Cost of running a Rayburn (Gas) Boiler...

max99x

Hi all,

Moved into a new house (old) few months ago and this Rayburn Nouelle was there, hasn't been turned on for a good few years and its the only boiler' in the property... now we did plan to get a new normal boiler fitted but due to various issues it's not something that can happen right now ... 

So ...What I'm wondering is ... does anyone have any idea what something like this would cost to run? It runs on gas and we have about 11 radiators in our 4 bedroom house (built in 1850's, Double glazed mainly) we're on a 10.552p per kWh British Gas plan

Just want to know a rough idea i.e will it be extortionate or is it worth getting someone to come service and get it up and running.

Thanks in advance

(photo taken when we first moved in ... so it is lot cleaner now haha)

Leon_W

I've got the exact same !

I've just retired it     It was fitted in 1985 and ran the hot water (gravity fed tank) and 6 radiators, we obviously did the cooking on it as well and really liked it until a few months ago.  It is now too ridiculously expensive to run !

It has two pilot lights. The one that stays on for the oven and hot water, I worked out, would use nearly £250 a year on the new capped rates. Then you have to add in the second pilot light on the heating side in the winter months !!  That's just for the pilot light.

If you were to run it as Rayburn intended, that is all year round on the "low" setting, supplying just about a tank of hot water and cooking slow pot things it would cost about £3500 per year. That's BEFORE even turning on the heating side !  It did make the kitchen cosy though.

We had a gas combi fitted two weeks ago    This was plumbed into the old heating circuit and now does the hot water so we could remove our old cylinder.

We still use it to cook a couple of times a week to cook though as they warm up quicker than an AGA, that said, it's still going to be more expensive than using a conventional gas cooker. 

Edited to add. ..... You'll be very lucky indeed to get anyone to even look at it as I've been there and done that !  AGA/Rayburn engineers actively shy away from a Nouvelle. You can't give them away either, just look at Ebay. I've kept ours running myself, which isn't ideal obviously, but when needs must.  

max99x

Leon_W said:

I've got the exact same !

I've just retired it     It was fitted in 1985 and ran the hot water (gravity fed tank) and 6 radiators, we obviously did the cooking on it as well and really liked it until a few months ago.  It is now too ridiculously expensive to run !

It has two pilot lights. The one that stays on for the oven and hot water, I worked out, would use nearly £250 a year on the new capped rates. Then you have to add in the second pilot light on the heating side in the winter months !!  That's just for the pilot light.

If you were to run it as Rayburn intended, that is all year round on the "low" setting, supplying just about a tank of hot water and cooking slow pot things it would cost about £3500 per year. That's BEFORE even turning on the heating side !  It did make the kitchen cosy though.

We had a gas combi fitted two weeks ago    This was plumbed into the old heating circuit and now does the hot water so we could remove our old cylinder.

We still use it to cook a couple of times a week to cook though as they warm up quicker than an AGA, that said, it's still going to be more expensive than using a conventional gas cooker. 

Edited to add. ..... You'll be very lucky indeed to get anyone to even look at it as I've been there and done that !  AGA/Rayburn engineers actively shy away from a Nouvelle. You can't give them away either, just look at Ebay. I've kept ours running myself, which isn't ideal obviously, but when needs must.  

This was what I was fearing but also expecting ... didn't want to either waste the time of getting someone out to either not be able to fix or want to or to fix and then it costs so much to run!! Back to the drawing board it sounds for us to try and get some form of heating... may end up doing a combi boiler just for the winter before additional things are doing and we can get an unvented system installed!! 

Bendy_House

max99x said:

This was what I was fearing but also expecting ... didn't want to either waste the time of getting someone out to either not be able to fix or want to or to fix and then it costs so much to run!! Back to the drawing board it sounds for us to try and get some form of heating... may end up doing a combi boiler just for the winter before additional things are doing and we can get an unvented system installed!! 

Gulp. Fit a combi - changing over your pipe layouts - just for winter?

A stored hot water system will almost certainly be the best way to ultimately go, as it can be topped up with spare power from PVs or other sources. Also, any future 'green' energy source - AorGSHP, biomass, whatevs, will also almost certainly require a hot storage system, so it's worth spending this winter doing your research.

As for the Rayburn, yes, it sounds stupidly expensive to run, but you can mitigate against this to some degree by turning off rads in any room not being used, tightly controlling the heating at other times, and by all the other usual stuff that most of the country is going to be doing. Yes, it'll cost more than a modern condensing boiler to run, but surely not as much as the temporary installation of a combi?

Leon_W

It wasn't that difficult to plumb the combi into the Rayburns old central heating circuit so I wouldn't discount it.

I'm wondering what the OP uses for heating hot water at the moment (and cooks on) ? 

Are you just using an immersion in the hot water cylinder ? And have you another standalone cooker ?

Have you tried lighting the Rayburn just to see what happens ?

J_B

Leon_W said:

I've got the exact same !

Snap!

Fitted in 1985

We left it in the farmhouse when we moved out in 2007

Buyers replaced it with an AGA when they had a new kitchen - I think it's still in one of their sheds somewhere.

I don't think they are rocket science to a decent 'plumber', if you know one!

Bendy_House

Leon_W said:

It wasn't that difficult to plumb the combi into the Rayburns old central heating circuit so I wouldn't discount it.

I'm wondering what the OP uses for heating hot water at the moment (and cooks on) ? 

Are you just using an immersion in the hot water cylinder ? And have you another standalone cooker ?

Have you tried lighting the Rayburn just to see what happens ?

No, it isn't difficult at all. But if they can have it done for less than £3k, I'll eat my hat. With a new gas pipe and flue, probably make that £4k.

That's a very expensive winter saving.

max99x

Leon_W said:

It wasn't that difficult to plumb the combi into the Rayburns old central heating circuit so I wouldn't discount it.

I'm wondering what the OP uses for heating hot water at the moment (and cooks on) ? 

Are you just using an immersion in the hot water cylinder ? And have you another standalone cooker ?

Have you tried lighting the Rayburn just to see what happens ?

Currently just use an old immersion heater, cooking wise there's a double oven we use and a hob (electric)

Not tried to light the Rayburn as the gas is currently capped

max99x

Bendy_House said:

max99x said:

This was what I was fearing but also expecting ... didn't want to either waste the time of getting someone out to either not be able to fix or want to or to fix and then it costs so much to run!! Back to the drawing board it sounds for us to try and get some form of heating... may end up doing a combi boiler just for the winter before additional things are doing and we can get an unvented system installed!! 

Gulp. Fit a combi - changing over your pipe layouts - just for winter?

A stored hot water system will almost certainly be the best way to ultimately go, as it can be topped up with spare power from PVs or other sources. Also, any future 'green' energy source - AorGSHP, biomass, whatevs, will also almost certainly require a hot storage system, so it's worth spending this winter doing your research.

As for the Rayburn, yes, it sounds stupidly expensive to run, but you can mitigate against this to some degree by turning off rads in any room not being used, tightly controlling the heating at other times, and by all the other usual stuff that most of the country is going to be doing. Yes, it'll cost more than a modern condensing boiler to run, but surely not as much as the temporary installation of a combi?

To be honest you've made me think about storing hot water, we did just want to get rid of all the water tanks in the loft to make the room bigger but we do have Solar Panels (16) and so actually it could make sense to keep some kind of tank that they could feed into to warm water... as long as their are solutions out there that can basically can give you that hot water but if it runs out or is below a certain level the combi (or unvented) boiler kicks in ...

Thanks for the reply  

FreeBear

max99x said: ... as long as there are solutions out there that can basically can give you that hot water but if it runs out or is below a certain level the combi (or unvented) boiler kicks in ...

The simplest solution would be a thermostat on the side of the HW tank linked to a three way valve. When the tank temperature drops below a set point, the valve switches from the tank to the combi - Would work best if the boiler is very close to the HW tank, else you end up with excessively long runs of pipe and/or a valve that is located in a difficult to access location.