unable to replace our ancient boiler!

ftointonn

We have an ancient gas boiler! no way of telling exactly when it was installed but it was pretty old when we moved in and theres no paper work or markings to find out the age, we moved here 8 years ago and at a guess it was here 5 or more years before that.

anyway,it just has a dial of 1-6 for water temp and a but very old separate timer which allows it on twice a day either heating the water or heating too,it runs a constant pilot light which obviously costs us more!!


we really would like it replaced but we don't meet the 'free boiler' requirements as although my husbands earnings are low the tax credits take us over the threshold,we simply don't have the money to buy a new one and as we have had money problems in the recent past we cant get credit so couldn't get one of those deals to replace and pay back over time

we've got 4 children in our small 3 bed house and obviously paying out way too much to run a boiler which isn't doing very much to keep the house warm(we've got wall/loft insulation) and with another winter coming its only going to be a matter of time before it gives up the ghost completely and we're left freezing,any further ideas on what we could do please

lstar337

http://hasslefreeboilers.com/

I hear this name thrown about a lot. From what I can gather you get a new boiler and service plan for a monthly fee.

I can't vouch for them, but it may be worth investigating.

Cardew

There have been several threads on renting a boiler. This is one:


https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4247575


There is a scheme called 'ever lasting boilers' which is a sister company to 'A shade Greener' who have a good reputation in the Solar PV Rent a Roof field. (not that I would recommend a rent a roof scheme)


As you indicate your poor credit record may scupper any plans for a boiler rental.

CashStrapped

Wait.......is there anything actually wrong with the boiler?

Do you want to replace it just to get lower bills?

What is the make/model? Is it a combi boiler? Thirteen years is not that old. How do you currently use it/have it set up? When was it last serviced?

What is your annual gas usage? Your daily usage at the moment? How big is the house and number of occupents.

Armorica

13 years isn't that old. It's worth checking what the make is, some of them are pretty robust.

We're not sure how old ours is, but it is still going. The heating engineer that came round (because the hot water cylinder was leaking - not the boiler) thought it was probably 25 years old and has another decade or so in it.

misterbarlow

Same us us, but ours is a lot older than 13yrs i reckon... its a baxi bermuda back boiler, was here when we moved in 2007 and we cant afford to replace it.. but it looks about 25 years old at least..
when i googled it, its Z rated or something, which means its below 50% efficient..

But I just have the dial set on low and only comes on times we need it, and since we moved in our gas bills have come down and down.. now down to £35pm from £60 when we first moved in... wont get much lower than £35pm even with a band new one I would have thought..??

I have replaced all the old rads we had with modern ones with fins and TRVs, replaced the old clock timer with a digital one, and my brother in law is a plumber who keeps it well serviced for us, and he said if it aint broke why fix it, leave it there til it packs up!

matelodave

Over the years we been in a couple of houses that had ancient boilers that were a bit expensive to run but with nothing wrong with them. The main problem being lack of decent controls. The boiler generally cooked away all the time on it's own thermostat. A room stat just turned the central heating pump on and off. A crude time switch/programmer just turned the whole lot on once or twice a day.

You could save a lot of money by upgrading the controls - a programmable room thermostat to control the heating temperature and timing together with a timeswitch & hot water tank stat linked to the boiler would be the first thing to do. It's relatively cheap and doesn't need a lot of plumbing. Motorised valves will be needed to separate the hot water & heating circuits.
TRVs on the rads are the next stage, they will control the temperatures in individual rooms.

Improving the controls and insulation is a lot more cost effective than replacing a perfectly serviceable boiler. Only change the boiler when it's beyond economical repair or you are doing major work and want it somewhere else.

Make sure you've got a well insulated hot water tank (put another jacket over it) and insulate the hot pipework in the airing cupboard.You need at least 300mm of loft insulation and investigate cavity wall insulation as well as making sure the place is as draught proof as possible.

captainhindsight_2

If you dont meet the requirements for ECO, don't have the cash and your credit history isn't great to get a competitive personal loan and you need a new boiler. Green Deal Finance may be an option, the interest rate will be circa 7-8% and the loan repayments are limited the the amount of money having the new boiler will save on your heating bills and if you wait until the end of November there will be a new cashback scheme which may include something for a new boiler.