Just bought a house - should i change the boiler

southcoastrgi

this is a money saving site so the following is going to seem to go against the grain,

take out a monthly repair plan with BG, Corgi, The AA, take your pick at which one seems the best

otherwise this boiler is going to cost you money, alot of money

now wether at some stage you replace it with another heat only boiler or change the system completely to a combi is another question entirerly & you really need the advice of a good installer over a cup of coffee, if you find a good one he will give you the pro's & con's of both systems, look at your hot water usage both now & in the future & give you advice

Leif

As others say, you'd be mad to replace the boiler unless you are willing to pay £1500+ for whatever small gain you might get e.g. a bit more space where the hot water tank was. Were the existing boiler racking up huge repair bills, and breaking down regularly, then you might want to replace it, if only to avoid being without heat and hot water in the depths of Winter.

pearson27

What are the better makes to waych for

Leif

southcoastrgi wrote: »

otherwise this boiler is going to cost you money, alot of money

What proportion of that make and model are costly to run, and what sort of cost are we talking about? I ask purely out of interest.

ian103

Why change a modern boiler - I would go with taking out insurance as this is what we did with an old ferolli combi boiler - still did the job albeit not as well as the worcester boiler we had installed.

pearson27

Because i know someone who is willing to fit it

ian103

I would live with it and see how it performs, it seems an extravagance / waste of money to rip out something that works and is relatively modern. If it doesn't suit your needs thats a different issue

HappyMJ

It doesn't cost that much to keep a cylinder of hot water hot. A well insulated cylinder might lose a maximum of 3kWh of heat per 24 hour period. Over a year at gas rates of 5p/kWh that'll cost you £55. However, over winter that heat is added to the house requiring the central heating to run a little less so you save money that way. Basically its not worth it. Make sure the cylinder is well insulated and you will lose less heat. Turn the thermostat down so the water is hot but not too hot that it burns your hand if you put your hand under the nearest hot water tap. Maybe 60 degrees C....that's enough to prevent any legionella. Time the hot water to come on in two 2 hour periods in 24 hours. You only need the cylinder to get to 60 and hold it for 2 minutes to kill any bacteria. It's a little more efficient when timed. It can then fall a bit over the next 10 hours when water is drawn off as the next heating period will restore it back to 60..

Personally I prefer a cylinder as when the boiler breaks you can turn on the immersion heater and continue to get hot water (although an electric immersion heater isn't as cheap as gas this will only be for a few days until an engineer visits).

pearson27

Good tips

Thanks all

southcoastrgi

the icos heat only boiler & isar combi boiler, put ideal at the bottom of the boiler pile for 99.9% of installers, they are by far the worst boilers ideal have ever made, it is not a case of if the boiler will fail it's when

pcb £240 + vat + fitting (which WILL need replacing at some stage especially on a 4 yr old one, if it hasn't already)
spark generator £40 + vat + fitting
etc etc