Boiler advice needed please

never_enough

Thinking of having a new boiler fitted, but not sure what type to get. The one we have is at least 15 years old,so I'm assuming that a new one will help cut the ridiculous gas bills we've been having.
At the mo we have a boiler plus water tank, but I was wondering if a combi would make sense? If I didn't need the water tank I could incorporate the huge airing cupboard into the (tiny) bathroom (with the boiler in a cupboard in there).
Is a combi right for our house?
It's a detached, 1920s solid brick (ie no cavity) built house with high ceilings. Part dg, part secondary glazed.
3 v large bedrooms. 1 bath, with shower that currently just runs from taps. OH loves superhot & v deep baths.
Hopefully will have an extra 2 rooms & bathroom in the next few years, so also need to factor that into the equation too.
We currently have 8x rads of 1.5metres or longer & 2 x smaller ones. There are no rads in the kitchen, utility or study but we probably don't need to put any extra in as they're kept warm by the aga.
We are also interested in the possibility of having solar panels fitted when we do the extension, if they make sense for us.
I've been watching diff threads about makes & types but it seems a minefield for the plumbing-challenged!
Grateful for any help-thanks.

ormus

a combi condensing type is the right choice. suggest a bosch worcester or a vaillant make.
as to size? tell the/your supplier what you intend to have. make sure you get one big enough to cover any increase in system size.

our heating cost have shrunk by approx 30% since we had the new vaillant installed!

be aware that bath filling and showers can be a small problem.
an electric shower may be a solution?

caveat_emptor

Combi boiler would be ok but would be more expensive to install than a replacement system boiler that you have at the moment due to extra pipework. For a combi the hot water/central heating is taken off the boiler so position of boiler WRT cylinder is a factor. I had a new Worcester-Bosch combi installed a while ago, not the cheapest, but I would recommend. Worcester are also into solar heating so take a look at their website. If the rads are adequate size at present you can use a rad manufacturers website to size the boiler. A new condensing boiler will certainly lower your bills.

Leeds_Fan_2

We changed last year from boiler & water tank to a combi. Did it to free up the space the tank took up and to have a double size shower area. Was going to get a Worcester Bosch but my plumber recommended a Baxi as it had the higher hot water per minute rate than the WB and was £200 cheaper. Works really well - has a small store for hot water so taps near the boiler are hot almost instantly.

Shower pressure is great and its not so bad filling the bath. Also the pressure is good with 2 taps running. Our view was to get as big a boiler as you can fit in - the fitting is much the same cost whatever the size so its only extra the cost of the larger boiler that you'll pay for.

never_enough

ormus wrote: »

be aware that bath filling and showers can be a small problem. an electric shower may be a solution?

I did wonder about having an electric shower fitted. Although desperate for a bathroom refit I made myself wait until we had enough to do the boiler too. So it wouldn't be a problem with wiring etc for a shower as the whole lot needs to come out.

ormus

it really depends on your family situation. there is only the two of us now, so the shower isnt really a problem.
but if a/the family uses the other water devices at the same time then i would def go for an electric shower.
forget the bath, it just takes yrs to fill up.

never_enough

ormus wrote: »

it really depends on your family situation. there is only the two of us now, so the shower isnt really a problem.
but if a/the family uses the other water devices at the same time then i would def go for an electric shower.
forget the bath, it just takes yrs to fill up.

Our current bath takes 40 mins or so to fill, can it really be that much slower? :eek:

ormus

we reckon you can watch corry st whilst it fills.
(say 30 minutes).

EliteHeat

A Vaillant ecotec 937 combination boiler hybrid fills an average bath in 3-4 minutes assuming that you have sufficient water pressure and flow rate.

never_enough

EliteHeat wrote: »

A Vaillant ecotec 937 combination boiler hybrid fills an average bath in 3-4 minutes assuming that you have sufficient water pressure and flow rate.

OMG, I'd love that. At the moment having a bath requires a bit of forward thinking! Am going to check it out now.