Boiler has broken - what to go for?

[jcarter66]

Hello everyone. My boiler died over Christmas and its not cost-effective to repair due to being "non-condensing". I have had 2 plumbing companies visit for a quote. One young man has suggested a combination boiler and the other who came today has suggested stay with what we have now which is a standard boiler and advised us to replace this, along with our hot water tank due to a small leak and 1 radiator which has never heated up well.

The costs for the combi is £3500 and the standard boiler + cylinder and radiator is £3560 so nothing in it price-wise.

Our home is 4 bedrooms and it is just me and 2 10-12 year olds. We have 1 bath and 2 shower rooms.

We had this report from one of the plumbing companies if it is of any use.

Current Mains Cold Water Supply: 2.0 Bar Standing / 1.4 Dynamic - 17 Litres Per Minute / 12 Dynamic

Any advice from any plumbing experts?

 

[Murdochcat]

Do you have or do you plan to add solar panels?

 

[jcarter66]

No plan to add them. We had a quote for them a while back which was about £4500. Our garden is quite dark due to huge pine trees so that's a consideration. Either way we kind of need a boiler soonish.

 

[Murdochcat]

I was only thinking that if you did plan to add solar panels then keeping your hot water makes sense as you can get free hot water from surplus generation

 

[Deleted member 267285]

Why do you think repairing existing is not cost effective? You could go heat only/system boiler, or combi and keep the cylinder and have one feed off the combi hot water draw off and utilise the boiler for heating the cylinder too.

 

[jcarter66]

Why do you think repairing existing is not cost effective? You could go heat only/system boiler, or combi and keep the cylinder and have one feed off the combi hot water draw off and utilise the boiler for heating the cylinder too.

The boiler is 36 years old and parts are hard to come by. They say it should be decommissioned

 

[MeldrewsMate]

Good advice above, especially if you have two pre-teens.
1. Solar PV will give you the chance for free HW for 8 months of the year if you keep a HW cylinder.
2. Hot water cylinders will eventually go cold, prompting the teens to wake up and get out of the shower. With a combi they could spend all day in there.
3. Hot water cylinder may be suitable for use with a heat pump; not my favourite but at least you will have the option.

 

[jcarter66]

Good advice above, especially if you have two pre-teens.
1. Solar PV will give you the chance for free HW for 8 months of the year if you keep a HW cylinder.
2. Hot water cylinders will eventually go cold, prompting the teens to wake up and get out of the shower. With a combi they could spend all day in there.
3. Hot water cylinder may be suitable for use with a heat pump; not my favourite but at least you will have the option.

solar for HW is about £5,500 for us so wouldn't exactly call it free hot water.
as for running out of hot water, yes that's a benefit for teens but when we come to shower after it's a pain! it's happening now as it is