Moving House - Boiler Enquiry

jennifernil

With the price of gas now, the payback time may well be shorter than expected!

The old boiler was 60odd% efficient , the new one 90+%, and comes with a 12 year warranty, which should "see us out" as they say.  We had put off replacing the old one, a Potterton Neataheat, as it was giving good service, but it was starting to get very noisy in operation so we did not want to risk another winter with it.

The new boiler is a Veissmann Vitodens, which can run on a gas/hydrogen mix if required, and is so quiet in operation that we had to keep going to check it was running!  As we have a "granny flat" in the property, with its own little boiler, also a Potterton  Neataheat of the same age, next year we will be looking to replace it before dear Nicola bans replacement gas boilers altogether.  On the little boiler we did need to have one sensor replaced about 25 years back, and OH had to fit a new pump (external to the boiler) 
about 3 years back, otherwise it has also been very reliable.

As we are in Scotland, the Home Report value,  that the lender will use, takes into account the condition of the property and would flag up the age of the boiler from the start and factor this in, so agreeing a price/making an offer, and then wanting to reduce it when you discover the age of the boiler is not something that would happen here.

Are these sort of things not taken into account when setting the asking price for houses elsewhere?

BUFF

That's a very good boiler, hopefully, you upgraded the controls at the same time?
Get to know them & your boiler well & the additional control may help you achieve larger savings that you anticpated (but that may also involve some behavioural changes).

jennifernil

We have not as yet done anything new about the controls, we only started using the boiler last month and are unsure as to what we should do as there are a lot of choices, what would you suggest?

We do have TRVs on all but one radiator, and the system is presently operated by a fairly new time clock which can have different times set for heating and hot water.

The HW is via a vented cylinder.

Being pensioners, we are home a lot and have a fairly fixed schedule.  We look after our grandchildren in their home 2/3 days per week.

The house is south facing with large windows, so warms up quickly when it is sunny, and we also have solar panels on the south facing roof, so are considering fitting a system that will divert excess electricity to heat the water.

fenwick458

jennifernil said:

Why do so many buyers think they should get a price reduction because the boiler is a few years old? 

If the estate agents list the house with "gas central heating" it's assumed that it works. thats my understanding.
as people have said probably best to just get it checked over and make sure it works, worst thing for boilers is being left switched off, I noted the OP mentioned it was left switched off for a while...
A tenant in one of my rentals left the boiler off this year from march, and in September when it was switched on the fan was seized up

my gas man says modern combi boilers aren't worth servicing as theres nothing to adjust, so I wouldn't worry if a 10-15 year old boiler hadn't been serviced

jennifernil said:

We have not as yet done anything new about the controls, we only started using the boiler last month and are unsure as to what we should do as there are a lot of choices, what would you suggest?

a smart thermostat that has "opentherm" eg nest or Drayton wiser. the smart part means it's connected to the internet, you can access it remotely, programming is often easier as you can use a smartphone to do it which is more user friendly than entering sequences of button presses whilst staring at a tiny screen and reading a manual at the same time. the opentherm bit has weather compensation built in, it will alter the flow temp depending on the temperature outside

BUFF

jennifernil said:

We have not as yet done anything new about the controls, we only started using the boiler last month and are unsure as to what we should do as there are a lot of choices, what would you suggest?

Which exact Viessmann Vitodens?
Most can communicate using OpenTherm which opens a whole range of controls to you but I believe that the 200 series use a proprietary communications protocol in which case for maximum efficiency you should use a Viessmann control.

jennifernil

It is from the 100 series, a heat only model, the most powerful one I think