Changing boilers

Neen67

I live in a village where there is no gas so I have a oil boiler recently, I have been thinking of changing to an electric boiler more for cleaner energy but I do not know if it is going to be more expensive 
I would be interested in peoples thoughts

Mister_G

This should answer your question!

Energy Cost Comparison – Nottingham Energy Partnership (nottenergy.com)

Reed_Richards

An electric boiler would be a lot more expensive to run, about 3 times by my reckoning.  However an Air Source Heat Pump (powered by electricity) ought to have similar running costs to an oil boiler (mine looks as if it will do).  An ASHP would be much more expensive to install and you would need to claim the Renewable Heat Incentive to recoup (over time) your installation cost.   

Reed_Richards

Mister_G said:

This should answer your question!

Energy Cost Comparison – Nottingham Energy Partnership (nottenergy.com)

They quote a high price for electricity, including the standing charge which you have to pay anyway.  This skews the figures against electricity and electrical devices.  I'd say 15p per kWh should not be too hard to achieve.

Hasbeen

Neen67 said:

I live in a village where there is no gas so I have a oil boiler recently, I have been thinking of changing to an electric boiler more for cleaner energy but I do not know if it is going to be more expensive 
I would be interested in peoples thoughts

What is wrong with the existing oil boiler?

A few years back I changed my 22 yrs old old broken boiler for a new more efficient one.

No way would I consider an electric boiler.

But your choice if you are of, the want to save the planet persuasion.

And do not care about expence?

Neen67

Not sure how old it is only been in this house a year and it just cost me £700 to get it fixed 😩

matelodave

The sums are pretty easy. Just multiply the cost of oil that you've used in the last 12 months by at least three

A litre of oil produces a bit more than 10kwh of heat, so if you spend £600 on oil you'll get around 12,000kwh which is what your house needs to keep it warm and produce hot water.

If you change to an electrict boiler  that 12,000 kwh will cost you 12,000 x 15p* = £1800. Having an electric boiler wont reduce the heating requirement just triple the cost.

TBH electric boilers are probably the most expensive way to heat a house short of burning £20 notes in the fireplace.

*put in whatever your peak rate tariff you use - as electric boilers generally get used during peak rate times, they cant take full advantage of E7 (in fact, E7 can work out much more expensive than a single rate tariff if you are using an electric boiler)

Reed_Richards

Neen67 said:

Not sure how old it is only been in this house a year and it just cost me £700 to get it fixed 😩

When I moved in I took over the service contract on the oil boiler and renewed it when it expired.  Although this service contract cost me over £200 p.a. the boiler went wrong with sufficient frequency that I'm sure it was worthwhile.

lohr500

I looked into Air source heat pump heating for our property to replace an antiquated oil boiler, but the economics just didn't make sense in our case.

In the end I replaced the old oil boiler with a new boiler made by Grant which has a 10 year parts and labour warranty (subject to installation and servicing by a Grant recognised installer).

I would say it very much depends on the age of your old boiler and what was replaced with the £700 bill. £700 is a big expense and one hopes that they ended up replacing something major, like the main burner unit, for that sort of cost.

Our old boiler was 32 years old and of a non condensing design.
The central heating and hot water circuits were not controlled by zone valves, so when running the boiler for hot water only, the upstairs radiators used to get hot due to thermal circulation. This wasted energy in the summer and other times when the central heating was not required. It also meant that the hot water storage tank got heated to boiler temperature or thereabouts as there was no thermostat on the tank to limit the tank temperature. The thermostat on the boiler itself regulated the boiler flow temperature.

The new boiler is of a condensing design and is much more efficient. At the same time we had the system converted to zone valve control. 

I have an analogue oil flow tally counter on the fuel line so I can measure the oil consumption reasonably accurately.

In the 20 days after replacing the old oil boiler we used a staggering 31% less oil than before. This despite similar external weather temperatures and no adjustments to the boiler timer controls. My only regret is that I didn't change the boiler sooner.

If your boiler is relatively new and is of a condensing design, then the savings won't be as great. If you know the make and model you can find the theoretical efficiency on this website :   https://www.homeheatingguide.co.uk/efficiency-tables

I don't think our old one was as efficient as claimed in the tables though, despite regular servicing, otherwise we couldn't be achieving a 31% reduction in oil usage. (Unless the weather was in fact milder than I thought in the 20 days after installation). But either way, the new boiler has a published 94% efficiency vs 70% on the old.

Please let us know what the boiler make and model is and what was replaced when they repaired it.

If you do look into air source heat pumps, make sure you get several quotes from reputable installers who specialise in ASHP and who have good feedback. Often they will also need to change the radiators as well as installing the new system because the ASHP systems run at lower temperatures, so need larger surface area radiator. Bear in mind also that if you apply for the RHI grant which should cover a reasonable amount of the cost, it pays back in instalments over 7 years, not up front, so you need to be able to fund it in full at the start. Also remember that if you move house within the seven year grant payment window, the payments don't move with you. The new owners can apply to receive the balance of any payments which MAY increase the value of your house, but I wouldn't bank on it. 

Reed_Richards

lohr500 said:

If you do look into air source heat pumps, make sure you get several quotes from reputable installers who specialise in ASHP and who have good feedback. Often they will also need to change the radiators as well as installing the new system because the ASHP systems run at lower temperatures, so need larger surface area radiator. Bear in mind also that if you apply for the RHI grant which should cover a reasonable amount of the cost, it pays back in instalments over 7 years, not up front, so you need to be able to fund it in full at the start. Also remember that if you move house within the seven year grant payment window, the payments don't move with you. The new owners can apply to receive the balance of any payments which MAY increase the value of your house, but I wouldn't bank on it. 

As someone who did switch I would say that this is all excellent advice except that you can be almost certain that you will need to change the radiators.  However many of my new radiators occupy less wall space than the old ones did.  I was fortunate to have enough saved-up to pay the up-front costs and it's not as if that money was earning me a lot of interest in the bank so I'm not worried that it will take me 7 years to recoup some of it.  If you move soon then the RHI payments may or may not impress prospective buyers, as with the fact that you have an ASHP.  I bet it would boost the EPC rating of the house [Edit or maybe not, I may be wrong to expect EPCs to be sensible].     

Neen67

I have a Grant boiler but not sure how old it is probably 8 years the problem I had was loss of hot water when using the shower and running the hot water tap, so a part was changed that didn’t work boiler man came back replaced something else that didn’t work he then rang Grant for advice changed something else and closed the stopcock a bit as he said that would help with the flow of water when using the hot water 
he had to come out so many times it was ridiculous