new boiler advice

[lbstyling]

Hi all,
I need to move from a electric immersion tank system to a gas boiler.

At the moment there is no central heating system at all- the immersion heater runs the taps and shower, and a log burner heats the house separately.

I have been doing the house up for a year now and its coming along nicely, but have found plumbing to be the toughest job so far. after having made an error on buying the wrong shower pump (no head, so needed a negative pressure one) and getting a cold water tank as the shower was previously just gravity feed- I give in- I just need a combi or similar.

So what should I get? The house is a 3 bed semi and is VERY energy efficient (u value of about 0.3 over all)- but not enough to go without heating.

The shower needs to be quite high flow as its a large rain head thermostatic one- which means I need a high flow boiler?

I can pick up a boiler on ebay cheap, and I want to get an engineer to fit the boiler to run the shower and taps, and I will fit the rads later- can I do this? The gas supply is just round the bend from the boiler location, so not too bad.

I would like the option of adding the log Burner into the system at a later date and understand you can get combi's that accept preheated water??

Is this a bad idea?

Any advice welcome!

 

[muggles]

Don't go buying cheap boilers off eBay, they're cheap for a reason... Second hand ones will have no warranty either.

If you want to just heat water initially then do the radiators later you need an Intergas, which also happens to be a very good make. If you need a high flow of hot water, get the Combi Compact HRE 36/30

You'll need a Dunsley Neutraliser and a lot of extra bits to connect your log burner in, you can't just tee it into the heating system

 

[Hason]

Hi I have just done swap from electric heating to gas as a meter and supply pipe fitted to property, I used to fit mainstream brands of boilers but I saw at a mates an ATAG with gas saver which meant he got 15lts per minute at 35* rise for a 30kw boiler which is fantastic. Any way I swapped the cylinder for boiler as its slightly bigger then the kitchen cupboard fit,and I've got to say fantastic performance and so quiet. I will upload pics when I can,in terms of woodburner a buffer would need to be fitted and open vent set up.
Good luck

 

[lbstyling]

So I can do it then?? Whoa- this is exciting!
Is the boiler you recommend a really really efficient one? I know I'm stuffed to a degree as boilers are most efficient when working flat out and this won't be when heating the home- it will hardly even be used! But the house value is limited by not having a gas boiler and I need the value to rise for borrowing purposes.

 

[Hason]

I don't think so with a combi you would need an open vent/heat only boiler with buffer/thermal store set up.get advise from plumber who you will use

 

[muggles]

All boilers are very efficient now, although the way they're installed can help to maximise the efficiency. You can also run the Intergas as an open vented boiler which will make connection to the wood burner much simpler

 

[lbstyling]

You sold it to me!
Just got to find an engineer who can fit one for me in the Trowbridge/westbury area-

.....any takers? Gas line is 5 ft away and the floor is already up!

Don't want to have to try 'rated people' or whatever..

How much should this cost to fit approx?

 

[Tibbot]

How much should this cost to fit approx?

Atag, Intergas, Woodburner, link-up equipment, buffer tanks + know how & skills to successfully install. All this when your original plan was a cheap tin can off ebay and finding a desperate low-life to fit it, then DIY rads at a later date. I wouldn't waste anyone's time, they'll only make your eyes water.

 

[manortim]

How much should this cost to fit approx?

we work in that area....


at a blind guess we'd probably want 2000 plus materials @ circa 1500.

you'd supply, boiler, wood burner (charnwood) multifuel source thermal store.


for it to be done correctly....budget minimum 8k.


we did 1 last year for a client, they spent just under 10k.

 

[Dean744PiN5]

As Dan would say "champagne ideas, beer money"

 

[lbstyling]

How much should this cost to fit approx?

Atag, Intergas, Woodburner, link-up equipment, buffer tanks + know how & skills to successfully install. All this when your original plan was a cheap tin can off ebay and finding a desperate low-life to fit it, then DIY rads at a later date. I wouldn't waste anyone's time, they'll only make your eyes water.

I never planned to fit a cheap boiler- just one sourced from ebay- baxi or whatever.

Nothings hard- only more work- assuming you don't have a tight deadline.

Ultimately I will do whatever I think is the most productive with a balance of time, money and safety.

£10k or more would have a considerable payback ratio- if this is case then that's fine- the multi fuel burner will work fine on its own and does a good job of heating as-is.

 

[StudWall]

I'm guessing it's an older house as its has no ch, in which case how did you get such a low u value?

 

[lbstyling]

Hi,
Yes- low!
House is circa 1920, so has a cavity, but its only 40mm wide. Brick inside and out.
The house was virtually deralict, with no insulation anywhere and a badly leaking roof that had rotted all the timbers.
I replaced the roof - using the opportunity to change to a vaulted ceiling and added 9inches of kingspan. Vapor permiable membrane was also installed and sealed air tight.

The exterior walls were all damaged by flooding in April last year(a broken main drain) so all the plaster was destroyed. This made it easy to install internal wall insulation in the process.

Windows are triple glazed (u value 0.9) (not installed yet) redwood frames- made by me.

Downstairs floor will be insulated once plumbing etc is in- prob next summer.

Biggest difference I noticed was after sealing up the eves.

 

[lbstyling]

Hi all,

I have sorted a gas fitter, and I'm going for the intergas unit.

Is there a recommended place to buy the 36/30? Gas fitter said best for me to get it and deliver to my home?