Would you have a combi or conventional boiler

Legacy_user

At the moment we have an ideal mexico 2 boiler.
We were thinking of replacing it for a combi boiler, mainly for instant hot water and creating more space in the bathroom where the tank is.

Question is we have a power shower at present and an ordinary poor shower and realise now that a combi won't be suitable so would have to invest in 1 new shower?

We are a standard 3 bed semi with 2 bathrooms with the possibility of a loft conversion in the next 5 yrs to include a shower and toilet
We have 3 children with there demands for showers and baths increasing with the teenage years approaching i hope!

Should we not bother replacing and just wait till it goes bang as such or invest in a new one,if so what?

Are we going to be more energy efficient with a new boiler.How much roughly will all this cost? also we are on a water meter

Or shall we blow the money on disneyland

Canucklehead

Good evening: Avoid the combi as it will not meet your DHW requirements..perhaps upgrade to an unvented cylinder with a system boiler (eliminates the need for a expansion tank in the roof, an important consideration if you are planning a loft conversion)...all dependent on good mains pressure. Your CORGI would be able to advise during a site visit.

HTH

Canucklehead

P.S. I've been to Disneyland...save your cash...I'd rather go to Blackpool;)

liitleblackcat

We have had both a new combi (Worcester Bosch) and a new unvented cylinder and condensing boiler (Vokera) in the past 18 months - in two different houses.

I was very impressed with the combi for producing hot water for the shower (Mira mixer unit) as it never ran cold or too slow to be useful. The only downside was that if someone used hot water in the kitchen while you were having a shower, the shower pressure dropped to next to nothing. Very annoying.

In our current system (boiler and unvented cyclinder), the cylinder is 210 litre with a bubble in the top of around 25 litres and a cold bit at the bottom of around 75 litres until we get solar heating installed - and even then it will be cold on sunless days. That means that we only have 110 litres of hot water at best - just about enough for one bath or two showers.

The cylinder takes about 30 minutes to heat from cold so if someone has a shower and there is use elsewhere in the house, a second shower goes cold half way through. We have learned from experience to stagger showers and when necessary to use the electric immersion heater!

We are having the solar heating installed shortly and have asked the installers to put an external bubble in so we get the heated (non-solar) part of the cylinder up to 135 litres, but I wish we had had a 250 litre or even a 300 litre cylinder now.

miken

I to have a Ideal Mexico Super 2 boiler which is kept outside in a small shed. The BG service man said it was rated G, very poor energy efficient and was costing me upto £250 a year extra to run. In the next year or two they may class it as 'At Risk' and force me to change it.
Should I change it sooner rather than later, What makes are recommended (ordinary boiler), rated A/B,can we get anything in part exchange, are we talking £2500ish as the engineer guessed, should we use BG or a local Corgi installer (understand I need a few quotes)

gasmanuk

Your kinda stuck in the sense that you have said you have a standard semi but in fact you have high hot water demand. An un-vented cylinder of at least 200ltr is your best bet but it won't be perfect you can run two showers off a un-vented cylinder but three will push it. Also the pressure will drop on each shower the more outlets you open. If you want to run three showers at the same time with good pressure the only way is to have a vented system and use a booster pump because although un-vented is good it all depends on your water main pressure. Also because you want a loft conversion your going to have nowhere to put a header tank for a vented system. You have to work out what is more important running two/three showers at once, space in your bathroom or space in your loft.