New boiler suggestions

FreeBear

plumb1_2 said:

FreeBear said:

ThisIsWeird said:

What's the delivery pressure like?

Dunno. Would need to find a decent pressure gauge and test.

and take your flow rate at different times of the day 
plus is the tap you are using for the test, does it have any restrictions fitted, ie cheap ballofix instead of a full bore valve. Thin/ narrow flexible tap tails.

No restrictions that I am aware of.

Did the same test in the kitchen which does have microbore flexi pipes connecting to the hot & cold water pipes - 45 seconds to fill a 5l container.

Gas fitter paid a visit today and suggested installing a boiler in the garage. Having killed plenty of electronics over the years due to condensation, I have my doubts that a garage is a suitable location. In addition, I feel quite a bit of radiant heat from the combustion chamber will go to waste. Not a lot of insulation (if any) inside a boiler..

ThisIsWeird

Still worried about your flow rate. But if your plumber hasn't raised any concerns, then I guess they've considered it adequate.

You have a number of compensating options, tho'. The simplest is a Salamander pump costing around £300 - this will give you 12lpm (the max you are permitted to suck the mains by) at a very good pressure. And then there's models with accumulators, the smallest of which will fit inside a 600mm base unit - Challis make what I understand are very effective and affordable units.

These will give you as much water as you can handle! 30+lpm? Nae prob. Until they run dry, of course, but they'll still continue deliver at the 12lpm indefinitely after this. 

If your garage is generally dry and well ventilated, I'd personally have no concerns about sticking my boiler in there - in fact it would be my location of choice; get the ugly space-wasting brutes out of the house. I would, however, build a cupboard around it, insulated if you wish but not essential. 

The amount of heat lost from a boiler body is minimal, and would be used to keep it all super-dry. A more valid concern could be the distance of the hot water pipe, and the resulting supply delay - is the mounting wall well positioned for this?

And... is there room in the garage for a Challis? It could literally be placed in the same cupboard, under the boiler. If you want to future-proof for this possible option, then run a 22mm pipe direct from the incoming mains to the location (use it to supply the boiler's input for the time being), and a separate dedicated flow to the house's 'cold' from there (but not necessarily connected at the mo'). If you find you want a Challis, it'll plumb straight in.

And mount the boiler at a height to allow the potential accum under it.

I feel I'm saying stuff you almost certainly know, FB

FreeBear

ThisIsWeird said:

Still worried about your flow rate. But if your plumber hasn't raised any concerns, then I guess they've considered it adequate.

You have a number of compensating options, tho'. The simplest is a Salamander pump costing around £300 - this will give you 12lpm (the max you are permitted to suck the mains by) at a very good pressure. And then there's models with accumulators, the smallest of which will fit inside a 600mm base unit - Challis make what I understand are very effective and affordable units.

Flow rate & pressure are fine. Maybe a bit low compared to some areas, but perfectly adequate for this area and my needs. Certainly not worth spending £1K+ on a non-issue. Got better and more pressing things to spend that sort of money on.

FreeBear

Just had another engineer in to measure up for a new boiler, and another suggestion - Alpha.

Any comments opinions ?

BUFF

My mother had an  Alpha. It was OK although I think my similar Worcester is/was better.

plumb1_2

Baxi. Upto 10 year warranty
Buy British and our country in employment.

FreeBear

Just to conclude - Fitted a Viessmann 050 in the end, and have been tweaking the system for the last 10 months. Latest addition is a display for the climate..

Replaces a light switch, so I needed to add a couple of virtual switches.

A quick swipe, and I get current weather.

Can have up to 12 pages, so the only limit is imagination for the amount of data that can be displayed. Might add some graphs showing gas/electricity consumption & boiler output - Not bad for a £20 display

Eldi_Dos

Well you have opened up a whole new area for discussion. Is 19.2 deg too hot a overnight temperature ?
For me if that was a bedroom temperature I would be sleeping with the trickle vents open,feel I would get a better nights sleep that way.

The predicted drop of temperature in the afternoon is quite dramatic be interesting to see if it comes to pass.

FreeBear

Eldi_Dos said:

Well you have opened up a whole new area for discussion. Is 19.2 deg too hot a overnight temperature ?

The predicted drop of temperature in the afternoon is quite dramatic be interesting to see if it comes to pass.

In my defence, I'd been up (very) late, and had the fire going earlier. Upstairs was around 17°C (down two radiators due to redecorating).

As of 15:15, outside temperature is showing as ~6°C, so the forecast is not far off. Had been up to around 11°C at 10:00, so the temperature drop was in line with predictions.