Moving combi boiler to attic?

LME_2

Hi there, We have an old combi boiler with a back boiler in the spare room. It takes up a lot of space, and is noisy. What are the pros and cons to getting a new combi and moving it up to our attic? Our attic is directly above where the boiler is currently, and is a fully converted attic (has stairs, flooring, lighting etc). We live in a 3 bed house with one bathroom. I mentioned it to the boiler engineer when he did our last service and he mentioned two snags I don’t fully understand. He said it could cause a problem with water pressure? (I seem to half recall this being a problem when we had new shower installed...). He said something about being able to address this but that it might cause burst pipes downstairs? Any help gratefully received - as well as any approx estimates for work. Thank you.

Robin9

We moved our boiler from our garage to our attic many years ago - no problems with water pressure .  Our attic is just an attic and hasn't been converted .

Only issue we have is that you can hear , from the bedroom below, the boiler cut in.

Neil_Jones

Its traditional to have boilers in the kitchen mounted on a wall somewhere where they take up much less space as there is a need for ventilation and its easier to access when a service is required.

But in theory there should be no reason why you can't have it in the attic.  After all hot water tanks happily sat in attic spaces and were perfectly happy (aside from when they decided to leak but anyway...)

matelodave

If its reasonably easy to get to for servicing etc then there's no reason why not.    My daughter has hers up there as did my Mum.
Just remember, out of sight should not be out of mind., You need to check the system pressure occasionally 

JGB1955

Our system boiler was moved up to the loft when we had a new kitchen installed, meaning we could make much better use of the kitchen layout.  We have a pressure guage fitted in the airing cupboard and the boiler only gets visited once a year when it gets serviced.

tacpot12

I like the idea of having a remote pressure gauge. There is no reason why the filling loop shouldn't also be remote so that you can re-pressurise the system at the point where the remote pressure gauge is, so that access into the attic is only required for servicing. You should ensure that the loft is well boarded out from the access hatch to where the boiler is mounted. The servicing engineer will need a solid working platform and somewhere to put their tools. Installing electric lights in the loft, with a switch by the access hatch will also improve working conditions and make make other loft space more accessible. Be careful not to store anything in the path to the boiler. 

 Your new boiler should be quieter than the old one, but as they all have a fan, it is virtually impossible to make them silent, although mounting them on resilient mounts (e.g. rubber 'nuts'), and installing an acoustic hood can make good deal of difference. Your problem will be finding a plumber who is prepared to use resilient mounts, as plumbing seem to be the most conservative of trades. 

daveyjp

If its an accessible attic no problem.  Flow rates are whatever they are, ensure the boiler is sized correctly for the flow rate of your mains cold water.

Also have the condensate pipe routed internally to a drain to prevent freezing in winter.

Soot2006

I just did this, no problem other than the gaping hole in the kitchen that I still haven't fixed.

I wasn't sure it was possible, but all the plumbers that came round to quote said it was straightforward.