New Boiler Plus 2018 Regulations

badmemory wrote: »

Any chance you could explain that - I understood line one & the last 3 lines.

It looks like my useless "condensating?" boiler will need replacing in the next couple of years (after lasting less than half the time the previous combi boiler did) & it would be nice to have some idea of the fancy ideas they are coming up with before some salesman tries to blind me with science/lies.

The ‘bottomline’ is that the cost of a boiler replacement is going to cost you more than it would a month ago. Flue gas heat recovery is a box that sits above the boiler as part of the flue. On a combi boiler, the hot water supply pipe passes through this box (heat exchanger) and removes some of the heat from the flue gases. Valliant’s other solutions are as follows:

VRT 50 - The easiest way to meet boiler plus

Vaillant’s most simple and straightforward digital room thermostat which measures and displays the room temperature through a clear digital display, whilst fully modulating the boiler through intelligent (enhanced) load compensation to optimise efficiency.

The VRT 50 allows the user to set their optimal room temperature with a simple turn of the dial. The VRT 50 utilises Vaillant’s low voltage eBUS protocol that uses a simple 0.75mm two core cable to connect directly to the boiler.

With the VRT 50 time control of the boiler will also be required – normally via the timeSWITCH 150 plugged into the boiler.

VRT 350(f) – the effortless (and popular) way to meet boiler plus

Vaillants most popular intelligent programmable room thermostat the VRT 350 allows you to programme your times and temperatures all from one wired or wireless ‘plug and play’ device. Our intelligent VRT 350 uses an intuitive and familiar menu layout so you can change times and temperatures with ease. Enhanced load compensation requires no set up and will begin automatically adjusting the boilers output based on the room temperature difference.

vSMART - The efficient and smart way to meet boiler plus

Meet Boiler Plus with ease using our vSMART connected thermostat. Our vSMART control utilises internet weather data to adapt the boiler output. There’s no need to set a heat curve as this is automatically set during the initial few hours the boiler is running. The vSMART app is available on both iOS and Android and can be used by multiple users to control your heating when you are in or out of your home.

From the moment vSMART is installed it will automatically start learning the thermal behaviour of the property. This allows the vSMART to anticipate what time to bring the heating on to ensure your home is at your desired temperature when you arrive home (‘optimum start’).

VRC 700 - The most flexible way to meet boiler plus

The VRC 700 provides total system control and is the most flexible programmable room thermostat in our range. It can be used for everything from a single heating circuit to the installation of up to nine heating circuits, whilst controlling boilers, heat pumps and cascade configurations. The VRC 700 can be purchased as a wired or wireless thermostat which utilises an (included) outdoor temperature sensor. This feature weather compensates for the outdoor weather by automatically adjusting the boiler output based on current weather conditions. When purchased with the VR 920 gateway the VRC 700 app can be utilised to control the VRC 700 remotely from a iOS or Android smartphone.

The cheapest of the enhancements would appear to weather compensation which for a WB boiler would cost about £30 plus fitting.

The unanswered question is why the above improvements do not apply to system boilers. This is a response from another website:

It doesn't apply to system/heat only boilers as the theory was that it wasn't easy to implement at this current time, along with the issues of weather/load compensation causing issues with hot water regeneration, therefore causing legionella risks should it not work correctly. Ideally everything would have to be converted to DHW priority which is not always feasible in existing properties.

plumberpaig wrote: »

On a side note, 4 of my gas safe friends didn't know anything about this new regulation - so beware of engineers not giving you correct advice.

They are sadly not the only ones. I have just had an EPC done for my home. I have an A+ rated boiler; Honeywell Evohome multi-room zoning and Opentherm control. The EPC assessment shows 4 stars for my heating system. This is the same classification that was awarded to my next door neighbour whose property still has its original Ideal Classic boiler. The assessor told me that he had never assessed a home with smart heating controls.