Boiler installed is too small!

Cerealflakes

Had a new boiler installed this time last year. The whole process was a nightmare, and we did have to complain about it to Barclays finance (who said at the time, if the boiler's not faulty, then there's nothing they can do).

Fast forward a year, we've just had the annual service done. The "Gold" Worcester Bosch engineer who came out, told me that the boiler we have is actually too small for this house. I called Worcester Bosch and two different technicians confirmed that the boiler (34 CDi classic) is really too small for a 4 bed house with 12 radiators, big windows and two bathrooms.

The boiler itself is not faulty but it's not right for this house. I've read all the consumer rights articles but am really confused where I stand given the mix of "service" and "product". The installer also failed to put in a scale reducer, which is apparently not striclty necessary, but for this area (South Oxfordshire) just ends up being done as standard because the water is so hard.

If anyone can assist, with how to proceed I'd be most grateful. The installing company has been awful to deal with, and I don't hold out much hope of getting any kind of resolution through them.

Many thanks

TadleyBaggie

That is a 30KW boiler. I have a similar size house and have just had British Gas spec a new boiler and they wanted to install a 24KW Worcester Bosch.

TadleyBaggie

I just used this calculator (http://www.idhee.org.uk/calculator.html) and it said 21.85KW is required, so perhaps BG are correct. If you do the same calculation what does to say?

Le_Kirk

How did you or whoever selected that size of boiler, make the decision? Was it based on room sizes, number of radiators, whether heating plus hot water or just heating? Why do you now think it is too small? Does the boiler provide enough hot water? Do the rooms get hot enough?

neilmcl

Have you been happy with it's performance over the past year?

Cerealflakes

The recent boiler engineer and then Worcester Bosch themselves have raised the boiler size as a concern. It's not that it's not working, it's just that they've both said "too small". That and the way it's been installed, would suggest it's going to fail too soon. I am checking out the sizes by other methods - thanks for the link. We were advised on what size we needed which was supposedly done by counting radiators etc. It was what we were recommended.

meer53

If it's not faulty and it's working and you have no complaints, why are you bothered ? If the service engineer hadn't mentioned it would you be complaining ?

macman

You haven't answered the question-does it heat the house and heat the water adequately in terms of timing and heat output? If so, what is your concern?
Calculating the required heat output is rather more complex than just counting the existing rads. And since this is a combi, what matters is the DHW output, which needs to be far higher than the CH circuit requires. So heating should not be an issue.
However a combi is not always suitable for a house with more than one bathroom, as it cannot supply 2 baths/showers simultaneously. I'm guessing that you did not have a combi before and were not aware of this?

bris

That boiler is more than enough for 12 radiators and 2 bathrooms is a problem for any boiler if trying to get hot water at the same time. Worcester are usually good at what they do but this time they are trying to sell you a boiler.