Replacement for Glow Worm Ultimate 40BF boiler

WobblyDog

I've got a Glow Worm Ultimate 40BF boiler in my garage, which heats my hot water cylinder (and occasionally radiators) reliably but inefficiently. My main complaint is that it has a pilot light, which consumes about 5kWh of gas per day.


I don't use a lot of hot-water or heating, so my gas bill is around £300 per year, but does anyone have thoughts on the likely cost of replacement?


Are there easy drop-in replacement boilers, or is it better to get a combi boiler and remove the hot water cylinder at the same time?


I don't suppose there's any kind of kit that can be installed (by a suitably qualified person) to eliminate the pilot light is there?


If I get it serviced, is the engineer likely to be able to turn down the pilot light?

[Deleted User]

I was surprised to find that the pilot lights on my old kit were consuming about 100W apiece, but nevertheless I don't think you'll get anywhere near saving enough gas to pay for the cost of a new boiler.

I've just had a new boiler fitted because the old one was knackered, but it will have to last 24 years just to pay for itself. Your boiler's more efficient than mine was, and you're using less gas, so the scope for saving is even less in your case.

footyguy

WobblyDog wrote: »

I've got a Glow Worm Ultimate 40BF boiler in my garage, which heats my hot water cylinder (and occasionally radiators) reliably but inefficiently. My main complaint is that it has a pilot light, which consumes about 5kWh of gas per day.


I don't use a lot of hot-water or heating, so my gas bill is around £300 per year, but does anyone have thoughts on the likely cost of replacement?


Are there easy drop-in replacement boilers, or is it better to get a combi boiler and remove the hot water cylinder at the same time?


I don't suppose there's any kind of kit that can be installed (by a suitably qualified person) to eliminate the pilot light is there?


If I get it serviced, is the engineer likely to be able to turn down the pilot light?

A new boiler will cost you a good couple of grand at least (inc fitting)

Your existing boiler costs about £50 a year for the pilot light using your calculations.

So based on thses 2 simple values (and ignoring any other factors such as a probable slight increased efficiency) , it'll take you 40 years to recover the cost on a straight line basis (ignoring the value of money over time)

Not a good RoI (Return on Investment)

Rubidium

It is certainly not cost effective to replace your working boiler simply because the pilot light needs adjusting!

If you read the installation and servicing manual, it is very easy to adjust the pilot flame by simply removing the lower controls cover to gain access.

Check the length of the pilot flame, it should envelop the thermocouple tip as shown in diagram 6.2. The pilot rate can be adjusted, if necessary, by turning the pilot burner adjustment screw “N”, having first removed the multi-functional control cover by releasing the screw, see diagram 6.1.

You should be able to get the daily pilot light consumption down to approx half what yours is now, with very little effort.

Cardew

footyguy wrote: »

A new boiler will cost you a good couple of grand at least (inc fitting)

Your existing boiler costs about £50 a year for the pilot light using your calculations.

In addition to the above, it is also pertinent to point out that the heat from the pilot light is not a complete loss as it warms the fabric of the house and pipes in the boiler.

matelodave

As others have said, the cost of replacing the boiler will outweigh any savings in gas. You are unlikely to see a payback in less than 20 years especially as you use so little gas anyway

As your boiler is fairly simple there's not much to go wrong, only the gas valve, thermocouple or thermostat it doesn't need a tremendous amound of maintenance and wont cost much to put right.

A new one would be much more complex as they are all condensing boilers, with microprocessor electronics, fans, sensors and what have you and are therefore probably less reliable and cost a lot more to repair. It would need a condensate drain and probably rerouting of some of the pipework.

keep it going for as long as you can and only replace it when it's totally beyond repair. If I were you I'd buy spares for it now whilst they are still available.

My old neighbour had the gas valve and thermostat out of my boiler when the heat exchanger gave up and has managed to keep his boiler going for another 20 years for free.