Replace Hot Water Tank with a Combi Boiler - How much??

spendaholic

Do modern, brand new (2yr old!) boilers in brand new (4yr old!) houses not come with modern programmers?

grumbler

spendaholic wrote:

Do modern, brand new (2yr old!) boilers in brand new (4yr old!) houses not come with modern programmers?

As with computers or mobiles, for example, they could be modern but very different.

Mr_Warren_2

I fail to understand what the ranting is all about…..some say an old water tank is better whilst other prefer the Combi option.
The UK has been far behind most of Continental Europe for years on this subject. 30 years ago my parents already had a Combi boiler in their French house. Never had a problem until we arrived in the UK and had to draw names out of hats to get hot water for baths.

An old engineer from Stelrad in Hull once told me that Combi boiler would not take off in the UK because “people enjoyed keeping their towels nice and warm in the airing cupboard”. Good job the old man was close to retirement as I had never heard so much garbage in my life.

Let’s put it this way, who likes running out of hot water at a crucial time and who likes to have water on demand 24/7?

It is true that Combi boiler need to be adequately sized for the number of bathrooms/rads etc. but lets look forward and not back.

Have you ever looked inside your water tank in the loft??? Well if you enjoy cooking your 3 vegs in that filth, that is fine by me.

Enjoy the Combi, and fit Electric showers where needed. This will put an end to decades of complaints…..”….Mum, there’s no hot water left and am goin out tonight….”

pealy

I must say I'm surprised by the strength of opinion on this subject, it seems to me that the 'pushers & pullers' concept from vaccum cleaning is alive & well in the water heating arena too!

Thanks for the advice about timers & elements, i'll certainly look at whether they're setup as well as they should be but I really can't see that the tank can ever be as efficient as all that. By having the timer on more I'm going to be heating water I don't use most of the time but will be glad of when I do need it. Leaving things as they are means I have to wait 30 minutes for a shower if the tank's empty. Are there any figures to show he relative efficiencies of the two systems? Only heating what you need could easily work out cheaper surely?

Jazzycat

In terms of running costs I think there is very little between the two.

A combi boiler uses more intense burst of energy and will take the water from cold mains so is starting to heat from scratch. A tank system can generally be no more in costs as the temp in the tank on a frequent heat cycle is merely ticking over the temperature.

A combi boiler does take longer to fill a bath than standard but yes it is fairly constant in temperature and doesn't run out, however it will slow down the more you draw off.

Below is a link to the Heating & Hotwater Information Council who probably can provide you with operating cost comparisons

http://www.centralheating.co.uk/index

Either way you go its your choice to decide how YOU want to proceed.

Good Luck!

CLIVELESTER

Go for the middle ground.

Get a replacement condensing boiler (fuel saving) & keep hot water cylinder. you will then have hot water "coming out of your ears" so to speak.

robv_3

CLIVELESTER wrote:

Go for the middle ground.

Get a replacement condensing boiler (fuel saving) & keep hot water cylinder. you will then have hot water "coming out of your ears" so to speak.

.....or even better get a new condensing boiler heat bank. Takes the best parts of both combi and stored water system.

o- Fill bath quickly. (combi 15l/m @ 35 degree, heatbank 30l/m+ @ 45degree)
o- More fuel efficient that both system (no boiler cycling)
o- Never run out of hot water.
o- etc.

Almost to good to be true?

Other options are thermal store and pressurised hot water cylinder (megaflow).

Rex_Mundi

I have just got an estimate to replace a 13 year old Worcester combi, which I was told was very inefficient, with a Worcester Brit/Scot gas RD532i. The quote for change of boiler, no radiators is £3,324 including discounts. I must say I was shocked and thought £1500-2000 at the very most. While I would like to be greener and reduce my bills, this does seem to be less than money saving

WOW!!! That seems way over the top. We've not long (a couple of months) had our old combi changed to a new one. £1050 Supply and fit a new combi, and flushed out the system. All the radiators and pipework was already in place like yours. The highest we were quoted was £1600.

franglais_2

I had a Glow-worm 30cxi condensing combi. boiler installed in January this year. I have a 3 bedroomed end of terrace, and live with my 3 teenage offspring.

No problems with it so far, except flow is slower when filling the bath. Shower works ok, using the existing shower mixer bath taps. However, it's difficult to balance the shower hot and cold taps to get just the right temperature, so care is needed to avoid scalding. I plan to overcome this drawback by installing a thermostatic shower bath tap, I'll let you know if that cures the problem, if you like.

I understand from several sources that these relatively complex boilers are far more reliable these days, as the problems people had in the early days of their development have been pretty much ironed out. But we will see ...

Incidently, there are grants available to help defray the cost of installing energy efficient heating appliances, as well as insulation to loft and walls. Check out https://www.eaga.co.uk for details of the Government's Warm Front Initiative. I did very well out of this.

Good luck!

pealy

robv wrote:

.....or even better get a new condensing boiler heat bank. Takes the best parts of both combi and stored water system.

o- Fill bath quickly. (combi 15l/m @ 35 degree, heatbank 30l/m+ @ 45degree)
o- More fuel efficient that both system (no boiler cycling)
o- Never run out of hot water.
o- etc.

Almost to good to be true?

Other options are thermal store and pressurised hot water cylinder (megaflow).

And I thought it was a relatively simple choice of Tank or On-Demand. Who would have thought there were actually so many options. I think I'll play with the timer before I go any further!