the best for the job, thanks a lot

I would not get too eat up on the boiler efficiency thing, one thing for sure , whichever boiler you get next will not serve you for 36 years.
Also, depending which side of the border you live, you won't be able to get lower than a C rated boiler for your home.

The savings you get on the new boiler will NEVER offset the cost of the boiler.
I'm still waiting to see these massive savings, my bro has a similar sized house to mine, whilst I have a hot water tank and he has a combi boiler, it would appear that the only saving is on the lack of pilot light on the modern boilers (although some of the savings are transferred onto the electric bill) . Yes I have heated a full tank of water this evening, but come the morning, I won't need to heat any more water. Having changed my pilot lit cooker last year, I can see a £10 per quarter reduction in the bill for the same period last year, this would be from a combination of switiching gas tariff along with the current cooker not having 5 pilots on the go

CFC

The best boiler you'll ever have is the one you have now, providing it is powerful enough to heat your rads. A new boiler will be expensive and will not last. Plus as DUTR says, most of the savings are pretty mythical.

gas4you

Only 'A' rated boilers are allowed in England now, don't know about the other parts of UK.

DUTR

gas4you wrote: »

Only 'A' rated boilers are allowed in England now, don't know about the other parts of UK.

I didn't know that, I thought you could get A or B rated in England and C in Scotland, but maybe it's A in England and B in Scotland.

Cardew

DUTR wrote: »

. Yes I have heated a full tank of water this evening, but come the morning, I won't need to heat any more water.

Spot on!

A modern well insulated HW tank is tested to a Britich Standard and loses about 2kWh in 24 hours with water at 65C.

In practice it won't be at 65C for the whole 24 hours so probably 1kWh to 1.5kWh is typical. - £10 to £15 a year.

In any case that 'lost' heat isn't lost for most of the year as it warms the fabric of the house - which is why tanks are often in an airing cupboard.

So you have masses of hot water literally on tap, unlike a combi. I also wonder just how much energy is wasted with combis in the time it takes for hot water to run through to the taps!

I also tend to be sceptical about which is the best boiler manufacturer. So many manufacturers have been bought up, amalgamated and bought in common parts used etc that although my ultra-reliable boiler is from Firm A, they could now be producing rubbish - badge engineering at its best.

From what I have read, the 'achilles heel' of modern boilers is the electronics and gas fitters have little option but to replace boards often at the cost of £hundreds - I wonder how many manufacturers use the same boards.

Who years ago would have considered buying a Skoda if reliability was important? Now they are part of the VW group.

Conversely Mercedes of a decade or so ago were 'bomb proof' - their finance director decided they were 'over engineered' and almost overnight their reliability suffered.

macman

Even with a conventional tank you still have to run the cold water out of the supply pipes to get the hot. Water in the pipes won't stay hot for long, as copper is highly conductive.

LittleD_3

Thanks for all the replies. Our present 36 year old boiler is working perfectly well (shouldn't have said that)! I'm looking at options of keeping our heating cost down over winter, last year was quite expensive - all our heating is by gas apart from our open fire in one downstairs room and I thought that as everyone I have spoken to is alarmed that we still have a 36 year old boiler on the go, that it may need changing to be more efficient - like I said, I know so little about this that I needed to start somewhere and ask the question - I have looked at some boilers locally and I guess I won't get much change out of a £1,000 - would a service improve it's efficiency, sorry if that's a stupid question. thanks again for the advice!