Oil Central Heating Install

sarah539_2

Sorry for the duplicate post, originally posted in the 'Is this quote fair?' forum but it might be a better fit here...

Recently moved into a property with storage heaters and want to make the move to oil central heating. It will be a full install from scratch. First quote was received yesterday... £13,500.

I'll be honest, this is a lot more than we were expecting. 

8 radiators, combi boiler including flue etc, oil tank, pipework (not chased into wall), thermostat. 

Does that figure sound about right? Having another company out to quote next week to compare but interested in your thoughts. 

canaldumidi

How much were the other two quotes?

https://www.oftec.org/find-technician

lohr500

What make/model of boiler have you been quoted for and what sized oil tank? Does the price also include removal of the storage heaters? How is your hot water currently heated and does the quote include decommissioning of the old water heating system if you are moving to a combi boiler? How much ground work is required to prepare a suitable base for the oil tank?

sarah539_2

Greenstar Heatslave 18/25 Oil Combi Boiler and 1225 ltr tank. Yes to the storage heaters and yes to the old water tank (electric immersion). Not much in the way of groundworks but as it wasnt decided where to put it the groundwork/base was not included in the price. 

lohr500

Looks like the cheapest on-line prices for the boiler and a 1225 litre bunded tank are around £2,400 and £1,500. Radiator prices will depend on the size/style, but say £160 each, plus around £25 to £30 for a reasonable quality thermostatic valve set per radiator. A Hive or Ring type thermostat/timer set up will probably be another £120 or so.

So just that lot will be around £5500 to £5600. Then there will be the cost of the pipes, pipe fittings, oil line, filters, etc, etc. 

And then labour to rip out all the old system and fit the new. It soon adds up 

Best to see what the other quotes come in at. Also, very importantly get recommendations on good fitters and ask those giving you quotations to provide references from previous customers. Google for reviews on the fitters you are talking to. There are a lot of cowboys out there and the cheapest price may not always be the best.

One final thought. If you plan to stay in the house for a long time, it may be worth future proofing the system so it could be run using a heat pump in the future. (Or even consider one now). Much easier to do with a new installation than retro fitting to an existing. The key thing with heat pump systems seems to be having high output radiators that will provide enough heat output when running at lower temperatures. And as you are starting from scratch, perhaps it would be good to get the higher output radiators installed now. I am no expert by the way, so please seek further advice on this.

matelodave

TBH with a quote around that sort of price, I'd be inclined to explore the cost of getting a heatpump solution. You could get  Renewable Heat Incentive payments which would go a fair way towards the cost if you got it in and commissioned by the end of March 2022 or possibly a £5k grant after that.

You'd have the advantage of not having a ginormous tank in the garden, no tanker deliveries and no-one can thieve your oil - certainly worth considering

sarah539_2

I have been told by quite a few people that due to the fact my house is over 100 years old and poorly insulated the heat pumps would be insufficient - of course perhaps I'll do some digging if the further quotes are high.

Thanks

QrizB

sarah539_2 said:

I have been told by quite a few people that due to the fact my house is over 100 years old and poorly insulated the heat pumps would be insufficient - of course perhaps I'll do some digging if the further quotes are high.

You can produce as much heat from heat pumps as you can from a boiler. If your house is poorly insulated that's as much of a problem for a boiler as for a heat pump.
You've been quoted for a 25kW boiler which means you might need two 11kW heat pumps (or one massive one) but unless you've had a proper heat loss calculation, that might just be your installer's best guess.

ispookie666

We had an oil boiler (Firebird -18kw) along with an additional radiator, new flue installed for Just short of 5000. 
It is likely that 25Kw is due to it being combi.  Maybe the quote should be less by 2000.  
The other option would be to work out how much KW is needed to heat the house+Water for a year and then run the math.  

lohr500

ispookie666 said:

We had an oil boiler (Firebird -18kw) along with an additional radiator, new flue installed for Just short of 5000. 
It is likely that 25Kw is due to it being combi.  Maybe the quote should be less by 2000.  
The other option would be to work out how much KW is needed to heat the house+Water for a year and then run the math.  

Was that to replace an existing boiler? If so, with the exception of your extra radiator, most of the infrastructure would be there already, so very different to a full install.

We had our internal 26/36Kw boiler replaced in February with a similar sized external unit, a bigger radiator fitted in one of the rooms, the pipework converted to an S plan configuration and fitted with a new pump and filter. That was £5100 including the VAT. Fortunately the new external boiler could be located directly on the other side of the wall to where the internal boiler was positioned, so there wasn't a need for lots of extra pipework.

If the OP ended up needing a smaller boiler, I don't think it would make much difference to the price. Looks like the smaller 12/18KW range model of the same combi boiler is only £100 cheaper.

Agree though, the OP should ask to see what calculations were done to determine the correct size of boiler. The one quoted can be adjusted to run between 18 and 25KW.

justwhat

i assume its will be a 2-3 day job. You get hammered for labour. in my opinion  many just double the material costs(ball park). 

i personally based on the persons costings above would be hoping for the 10k or under mark.(unsure if you can save some money by doing some of the removal/prep work yourself)