Will i have to change gas pipes??

flakey_2

Good evening all
We have a Halstead Finest Combi boiler and before long its likely to have a broom handle sticking out of it where ive beaten it to death. It keeps playing up and i think its nearing its demise.
We have been saving for this but our concern is that we will have to change our copper gas pipes to 22mm. I believe our current pipes are 15mm.
The problem is our gas metre is outside the front of our house and our boiler is wall mounted in the kitchen at the back of our house and we live in a terraced property. The pipes disappear in the front wall and prob under the floors etc so to remove them would cost us a small fortune so is it necessary to change the pipes?
Thanks in advance
Flakey

MX5huggy

Your quite likely to need at least 22mm, you don't need to remove the old pipe just add the new. A smaller system boiler my not need a new pipe, but that would need a tank for HW.

Get a Gas Safe Registered installer to check it out.

ormus

yes. 22mm is required.

A new gas supply pipe is usually necessary to comply with the latest HSE and Gas Safe Register guidelines on permissible pressure drops between the gas meter and the appliance.
You are now allowed only 1mbar pressure drop, and this means most existing gas supply pipes are too small.
A new boiler will usually work perfectly well connected to the existing pipe with a pressure drop of 3 or 4 mbar, but to comply with this new guidance a new,
larger gas supply pipe usually has to be installed all the way from the meter to the new boiler.
When boiler and meter are on opposite sides of the house this can add days of work, without even taking into account re-instatement of disrupted decorations etc.

mikey72

Depending on the house, it can be run on top of the skirting board, up and under the bedroom floors, it doesn't have to follow the old pipe.

loracan1

mikey72 wrote: »

Depending on the house, it can be run on top of the skirting board, up and under the bedroom floors, it doesn't have to follow the old pipe.

That's what happened with mine - and part of the run ended up having to be upped to 28mm due to the length.

garethgas

Also, depending on the length of the gas run and size of the boiler, you might even need 28mm pipe for the first few metres to ensure you have enough supply and the correct pressure drop. Only a Gase Safe Engineer who's visited the site can say for sure.
Unfortunately, there's no way out of it if you want a combi so it looks like you're just going to have to bite the bullet.