New Central Heating System

[Curious123]

Hello All,
We have a 4 bed two bathroom detached house which was new build about 20 years ago and four adults living in the property. We are looking to fit a new kitchen in the house but before doing that we decided we would replace the central heating system. Our current system is a Potterton Suprima boiler with an unvented Boilermate III hot water cylinder and about 15 radiators. The Boilermate III is absolete so issues getting parts and no guarantees with the Potterton parts. I got British Gas to give me a qoute and in their qoute they recommended the Valiant ecofit Pure 418 but no particular cylinders. I came across the Potterton Titanium 24 erp which had an output of 25kw compared to the Valiants 18kw . I am not sure how relevant the output will be in comparison to the two boilers except I guess it will cost more to run the Potterton boiler.. Anyone with more experience than myself care to comment or recommend a system and equipment?

 

[darren221980]

I can't recommend what type of boiler you need but best advice I can give is this...

Get a few more quotes from smaller companies and I guarantee you will save money as British Gas will rip you off. 4 years ago at my old house British Gas quoted £3,500 to fit a Worcester Bosch boiler, they claimed i needed to have all the gas pipes etc replaced as ones i already had wouldn't be big enough.

I then got a few other local companies to quote for the exact same boiler system and they were all at least £1k less than British Gas and they all said no pipes needed to be replaced to work with that boiler. The local companies got my money here and all worked as expected. The smaller companies told me it is quite common for British Gas to include stuff in there quotes which don't need to be done and just charge extortionate prices in general.

 

[Curious123]

Hello Darren, Thank you for your prompt reply. British Gas qouted £2777 for replacing and fitting just the boiler which I realise is well over the odds. I will get some local fitter or company to do the changeover. I wanted to do my own research and was hoping someone would shed some light on the most suitable boiler and cylinder to install rather than depending on the gas fitters to decide what products to install in my house. As far as the gas pipes I am no expert but I think there was some new regualtion brought in to fit bigger bore gas pipes which will also be a concern and consideration for me.

 

[avid]

I have always bought my boilers and paid someone to fit them which has always workout cheaper than quotes.
On my advice my neighbour bought a boiler last year and paid somebody to fit it, this worked out way cheaper than the quotes he had received.
He purchased an Ideal boiler as it came with a ten year guarantee, which I thought really good peace of mind.
But make sure you read the guarantee stipulations.
The main ones are but you have to have a central heating water filter fitted and the boiler has to be serviced every year and it has to be fitted by a competent gas safe registered installer.
I have Worcester boiler and I only have had two minor repairs in the last six years one fell within the guarantee and one just outside it.
I am pretty pleased with it but maybe would’ve gone for the ideal boiler with it having a 10 year guarantee but I didn’t know about it and the Worcester boiler was recommended to me by a friend.

 

[willin]

Hello All,
We have a 4 bed two bathroom detached house which was new build about 20 years ago and four adults living in the property. We are looking to fit a new kitchen in the house but before doing that we decided we would replace the central heating system. Our current system is a Potterton Suprima boiler with an unvented Boilermate III hot water cylinder and about 15 radiators. The Boilermate III is absolete so issues getting parts and no guarantees with the Potterton parts. I got British Gas to give me a qoute and in their qoute they recommended the Valiant ecofit Pure 418 but no particular cylinders. I came across the Potterton Titanium 24 erp which had an output of 25kw compared to the Valiants 18kw . I am not sure how relevant the output will be in comparison to the two boilers except I guess it will cost more to run the Potterton boiler.. Anyone with more experience than myself care to comment or recommend a system and equipment?

We are in a very similar situation, Our boiler is 22 years old and need to replace it soon, wasn't there a boiler grant or something similar, I'd appreciate knowing what you have came up with @Curious123

 

[avid]

We are in a very similar situation, Our boiler is 22 years old and need to replace it soon, wasn't there a boiler grant or something similar, I'd appreciate knowing what you have came up with @Curious123

Green Homes Grant

 

[willin]

Thanks mate, unfortunately I don't think boilers are included in that.

 

[JonMMM]

Free Insulation and Boiler Grants

but think you need to be receiving benefits

 

[Curious123]

@willin I looked into the Green Homes Grant, my big concern was that I needed to get qoutes before applying for the grant and then there was no guarantee you would get the grant for your house. I have a heat only boiler and cylinder system in my house so I am looking to installing a Worcester Bosch 27i system boiler with a Teford twin coil cylinder as both of these items are solar thermal compatible. The wife is looking to get a new kitchen installed in the next month or two so I need to get the heating sorted before the kitchen installtion. I am looking to apply for the grant for the solar thermal heating which requires two 'evacuated' solar panels on the roof with some kind of a pump. The solar thermal heating is not an essential as the central heating will still work without it but installing it if the figures are to be believed could save 30% on heating the cylinder in the summer. Our double galzed windows could do with repalcing as well so this could be my 'primary and seconadry' items for the Green Homes Grant. I am not sure if any of this is any help to you but feel free to ask questions.

 

[willin]

Thanks for that mate, I'm in the building trade myself - external works, but it's nice to get a unbiased recommendation. I will look into this soon but it's a bad time of year for heating installation and remarkably my boiler is running like a Swiss watch - Potterton Prima 40B. If your not sorted and want advice on your kitchen or double glazing let me know.

 

[trevortron]

I agree 100% with BG over-quoting. My combi boiler 'ceased to function' about 20 years ago and BG were advertising a lot at the time so I asked them if they could fix it. After the usual sucking air in through teeth I was politely informed I would need a new boiler - even though this one was less than ten years old at the time. And then the usual shite 'And the pipes will need to be modified' etc. etc. I can't remember how much they quoted but it was well into 4 figures - turned out the problem was a dry solder joint on a relay on the control panel - total cost to repair was 1/4" of solder!