I've just had a new system boiler fitted (40cdi Greenstar Worchester). When I had quotes for the work all the installers were saying that the system needed a new gas supply pipe since the existing one was not large enough from the meter. The people we went for included a quote for a new supply pipe.
The existing supply was 3/4 inch (22mm) and supplied a Ideal Mexico boiler (v. old but worked find) and it also goes around to an 8 hob gas cooker.
When the firm came to do the work they installed the boiler first and said that it was working fine without any new pipework.
They upgraded half the pipework from the meter to the boiler (about 3 meters) and they left 5 meters without an upgrade and joined it to the old pipework. The new supply was 25mm. At this point the engineer said that he had redone his "calculations" and that the supply was sufficient for the new boiler.
I'm a bit confused on two grounds:
1) Did the pipework really need a upgrade or would 22mm be sufficient anyway for this new type of boiler. If the older boiler was running okay on the 22mm pipework and the new one is more efficient surely it will need less gas and not more? Was this just a way of padding out the quote anyway and so it was not necessary.
2) What possible benefit could a half-pipe upgrade have had? There will be more gas in the new wider section of pipe, but when it joined back to the old pipe surely the supply would go back to the previous levels and so we're not gaining anything by a half-upgrade.
I'm suspicious that the engineer might have just felt it was too much work to do the upgrade and so because the boiler is okay he left it. But it might not last as long or work as well because the pipework was not fully upgraded.
I also wonder if they're just trying to save a bit of money given copper prices!
Any help or thoughts would be very grateful as I've not got a good answer from the company and I would like to know a bit more before I get more assertive with them.
Thanks,
MS
The existing supply was 3/4 inch (22mm) and supplied a Ideal Mexico boiler (v. old but worked find) and it also goes around to an 8 hob gas cooker.
When the firm came to do the work they installed the boiler first and said that it was working fine without any new pipework.
They upgraded half the pipework from the meter to the boiler (about 3 meters) and they left 5 meters without an upgrade and joined it to the old pipework. The new supply was 25mm. At this point the engineer said that he had redone his "calculations" and that the supply was sufficient for the new boiler.
I'm a bit confused on two grounds:
1) Did the pipework really need a upgrade or would 22mm be sufficient anyway for this new type of boiler. If the older boiler was running okay on the 22mm pipework and the new one is more efficient surely it will need less gas and not more? Was this just a way of padding out the quote anyway and so it was not necessary.
2) What possible benefit could a half-pipe upgrade have had? There will be more gas in the new wider section of pipe, but when it joined back to the old pipe surely the supply would go back to the previous levels and so we're not gaining anything by a half-upgrade.
I'm suspicious that the engineer might have just felt it was too much work to do the upgrade and so because the boiler is okay he left it. But it might not last as long or work as well because the pipework was not fully upgraded.
I also wonder if they're just trying to save a bit of money given copper prices!
Any help or thoughts would be very grateful as I've not got a good answer from the company and I would like to know a bit more before I get more assertive with them.
Thanks,
MS
