Combi Boiler swap

FreeBear

• A few suggestions if you are not afraid to dive in…. When I had my boiler installed by a Boxt type outfit a couple of years ago, the engineer left everything on default. Some of the settings that needed adjusting could be done on the front panel with just a couple of button presses -
• Turn CH flow temperature down (initially, I went for 60°C).
• Enable Eco mode for hot water - This stops the boiler firing up every 30-60 minutes on the basis that you might need instant hot water.

Turn the DHW temperature down - 50°C is plenty hot enough, and there is next to zero risk of legionella, especially with a combi.

Diving in to the "engineering menu", other settings that got tweaks -

• CH pump speed - Default 100% was way too high and resulted in quite a bit of noise as water was pumped round the system. Also made balancing the radiators very difficult. Turned the pump speed down to ~30%, and you don't notice any pumping noise.
• Maximum boiler power - Although my boiler is rated at 30kW, I can limit maximum power by way of capping modulation rate (sometimes called "range limiting". Currently set to 15% which effectively limits CH power to just ~8kW.
• Opentherm - By default, this was set to "off", and the numpty had wired the cable up to the wrong terminals despite my explicit instructions to do otherwise. WB doesn't use OpenTherm, and very few smart controls support the WB Energy Management System (EMS) protocol. So enabling OpenTherm/EMS will do nothing for you.

Now that I have a smart(er) control system hooked up to the boiler, the only setting I have to go in to the engineering menu for now is pump speed. But now that it is set to a sane value, I don't anticipate having to change it again.

Hive only gives the most basic of control with the WB, so you'll need to access options from the front panel. Range limits and pump speed are both worth turning down - The latter will make for a quieter system, the former gives a small boost to efficiency. Flow temperature turned down to 60°C or even 50°C makes a big difference to efficiency, but only if you have oversized radiators to take advantage of the lower flow temperature. If you are running at 70°C or even 80°C, you will never get any efficiency savings compared to your old boiler. There is also a risk of nasty burns if you lean against a radiator (big issue as you get older).

Like you, I also paid for the install on credit card - This gives me a little more protection should the installer want to ignore warranty obligations or goes bust. The CC company has shared liability thanks to legislation 🙂

Eldi_Dos

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82048853#Comment_82048853

If you are dissatisfied with the appearance of the flue,pipework and filter, rather than going to the trouble of decorating round the area have you considered a wall hung cupboard to enclose the boiler and pipework?

FreeBear

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82049707#Comment_82049707

The pipework at the bottom of the boiler looks pretty neat (would like to see the other side of the wall though). Not a lot can be done about the magnetic filter and I don't think a wall cupboard would help - Not a lot of clearance from the worktop (as evidenced by the microwave). To hide the flue disappearing in to the wall, making a simple box to sit on top of the boiler is fairly easy. I just cut a few bits of MDF and glued them together. Boiler documents & mag filter spanner are stored on top.

WIAWSNB

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82049729#Comment_82049729

I'd love to see the other side too! If the pipes are exposed, I may have preferred the mag filter to have been mounted there. But, I agree - that's a pretty nifty job.

Altior

As this is an old new build (2010) that's all of the pipework that is exposed.

I have created the Hive account and the app is set up.

Many thanks for the thorough set up tips. Yes I will go through all of those at some point!

I have considered boxing it in. At some point however, I will be installing a new kitchen and that will be the time to do it, if at all. For now I will probably just get it tidied up as much as is reasonably feasible.

As can be seen from the picture, that's a very old, small microwave. Now that the bottom of the boiler is higher, I can fit a larger appliance in that space, which will also help to mask the pipes.

I really appreciate the input about the fitting. I can't recall living in a property that has had a new boiler fitted, even at my parent's, so I have no reference point. I am now satisfied that he has done a good job (unless something subsequently comes to light).