Gas Boiler Upgrade

madeforidiots

Hi

My partner and I moved into our new flat in May last year. There is a 25 year old G rated standard boiler there which is very old but still works.

British Gas have quoted us £2,800 to scrap our current boiler and move it to a combi boiler.

I know the water drawbacks of such a system, but the house is so small, it wouldn't make any difference.

However, I'm concerned about there being additional costs to things like power flushes required more often, and whether it would be good value for money if we came to sell the house in the future.

My other half isn't saying no, she just can't see any advantage at all to replacing it.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Craig

scarydeath

The standard boiler you have will probably, like mine, be a floor standing / back boiler with a hot water tank. These are usually really inefficient, as you said, rated G.

Moving to a combi boiler will mean that

a) you will never run out of hot water
b) save a fortune as water is not heated, and reheated constantly during the day when nobody is in, or through the night when everyone is asleep
c) probably be more reliable
d) be safer, as it will be a concealed unit, no naked flame / carbon monoxide worries

There are probably many more positives to getting it fixed!

P.S. can you tell I want a new boiler? ;-) Debt paid off first me thinks.

EDIT : Oh, and £2800 for British Gas probably means £2000 by more competent local expert! Boileres themselves retail at around £700 - £1000 on the likes of Screwfix etc., leaving an awful amount of money for labour and various little parts and piping used.

garethgas

At 25 yrs old your probably ready for a new one. Although I'm not a fan of combi's, I think if your in a flat and if there's only two of you its probably going to serve your needs.
With regards to powerflushing, that depends on the condition/age of your current system. Think of the gunge thats accumulated inside your radiators over the years.
There are chemical cleaners available to flush the system but a powerflush is far more aggressive and therefore far more effective.
On balance, given that your system is 25 yrs old I would definatey go for a powerflush. That way, your shiney new boiler will also be shiney on the inside too, which is where it really matters.

Ben84

I still have an old (installed in 1980) back boiler. It's not the most efficient installation, but it does work well and I'm largely happy with it.

I don't like combination boilers, I find the faster I run the hot tap the cooler the water is with them. You can't as such run out of hot water with a combination as they heat it as you use it, but I do find that making it as you use it without anywhere to store it seriously limits the amount of hot water available. My boiler doesn't make hot water continuously when nobody is here to use it, the time switch should allow you to turn it on and off as needed?

Reliability isn't an issue with my boiler, it has never broken in the time I've lived here. There's little to go wrong and I appreciate the reliability. What it costs extra in gas you could easily spend on parts and repairs for a less reliable boiler, so I would worry that changing may be worse. It's hard to predict what might happen with a new one, but currently I have no issues with the boiler's typical reliability so that's a disincentive to change it.

Safety is often mentioned with the open flue back boilers, but I don't believe they are innately dangerous. Millions were installed over the years and plenty are still in use. Accidents are not that common. They were designed to operate safely unattended and you should have a carbon monoxide detector in the room, a yearly service to assess the condition of the boiler and the permanent room vent, so if you are doing these things there's a lot that would have to go wrong all at the same time before a hazard was present.

As for cost, £2800 is potentially a lot of gas. I think the energy saving trust suggest in an average 3-bedroom house you can save £200-300 a year by replacing an old boiler. Not small change, but with an initial spend in the thousands it's not so attractive. I think it's good if you want to sell the house though, people like to see modern appliances that are efficient as they often worry about the cost of living in a new house. If your existing boiler works fine though it may not be great value for you at the moment however. Insulation tends to be much more attractive as an investment.

beedeedee

garethgas wrote: »

At 25 yrs old your probably ready for a new one. Although I'm not a fan of combi's, I think if your in a flat and if there's only two of you its probably going to serve your needs.
With regards to powerflushing, that depends on the condition/age of your current system. Think of the gunge thats accumulated inside your radiators over the years.
There are chemical cleaners available to flush the system but a powerflush is far more aggressive and therefore far more effective.
On balance, given that your system is 25 yrs old I would definatey go for a powerflush. That way, your shiney new boiler will also be shiney on the inside too, which is where it really matters.

Our boiler is nearly that old and working fine but just had our radiators flushed through for the first time. Not a powerflush - as we were worried about leaks in the ageing system, but a chemical additive for a few days, then a manual flush and an inhibitor afterwards. Total cost from a local chap was £170. Everything working fine now. He has also always said that our boiler still has years of life left because there is very little to actually go wrong, so as long as he can get the parts............

Canucklehead

Good morning: annual servicing of your current boiler and putting aside money each month for when the time comes is the MSE option. Big fan of combis...have one ourselves and 75% of what my OH installs (at the customer's request). In terms of resale...I doubt most folks give the state of the boiler/CH a second thought when purchasing a property (although they should;)).

HTH

Canucklehead

garethgas

beedeedee wrote: »

Our boiler is nearly that old and working fine but just had our radiators flushed through for the first time. Not a powerflush - as we were worried about leaks in the ageing system, but a chemical additive for a few days, then a manual flush and an inhibitor afterwards. Total cost from a local chap was £170. Everything working fine now. He has also always said that our boiler still has years of life left because there is very little to actually go wrong, so as long as he can get the parts............

What you've just done is fine as you still have an old style boiler which is far more tollerant of sludge in the system than a modern boiler.
However, if you were now to powerflush your system, I suspect that there'd still be considerable sludge left in it.
I really wouldn't bother with powerflushing in your case but consider it when replacing the boiler as it pays dividends in the longevity of your new boiler (when the time comes).

panchenlama

I agree with BE84 - it's a false economy if your existing bolier is working. Far better to save the money to one side and be ready when the old one finally packs in. I'm in the exact same position, all through the last bad winter my old 70's boiler kept on going when lots of modern boliers were packing in due to outlet pipes freezing.

The gov may also run incentives in the future to get rid of inefficient boliers (like they did a year or two ago) which may make it more economically sound.

finally - I have a power shower with its own pump and to fit a combi i'd need to alter the computer unit which is another £200 to the bill for nothing..