Energy saving trust has significantly downgraded the estimated energy savings achievable from activities like insulating your loft or having wall insulation installed. This is because the figures it had been using were way over estimated. They are now nearer to the Green Deal figures, but both of these are still significantly higher than the actual data measured by the government's energy department. (BBC Radio 4, You and Yours)
Meanwhile - no surprise - George Osborne is warning that even if it turns out we're sitting on enough gas to last forever, we won't see bills come down.
Which doesn't really seem to give much incentive to get into fracking.
Now if only they'd admit that modern complex boilers, with their maintenance costs, costly faults and more frequent replacement are not going to save anything like they claim, we'd be getting even closer to the truth.
Just being pedantic, aren't the two things separate? You do get an energy saving compared to an old-fashioned boiler, but you are right that they have all those drawbacks as well.
I'm just saying that you don't save the £100s a year they claim and of course you don't have the all hassle ! Unfortunately, I'm going to bite-the-bullet in the Spring, simply because I know when mine does breakdown, there wont be any spares and I'd rather it was done at a time of my choosing. I've just fitted my last thermo-couple because I could see the tip had burnt through. Boiler costs now = £200 in over 30 years. Inhibitor and silencer excluded.
The key thing is that they seem to go straight from a claimed energy saving, which is generally credible, to the misleading suggestion that you will therefore save the cost of that energy.
Chris
That's rather a broad statement. Just how well a modern boiler lasts and what if any replacements it needs depends on the quality - same as any boiler. What is indisputable is it will be more efficient and therefore use less gas. Sometimes a great deal less. My Viessmann - self installed - paid for itself in about 4 years over the old Potterton RS with fairly state of the art controls. Victorian semi. Payback would have been quicker with a less efficient 'old' boiler.
And you have absolutely no idea how much a modern boiler will cost in repairs over 30 years. So you are trying to match your figure against a guess.
BTW, did that 200 quid in 30 years include professional servicing?
conversely it's a good way to stop bills going up..and improve balance of payments.
No, but I regularly see people prepared to renew at 10 years, rather than continue to pay for more repairs ! And no, it's never been professionally serviced, which is why it's lasted so long, because it's in my interest to rustproof everything, including the flue and air-intake, in the same way as I have always serviced my own car. The same argument can be applied to them, in that increased complexity forces you into the hands of the manufacturer , who can then charge whatever they want to.
For the record, it's been 6/7 thermo-couples and a replacement cap.
It clearly depends on your gas consumption. In a large, well-heated house, obviously the savings would accrue faster. At £600/annum, I reckon I'll save £150 but if I have to have three boilers, where's the saving ?
Its all very complex in that one assumes unless you have airlocks at all the doors people coming in and out will adversely affect savings. How paranoid can you be? I have never quantified it, but getting the loft fully insulated was noticeable in the usage of electricity here. However I'm in the middle of a terrace and one assumes that only having the two outside, non cavity walls is very helpful. And of course there is the heat transfer back and forth with the neighbours. At the moment I feel the biggest losses are from ventilation and through the floors, ie mostly drafty cracks etc. Brian
That's bad, mine only had one thermocouple, however the gas valve failed and I had to have a new one.
Only replaced 1 pump in 40 yrs. Never used inhibitor. Had 1 radiator fail due to corrosion.
Interested to see that increasing loft insulation from 100mm to 270mm only saved 10% of roof losses. Hardly worth doing.
I've been telling you that for months. It's a nobrainer.
The exact reason I have a passive house. (No central heating needed)
The pilot flame size is adjustable in many gas valves. Turned up too high, burns the thermocouple out prematurely.
If the government would reduce its tax take on fuels it might help!
I don't know, but I presume that gas that we import has nothing except
5% VAT added on (presumably the source countries will have extracted their taxes already).According to the radio this morning gas extracted by fracking within the UK will pay 61% to the government straight away and another 1% to the local area - that may even be before VAT!
Assuming that the government doesn't add large taxes to imported gas, all that fracking will achieve is us paying the same for gas, but the government raking in lots of extra tax.
I know that oil from the North sea is taxed equally heavily, on top of the other taxes on oil companies, before we even get to pay a similar percentage in fuel duty and VAT on top!
SteveW
which governments like a LOT
It also reduces balances of payments, which tends to push the pound higher making other imports cheaper.
Its a potentially massive revenue stream... so plenty of incentive.
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