New Boiler question: Worcester or Potterton

Bernard

Thanks Karen for the £150 grant scheme tip. It appears my local council are offering this at the moment.

The house is a 4 bed detached with 13 radiators. One plumber said you could have a Greenstar 18ri, but that would mean it would always be working close to its maximum. He said is not a problem, but if you ever wanted to extend or do a garage conversion and add more radiators then this could become a problem.

Best two Quotes/Prices received so far are:

BGas: £2425
Powerflush
Install new pipework
install Greenstar 24ri
1 year Homecare 200(complementary, but I'm sure its in the price!)

Plumber £2100
Powerflush
Install new pipework
install Greenstar 24ri

So £325 more with BGas. However if I take out Homecare200 *(£18 per month) after the plumber has installed the saving will be £109. So for that extra £109 is it worth having a BGas installation and then have the backing of a large company company should anything go wrong?

macman

Why would you need Homecare on a warrantied boiler? It's already covered for 2-5 years.
If you think that using BG really offers more 'backing', then try doing a forum search on the topic. Independent RGI's (not plumbers) have their reputation to protect.

Bernard

I'm interested in the Homecare200 that covers the whole central heating system (pump, rads, etc). The whole system is about 21 years old. I thought it might be wise to have at least for a year after the new boiler is put in in case other parts fail. So I agree with you, if it was just to cover the boiler I wouldn't do it as it will have its own warranty.

deano82_2

Does anybody know whether the install of a WB boiler needs to be carried out by accredited installer to receive 5 year warranty?

southcoastrgi

Bernard wrote: »

So £325 more with BGas. However if I take out Homecare200 *(£18 per month) after the plumber has installed the saving will be £109. So for that extra £109 is it worth having a BGas installation and then have the backing of a large company company should anything go wrong?

I'm slightly confused, if you are really that worried about the rest of your system then why don't you get the independant to fit your boiler then take out the BG cover plan ? you will have the whole system covered & still save £109, providing the independant is good it will be a better install than BG anyway & anything that goes wrong with the boiler will be covered by the manifacturer.

Bernard

I agree southcoastrgi to that is the sensible option.

Bgas called today. I told them about the prices. The guy said he will drop to £2400 and include 4 radiator to thermostats for the bedrooms. The Rgi/plumber says he will do the 4 rads for £120. So it's now cheaper to go with Bgas overall, but only just.

I have one more quote outstanding which should arrive next week.

southcoastrgi

ok just to add which all your quotes seemed to have missed which refers to your above post, when doing a boiler or cylinder change the system should be brought upto the latest regs & part of that is to fit trv's on all the rads apart from the one where the room stat is (you do have a room stat don't you ? cause if you don't then one must be fitted), this will of course add to the quote but all of them should know this & should already be added/listed on your quotes.

southcoastrgi

Leif wrote: »

Isn't WB a lot more expensive? Does that tell you something

yes it tells me that WB are over priced & always have been

Bernard

Southcoastrgi, thanks again for your input. Yes I have a room stat, only one out of thirteen rads have a trv. Bgas currently charge £45 per trv, the Rgi charges £30, quite a difference! Due to the additional cost I was going to add trvs at later date. The Bgas guy knew this and this is why he said he would now include them.

One thing I'm not too sure about is the Rgi says he will install the boiler without the new pipe work first to see if it works, if it does I save £300. The Bgas man will not do this as in his experience the boiler really needs the new larger pipe work. Is the Rgi realistic in his expectations of the old pipe work being good enough?

C_Mababejive

Its quite possible for a proper Engineer or indeed a layman to calculate the discharge rate for a length of pipe given material/length/diameter and supply pressure. It shouldnt be a trial and error operation.