Central Heating advice

[Osteosingh]

Hi Guys

Need some advice on an extension being done on our house. The heating requirement has been calculated to 60KW with the ground floor being underfloor wet system and the upper 2 floors being traditional wet radiators, with the hot water being supplied by 2 megaflow tanks .

My builder is recommending 2 30KW boilers, one for the radiators and one to run the 2 megaflows and the underfloor ground floor heating

My question is is the 2 boiler approach better than than having 1 Big boiler supplying everything and if any one has any other suggestions or recommendations as my builder seems to suggest that 2 30kw boilers are alot more efficient than 1 60KW.

Many thanks in advance for your advice and Happy new year to everyone on the forum

 

[muggles]

You should employ a heating engineer rather than a builder to do your boilers - whilst your builder is basically correct in saying that two small boilers will be better than one big one, both in terms of efficiency and redundancy, I'd expect most decent heating engineers to suggest having both boilers connected to the entire system, via a header or buffer, so that in the event one breaks you can still use the other to serve the entire place and keep you ticking over until the problem is rectified. This will also allow proper cascade controls to be used, ensuring even wear & tear and maximum efficiency in the process

In short, two boilers is the best option (I'd put in a couple of Intergas ECO RF with 10 year warranties, set up as system boilers on hot water priority) but get someone who really knows what they're doing in to design your system for you