Boiler - Where to start?

scottishgirl87

We have just bought a house which has a gas boiler and hot water tank system. We are unsure of how old the system is but appears to be in working order.

Ideally we would prefer a combi boiler system, however, we are currently carrying out other renovations and it will come down to whether or not we have enough money to replace it or not.

What I’m really looking for is an assessment of the system first to see what our options are. Where is the best place to start?

I see British Gas offer a free appointment for new boilers where they will come out and carry out an assessment. Would this be a good first port of call?

Carrot007

scottishgirl87 wrote: »

I see British Gas offer a free appointment for new boilers where they will come out and carry out an assessment. Would this be a good first port of call?

If you want to be recommended a new combi boiler at 10000+ then it would be a great idea.


Find a reputable local com0pany to check the system out.

Robin9

Go to local independant installers

scottishgirl87

Do you think there will be a charge for an assessment?

Carrot007

scottishgirl87 wrote: »

Do you think there will be a charge for an assessment?

Obviously. £50-£100 seems reasonable.


Or pay BG nothing to be told you need a new boiler.


Nothing worthwhile is free.

Carrot007

Robin9 wrote: »

Go to local independant installers

Do not do this. Go to an independant company (not an installers) to get the current system indipendantly assessed. Unless you just want to be told to get a new one.


Combi's are generally much worse then seperates depending on exactly what you have.

matelodave

In general if the boiler is OK then you won't save any money in the short term by replacing it.

You'll probably end up paying at least £2k or even more and if you save £200 a year it'll take you 10 years to get your money back. Modern boilers may be a bit more efficient but they are also significantly less reliable so may cost more in repairs and maintenance. I'd wait until it's beyond economical repair

As others have said, BG will just try to sell you a new boiler and at vastly inflated costs. They'll also tell you that spare aren't available. You'd be better off getting a local heating engineer round to give it a service and assessment.

I personally prefer combis, but I would not swap out a functioning system just to have one unless it was part of a major building project - say moving a bathroom, putting in an extension etc.

scottishgirl87

Thanks all.

We’re more interested in a combi boiler so we don’t have to wait on the hot water heating up. Have had this before and a bit of a pain so combi would be ideal.

misterbarlow

We moved into our house in 2007, it had an ancient Baxi back boiler with attic tanks.

We were up against it from the move (bigger mortgage, more important things to sort etc) and I had it serviced and the guy who did it said its working fine, leave it til it packs in, so we left it 'for now', had been paying £35pm DD gas.
Apart from servicing and 1 dead thermocouple in 2012 which was about £15, it been fine!!

In 2016 we had some PPI refund, so finally got round to it...

Bought my own boiler direct from a local place for about £850, was about £300 for pipes and parts to re-site it, and paid two local plumbers to fit it, they charge £150 each a day but it only took them a day!!

Total was around £1500 give or take!!

But as Metalodave said above, over 18months later our consumption has not really dropped much over the year, and with recent price increases my DD is now actually more than with the back boiler!!