Boiler.

Johnnyo

We currently have an old Baxi Bermuda back boiler that we are looking to replace. This currently feeds the central heating, hot water, and immersion tank which is fitted into an upstairs airing cupboard. This supplies a power shower with its own pump. A friend has suggested keeping the immersion tank and current power shower and pump. Any advice would be most welcome thank you. We are a retired couple. No others.

northernstar007

i had the same setup apart from mine was a old fashion thorn apollo, i then got a worcester bosh combi and going down that route it ditches the hotwater tank and pump to the shower, everything is fed off the combi
i also  put the combi in the cupboard where the hotwater tank was so that saved space in the kitchen where the original boiler was 
it is extra work for the installation but its once in lifetime job and well worth it

Farway

northernstar007 said:

i had the same setup apart from mine was a old fashion thorn apollo, i then got a worcester bosh combi and going down that route it ditches the hotwater tank and pump to the shower, everything is fed off the combi
i also  put the combi in the cupboard where the hotwater tank was so that saved space in the kitchen where the original boiler was 
it is extra work for the installation but its once in lifetime job and well worth it

I did similar, was floor standing boiler

Also put combi into what was the old hot water upstairs airing cupboard, which still gave “aired” clothes

But, and this may be useful for OP as retired, it removed the header tanks & all water pipes from my loft, thus I no longer have any possible worries about overflowing header tanks, frozen pipes etc

As stated, extra installation work, with maybe new flue, but worth the effort IMO

If you go down this route of combi, be sure to get thermostat controlled shower, for that one time the other half turns on the kitchen tap while you are in the shower

FreeBear

Another "I had that exact same setup". Uninsulated DHW tank (well, it had a couple of jackets on it), vintage single panel radiators (no fins), and the most basic of timer & thermostat. Oh, and no thermostat on the DHW tank.

Replaced the room thermostat, and fitted one to the tank. Got rid of the crappy timer, replacing the lot with a programmable thermostat - Being able to set different temperatures throughout the day/week cut gas consumption by some 15%. Turning the gas off during the summer months cut another chunk off the gas bill. Along with a few other measures, went from 8,000kWh down to 3500kWh per year.

Had a gas "engineer" slap an At Risk notice on the boiler because (so he claimed), a grommet was missing from the thermocouple well and could allow carbon monoxide to escape in to the room - Two problems with this... Baxi never fitted a grommet from new, and combustion chamber was open to the room by design. So plenty of scope for CO to escape...

Ripped out all the plumbing for both heating and DHW, and replaced it with a Viessmann combi located in the hallway. New pipework installed along with higher output radiators (double panel with fins in most rooms) with an eye to installing a heat pump at some point in the future. Did the plumbing myself to keep costs down, and only paid to have the boiler installed. The last year has been spent fine tuning the system - Looks like I'm on track to get gas consumption down to 2500kWh p.a. and still maintain a comfortable temperature throughout the house. Not going to recover the investment via savings in energy, but the improvement made to quality of life makes up for it - Instant hot water when running a bath is a revelation. Still have to wait an age for hot water in the kitchen though..

If I were to do it all again, I would give serious consideration to a heat pump. Octopus gave me a quote last year that was very competitive - Once the cost of new radiators & pipework is added on to what I paid for a new gas boiler, I'd have saved ~£300 by going with Octopus. But at the time, accessing the Boiler Upgrade Scheme would have required me to undertake additional (and expensive) thermal upgrades. Rules have been relaxed since, and I believe other changes are in the pipeline.