Time to change the boiler?

Treading_Water

Hi Folks
I have just had a massive gas bill (£600 for 3 1/2 months) and wonder if it is time to change my boiler.
I have checked previous usages and it is high for this time of year, but not especially high for the coldest months. Has it really been that cold or could there be a problem?
I have a Halstead finest combi boiler that was installed in Sep 99.
Would a service help? It doesn't get serviced that often just when there seems to be an issue. Also sometimes it plays about and won't heat the water - although it appears to be trying to.
Finally I don't really have the money for a replacement but could that be false economy?
Thanks

zzzLazyDaisy

I can't comment on the rest of your post, but I think you will find if you ask around, that everyone's bill is high for this time of the year. It has been a very long winter and temperatures are still low for the time of the year. If your gas usage is up it is much more likely to be related to heating the house than a problem with the boiler.

rogerblack

This shows the temperature, compared to historical averages for March.
As you can see, large slices of the country are over 3.5C colder than normal.
April was - comparatively - close to normal.
But for large parts of the country, it started off a bit colder in september and october, and was quite a lot colder than normal in March and April, leading to lots higher bills.
Comparing with last March is striking.

HappyMJ

Treading_Water wrote: »

Hi Folks
I have just had a massive gas bill (£600 for 3 1/2 months) and wonder if it is time to change my boiler.
I have checked previous usages and it is high for this time of year, but not especially high for the coldest months. Has it really been that cold or could there be a problem?
I have a Halstead finest combi boiler that was installed in Sep 99.
Would a service help? It doesn't get serviced that often just when there seems to be an issue. Also sometimes it plays about and won't heat the water - although it appears to be trying to.
Finally I don't really have the money for a replacement but could that be false economy?
Thanks

Your boiler is about 78% efficient. A new boiler could be about 90% efficient. £600 will get you around £468 of heat output then when using a 90% efficient boiler that would cost about £520...so...you could save UP TO £80 per year. Your savings will actually be less as you need to calculate your usage in kWh and then add the standing charges....if it's working reasonably well then keep it otherwise in my opinion it's false economy to replace it.

Treading_Water

Thanks for your answers. I did think that but nice to have the confirmation.

MillicentBystander

Some friends of ours were eulogising a few years ago about the approx £100/yr saving they were making after replacing their old, fairly inefficient but safe and working boiler with a new fangled Ariston combi that was so big it had to be housed in the garage. Friends or not I had to inform that the boiler would take approx. 15-20 years to pay for itself. Now these are intelligent people but had not even considered the capital outlay compared to savings involved in replacing a working boiler. I guess it's this sort of thing that keeps the wheels of industry turning.

PS They had to replace the boiler 6 months ago on account of it breaking down and being irreparable. They used to laugh at our 20+ year old, archaic, unsophisticated Baxi 'normal' boiler (basically a very large geezer and still showing the 081 dialling code on a sticker on the front!) that continues to work faultlessly (and with no repairs ever needed since installation) but not now. You could say we have had 3 superb family holidays out of the £4,000 we haven't had to spend on trying to get our gas bill down by £100 a year.

C_Mababejive

Dont change the boiler. It will likely end up a frying pan to fire affair. Unfortunately the answer to everyones fuel bills is simple. Turn it down/turn it off/put clothes on..