New House - System Advice

[planemad]

Hi All

I have just purchased a house that's 15yrs old - the house is fitted with a Potterton Suprima 50 Heat only boiler.
Had it serviced on the first day I was here and all was ok.

The timer fitted is a Danfoss Set2E.

The boiler feeds a tank in the airing cupboard upstairs.

Few questions:

Are these systems economical?

Is the suprima relatively reliable?

I have set 2 periods of water heating - 6am till 7am and from 5pm to 6pm.
Even if I draw water at 4pm the water is still nice and hot.

 

[stef99]

I don't know how reliable it is as I have personally never heard of this make.

however, it will never be as economical as a combie boiler.

your boiler heats up an entire large tank before it gives you hot water, where as a combie simply heats water as it comes out the tap.

therefore a combie is always more economical as it heats much less water.
(it only heats the water your going to use).

replacing the boiler will be expensive, however!

 

[RickMoore]

Not a bad boiler and VERY common. I would stick with it and keep it serviced until it starts giving you trouble, then consider if repairs are economical.

As for COMBI boilers being more efficient, utter tosh.
ROUGHLY
A 150l cylinder heats from a 15kw system boiler in about 18 mins with a delta of 50 degrees, and uses about 0.5 m3 of gas to do it.
A 30kw combi with a delta of only 35 degrees would take about 16 mins to produce the same volume of hot water yet use 0.75 m3 ish of gas.
Thats MORE gas to increase the water temperature LESS using a combi.

Of course if you only use enough hot water to fill the kitchen sink, and the rest then goes cold in the cylinder a Combi would be more economical FOR YOU. Though with standing losses being fairly small on newer cylinders, the rest of the water would rarely go cold and only require a top-up of heat rather than heating from cold.