Viewing 19 posts - 1 through 19 (of 19 total)
  • Central Heating upgrade, opinions please
  • rickmeister
    Full Member

    I have three options to expand our central heating and hot water… I dont have enough info to base an opinion on…

    Basically, our terrace house and all services were split in 1953, The lady downstairs, who we looked after for 10 years, sadly died. We are now the owners of her half of the property and intend to rejoin to make 1 house again.

    Upstairs has a combi rated 28kw, it does our 7 rads, shower and hot water just fine. Downstairs has nothing except the coal fire and the old electric immersion heater (now gone). Downstairs will have 7 rads and a shower added.

    Options are:

    New 42kw Combi condensing boiler to do the lot
    Additional smaller boiler to just look after downstairs rads/shower/hot water
    New boiler and unvented tank for the whole lot.

    Given the limited info here, whats the best bet?

    Thanks

    TandemJeremy
    Free Member

    Single combi for the whole lot

    tomlevell
    Full Member

    Your 28kW combi should be fine.
    Ok a bit of a compromise on multiple shower at once but realistically the absolute max your rad ouput is going to be is 24kW and that’s going some.

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    rickmeister
    Full Member

    Thanks folks,

    Any more? TJ, your in Scotland if I am remembering right…. got plumbing skills?

    stoney
    Free Member

    Combi for the lot, A Worcester Greenstar.

    avdave2
    Full Member

    Depends on whether you might ever want to sell it as 2 separate dwellings. If that is a possibility in the near to medium future then separate systems might be best. If you would make more money selling it as a single dwelling or intend to live there for a long time then a single system would be better.

    TandemJeremy
    Free Member

    Rick – based in Edinburgh and I have replumbed several houses. I ain’t a plumber but I am underemployed 🙂 I do know a superb heating engineer tho based in Boness.

    rickmeister
    Full Member

    Worcester Bosch was suggested 42kw…..

    TandemJeremy
    Free Member

    I have a Worcester Bosch combi – it was expensive but it has been faultless and produces vast amounts of really hot water.

    TheFunkyMonkey
    Free Member

    I’ve just fitted a 42kw worcester, nice easy boiler to fit. The output is truly immense and was way too much power for the house, but it was what the customer asked for. Can be had for about £1300 inc standard flue, budget another £100 for a good wireless programmer like the honeywell 921.

    Personally I would never advise a combi for a large house. My personal choice is a thermal store, driven direct with a small boiler, some vacuum tube solar panels on the roof and a log burning stove for the winter. ” heat exchangers on the thermal store, small one for rads, around 30kw and a 100kw for hot water. Everything runs at mains pressure,but crucially its not actually a pressurised system.

    Depends on your available space, budget, system demands and knowledge. Most plumbers wouldn’t know where to start with a thermal store though.

    rickmeister
    Full Member

    Thanks folks,

    TJ, we are in Musselburgh.. are you CORGI registered?… want to do us a quote? Boiler fitted, you do the rest?

    TandemJeremy
    Free Member

    Rick – I am a DIYer not a professional other wise I would. As I said above I do know an extremely good heating engineer tho. JeremyDOTpascoeATbtinternetDotcom if you want his name.

    richmars
    Full Member

    If you’re planning on staying in the same house for a while you could also consider an air sourced heat pump. Basically ‘free’ heat for a bit more electricity. Pay back period is pretty good compared to some ‘green’ systems.
    Plus the larger suppiers now have systems. We looked at Worcester last year and were impressed.

    rickmeister
    Full Member

    Good advice as always, many thanks. We are rejoining to live in a bigger spot, so a single boiler is looking like the way to go. Will do a bit of googling on Funk Monkey and Richmars alternatives….

    grahamofredmarley
    Free Member

    The air source heat pumps are good option eps. those with good CoP figure 320%+
    Just consider where you locate the condenser unit as they can be noisy.
    There were recently some grants available for Air source heat pumps, might help matters.
    They do work better with underfloor heating however due to the lower temperature that they work with.

    jimmy
    Full Member

    Or a CHP unit. Hot water and electricity. Bit more expensive but free leccy effectively. And you’d be ‘doing your bit’.

    project
    Free Member

    Corgi has now been phased out for gas safety there is now a new company run by Capita, that does the congestion charge and tv licencing,

    Heres a linky

    http://www.gassaferegister.co.uk/

    paulosoxo
    Free Member

    New Combi, Thermostatic rad valves, doubt you’d need 42KW though.

    GhostRider
    Free Member

    rickmeister – go with your third option. that way you can get the boiler size required for all the rads AND include the additional capacity for the hot water. The system sounds way to big for conventional domestic combi’s and as for heat pumps the mind boggles,,,, Suggest you get a good trusted domestic heating htg contractor or plumber ideally some one you know or who comes recommended OR employ a consulting engineer they are the top 1% of the htg industry and provide very good free advice.

Viewing 19 posts - 1 through 19 (of 19 total)

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