alpha etec boiler?

Steveotwo

Just moved into a house with an old water tank boiler system from 2004

Considering upgrading to a combi have been qouted from iHeat around 2700 for a full system upgrade, removal of tank, magnetic filter etc and an alpha etec boiler with 11 years warranty
they assured me it will be adequate for 4 bed two bath house.

Does anyone have one of these boiler models?
what kind of saving can I expect?

BarelySentientAI

Steveotwo said:

what kind of saving can I expect?

Less than many people would tell you.

Replacing a gas boiler with another gas boiler is a long payback time.

Steveotwo

@BarelySentientAI
so what would you do just wait until the old system kicks the bucket then replace?

BarelySentientAI

Waiting might make expensive, difficult or impossible repairs required at an inopportune moment - the point is that you should be replacing gas for gas thinking "I will make savings on bills".  You might, but is £50 a year (my random guessed but possible number) enough saving to make you want to do it?

Consider a heat pump, consider the value of reliability of a new boiler against possible repairs of the old one, consider why you want to go from tank to combi (that's not an 'upgrade'), consider what other things like better controls might help...

Don't do it because you expect savings.

Steveotwo

I upgraded 4 years ago in my last house, and we sore a saving due to efficiency. didnt see a payback on it though. this house will hopefully be in for atleast 15 years, so bringing the monthly bills down 20/30% will hopefully be worth it. plus its annoying having to heat up the water tank all the time 

FreeBear

BarelySentientAI said:

Steveotwo said:

what kind of saving can I expect?

Less than many people would tell you.

Replacing a gas boiler with another gas boiler is a long payback time.

If the old boiler has a pilot light, a new boiler will save ~2000kWh a year straight off or around £100. Assuming it is a non-condensing boiler, a new one could potentially save a further 20%. Combined with a programmable thermostat, the savings could be higher. Back of fag packet calculation & finger in the air suggests £300-400 per year. Say a ten year payback ?

I'm not sure a combi boiler would be best suited to a property with two baths unless you have a very good mains water flow rate and decent pressure.

I'd also recommend getting a quote from someone like Octopus - They are doing some very competitive quotes at present, so it would be foolish not to investigate a heat pump option.

ThisIsWeird

Steveotwo said:

Just moved into a house with an old water tank boiler system from 2004

Considering upgrading to a combi have been qouted from iHeat around 2700 for a full system upgrade, removal of tank, magnetic filter etc and an alpha etec boiler with 11 years warranty
they assured me it will be adequate for 4 bed two bath house.

Does anyone have one of these boiler models?
what kind of saving can I expect?

First of all - that's a darned good quote! So, if they are reputable, and you really do want to go 'combi', then at least you ain't paying over the odds.

Second of all, why do you want to go combi? 

How many folk will be in your house? 

How well insulated is your current DHWCylinder?

Make and model of current boiler?

Does your current system work ok - good flow from all taps, nice showers, etc?

BarelySentientAI

FreeBear said:

BarelySentientAI said:

Steveotwo said:

what kind of saving can I expect?

Less than many people would tell you.

Replacing a gas boiler with another gas boiler is a long payback time.

If the old boiler has a pilot light, a new boiler will save ~2000kWh a year straight off or around £100. Assuming it is a non-condensing boiler, a new one could potentially save a further 20%. Combined with a programmable thermostat, the savings could be higher. Back of fag packet calculation & finger in the air suggests £300-400 per year. Say a ten year payback ?

I'd be assuming that a 2004 heat-only boiler did not have a pilot light and was condensing.

I mean, condensing was the law for new boilers from early 2005 and my 90s boiler had no pilot. 

FreeBear

BarelySentientAI said:

FreeBear said:

BarelySentientAI said:

Steveotwo said:

what kind of saving can I expect?

Less than many people would tell you.

Replacing a gas boiler with another gas boiler is a long payback time.

If the old boiler has a pilot light, a new boiler will save ~2000kWh a year straight off or around £100. Assuming it is a non-condensing boiler, a new one could potentially save a further 20%. Combined with a programmable thermostat, the savings could be higher. Back of fag packet calculation & finger in the air suggests £300-400 per year. Say a ten year payback ?

I'd be assuming that a 2004 heat-only boiler did not have a pilot light and was condensing.

I mean, condensing was the law for new boilers from early 2005 and my 90s boiler had no pilot. 

Was it as long ago as that for condensing boilers...

Yes, a reasonable chance that the OP has a condensing boiler and no pilot light. In which case, the annual saving is likely to be small. But there will still be savings to be had by fitting a programmable thermostat - Potentially, up to 15%, but in reality, more likely 5%. Further savings could be had from changing the times & temperature for DHW.. And if larger radiators are fitted throughout, that would enable the boiler to run at a lower flow temperature for higher efficiency. So maybe a 10% reduction in running costs.

Eldi_Dos

Around this time last year arranged for a 1990's Glo Worm boiler with original controls and pilot light to be replaced with a WB with RF programmable room thermostat. Consumption is on line to drop from 11500 kwh to around 7550 kwh per year, admittedly with a mild winter, but still exceeded my expections.
Modern boiler controls really are a improvement on what went before and well worth looking into if your system is a bit old.
It is not just the financial benefit but the feeling that you have cut emissions.

Edit: OP summer is the time you are most likely to get good deals, if you wait for boiler to give up the ghost and it is the middle of winter, deals might not be so good.

FreeBear

Eldi_Dos said:

Around this time last year arranged for a 1990's Glo Worm boiler with original controls and pilot light to be replaced with a WB with RF programmable room thermostat. Consumption is on line to drop from 11500 kwh to around 7550 kwh per year, admittedly with a mild winter, but still exceeded my expections.

Just looked at my bills. Prior to replacing my old Baxi back boiler (non-condensing with pilot light), I'd got my usage down to around 3500kWh per year. Replacement Viessmann combi fitted last July, and consumption has fallen to about 2800kWh. No where near as impressive as your 34% saving, and i will never recover the installation cost.

But instant hot water and finer grain control over heating makes up for it - The house is much warmer, but much of that will be down to improvements made elsewhere (new windows, more insulation, etc).