Back Boiler to Combi Boiler

Wanttosavemoney

I live in East Lothian and I have a 23 year old Baxi Bermuda boiler. I know from the efficiency ratings online that this boiler is costing me a tonne of money on my gas bill. I had a guy come round the door explaining this to me, even though I knew already as I'd tried to get the governments free boiler, which I obviously didn't qualify for as I have no benefits. From checking the efficiency online its says it's a grade G boiler normally around 65% efficiency! So my £95 a month gas bill would drop significantly, however further investigation I found out the efficiency is nearer 50%.

Scottish Gas last year cancelled my boiler cover, which I was paying £26.25/month for, as the boiler is behind the fire, and they say they cannot cover it anymore. So I'm keen to get a new one.

The lad that came around quoted £2950 for everything. i was wary of this being a rip off, however I've looked elsewhere and cannot beat the quote. Been quoted around £3500 and £4000 elsewhere.

That includes the removal of the hot water tank, tapping off the old baxi boiler, all pipework, powerflush, magnetic filter, and a wireless thermostat, and 10 year boiler cover.

I especially like the boiler cover as I only need to get a gas safe engineer around once a year, at about £40 to service the boiler and the boiler cover stands for another year.

The lad also told me they had a finance option where I could either pay £0 deposit and pay it up over 10 years, or pay deposit and either pay it up quicker or pay less each month.

Has anybody done this as it sounds like a good idea to save money and not have to fork out £3500-£4000 at once which I don't have.

cooganpark

Sounds like a great quote. I used to have a back boiler, after a couple of years of the scottish gas engineer telling me they'd find it difficult to get parts, I bit the bullet and paid for a new boiler. Unfortunately for me I trusted SG and paid them just under 6500 for the work. I haven't had any problems in the last couple of years but looking at that price maybe I should have shopped around

andrewf75

Just about to have the same done for around £3500.

Lgas

That sounds like a decent quote for a back boiler removal installation, especially with the powerflush and filter etc. What boiler are they intending to fit? Are you changing to a combi? Any particular reason why?

sk240

I would only recommend replacing the boiler if its proving unreliable (the bermuda is one of the most reliable boilers ever made)
Even with a new boiler running at 90% efficiency (vs 65) it takes a lot of £30 per month savings to recoup the cost of the new boiler (100 months) i too was in the same position as you 10 years ago, and the boiler just kept on going.

Alias_Omega

Sounds like you completed an online form, and someone came cold calling to the house and gave you a price.

Get someone else in, local yellow pages...Plumber...

I know for me, british gas quoted me £2200 for a boiler change, when it can be done for £1195 from a local plumber.

Spot the difference..

andrewf75

sk240 wrote: »

I would only recommend replacing the boiler if its proving unreliable (the bermuda is one of the most reliable boilers ever made)
Even with a new boiler running at 90% efficiency (vs 65) it takes a lot of £30 per month savings to recoup the cost of the new boiler (100 months) i too was in the same position as you 10 years ago, and the boiler just kept on going.

The only reason we are doing it is because we're building an extension and adding radiators, pipework etc so it makes sense to do it now. Plus we really want a wood burner so need the chimnney for that!

Otherwise as you say while not efficient we would have probably left it for another 10 years!

macman

Is your property even suitable for a combi in terms of pressure and flow rate?

Owain_Moneysaver

andrewf75 wrote: »

Plus we really want a wood burner so need the chimnney for that!

Have a system boiler and a hot water cylinder and you can have heat output from the woodburner feed into the system.

http://www.dunsleyheat.co.uk/neutralizer.html

andrewf75

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

Have a system boiler and a hot water cylinder and you can have heat output from the woodburner feed into the system.

http://www.dunsleyheat.co.uk/neutralizer.html

would have loved to do something like this, but spending all our money on an extension so the burner will just be a luxury for winter nights not something to heat the house