The Baxi Ecogen micro-CHP boiler

JerryW

Hi All
I am wondering if those of you who have Ecogen boilers are still happy with them, and what your servicing costs have been?

I have an lpg Ecogen installed originally by Calor Gas in July 2011. It cost 7,500 but that included a new pressurised hot water system and a fair amount of pipe rerouting etc. for the existing radiators.
It has a rather chequered history.. Baxi replaced the entire boiler in January 2013 because the stirling engine had failed. They issued me a new 2 year guarantee at that time, just as well because in October 2013 the stirling engine failed again. This time they did replace just the stirling engine; and my understanding is that it has taken them a long time to make them reliable, but they feel they now are - and there has been no problem since (touches wood!).
Baxi have been very supportive throughout, and I am pleased with them. They offered me £250 compensation for loss of generation payments while the engine was out of commission which was generous of them.
However it is now out of guarantee and I find that it is impossible to take out a boiler protection or service plan - neither Calor nor Baxi will offer them, though Baxi will service and repair them on request. They charge £147 for a service. I have not so far found a local (Kent) lpg heating engineer that will service or repair them.

KevinG

Hi Jerry.

Your experience is not too dissimilar to ours. We had ours installed by Calor in October 2010 - it didn't cost as much as yours but it sounds like our installation was simpler. We did need a new chimney flue installed, which was done very well. It took an army of people about a week to do it, must have cost them a fortune!

We've had a few minor problems along the way, but the biggest was when the generator failed totally in March 2013. With Calor's help we managed to get it back up and running as a boiler only on a single burner, but that took a few days to sort out. We were then waiting for Baxi to replace the generator for over nine months, blamed on the unavailability of lifting gear. That was in January last year. The new generator seems a bit quieter (the old one had got very noisy towards the end of its life) and has been fine so far.

There was no suggestion of any compensation for loss of generation. This would have been nowhere near £250, but it is interesting that you were offered it and we weren't.

We have experienced the same regarding servicing - very few options. The first service was included free as part of the installation, I can't remember what happened the following year but we didn't pay for it and then it was done as part of the generator replacement, so we haven't had to pay for a service yet. We were planning to get it done after the winter season this year and will probably have to cough up the £147.

JerryW

Thanks Kevin, it is nice to know we are not alone

So far I only know of the Baxi Heateam and their £147 service. It occurs to me that Calorforce themselves might do a service, even though they don't offer a protection plan. There is also the repair&protect people.. this is run by D&G, aka Homeserve - using exactly the same Baxi engineers. What that might do to the pricing is unclear but won't be less I expect. Might be worth a phone call though

Of course all these annual plans are just an insurance contract really.. someone like Homeserve collects repair data from manufacturers and averages it, then add on a margin and call it a service plan. Market it via the manufacturer, supplier, water company or whatever and use their engineers that you get at a cut rate. I would never normally bother with anything like that, but if you know the boiler is not that reliable it might be a worthwhile option. Unfortunately D&G also know it is not reliable, hence the absence of available plans!

If I am honest, I would be hard pushed to recommend the Ecogen. Get a good quality condensing boiler that any fool can install and service for a third the price, I reckon, and get solar for the generation

I will report back once the service has come and gone, mid Feb.

There is a very useful lpg thread here too, which has saved me money over the years. Calor are not cheap if you just take what they offer

KevinG

JerryW wrote: »

If I am honest, I would be hard pushed to recommend the Ecogen. Get a good quality condensing boiler that any fool can install and service for a third the price, I reckon, and get solar for the generation

I am inclined to agree with you. We had a very old boiler so wanted to replace it and were intrigued by the Ecogen and its power generation capability. We were probably oversold the benefits as, with our usage, it was clearly never going to pay for itself (or even the excess cost over a conventional boiler), but you live and learn. I went on to install Solar PV the following summer and, with hindsight, I would have done that quite differently as well, and more cheaply, but at least we now have two systems that are generating power, earning us money and considerably reducing our electricity consumption.

Thanks for your input, I look forward to hearing how the service goes.

JerryW

KevinG wrote: »

... I went on to install Solar PV the following summer and, with hindsight, I would have done that quite differently as well, and more cheaply, ...

In a nutshell, what would you do if you were starting that now, Kevin? (or is there a solar thread somewhere else?)

KevinG

JerryW wrote: »

In a nutshell, what would you do if you were starting that now, Kevin? (or is there a solar thread somewhere else?)

Well, I would squeeze more panels in, of higher rating, get microinverters to reduce the impact of shading and pay a heck of a lot less for it (but my FiT rate would be less than a third of what I get now).

There are some very active solar threads on the Green and Ethical board, take a look and feel free to post questions (but read the FAQ thread first )

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=100

scammer111

I am just going through a phase of problems with stirling engine. Original boiler failed within 6 weeks of install and was replaced, then ran happily for 18 months. Baxi then upgraded and replaced entire unit January 2012. It has run happily since until December 2014, we are still in the process of repair, the resistors replaced 3 times the stirling engine once and it has not generated more than 40 units since December. I live in a well insulated 4 bed detached and have generated 1100 units year 1, 840 year 2 and 750 year 3 (after installing solar) this year will be much less. Issue is Baxi attitude to repair process. British Gas provide Home Care contract to cover servicing and repair but Baxi take weeks to respond although BG come out next day they will not fix the generation side of boiler, which is all that has ever failed. We are in complaint procedure at present so interesting to hear that we are not alone.

KevinG

Adding to this thread, my generating engine seems to have failed again about three years after having been completely replaced. Well, it still works, but is very noisy and generates less than half of what it should then overheats with an error code after a couple of hours so I have now powered down the system and am waiting in indoor temperatures of about 13 degrees for a Baxi engineer to visit on Wednesday. Have paid £293.75 up front for a repair but I will be pleasantly surprised if they can fix it for this. It took them 9 months last time!