I have moved into a house with only mains electricity powering old storage radiators. We now want to install a wet central heating system & are interested in the Aga, Rayburn, Esse, Stanley type of cooker/boiler. A 23kW boiler output is required for heating & there are five people to cook for. Anyone had recent experience of installation & advise on oil vs LPG, running & installation costs Do all manufacturers have the latest condensing boilers Are the cookers easy to use/get used to or a nightmare, the better half is used to mains gas hobs
Go for oil. If you want a range, I'd get one that didn't do heating as well, but just use a modern efficient boiler for that.
Also, fix the house insulation. 23kW is fine for a small hotel, but for a non-listed dwelling is unacceptably high. Break out the rockwool and celotex. Much more cost efficient than running huge boiler outputs, and you'll need fewer deliveries to keep you going through the winter.
Aga make an excellent cooker which is great for cooking for at least five people. We do it with ours regularly.
It took about two days to get used to it, migrating from a gas hob.
The majority of cooking is done using the ovens over which there is a wide range of temperature choice whether it be a two or four oven model. The top plates are large and will take 4-5 pans each. Control is by moving the pans to different plates or different positions on the plates and is very effective as well - for example it's very easy to make things involving milk with no risk of boiling over or burning.
We find that we are able to cook far better and with far better results on the Aga than was possible with a gas hob and electric oven.
However, it is not a whole house space heater if you need 23kW. What it will do is to deliver about 700W or so into the kitchen, which is great as background warmth and for drying other things.
THe maximum power input is in the 5kW area, but it modulates down from there.
It is possible to heat water via a gravity arrangement. If you were supplementing with something like a wood burning stove, but if you are going to use a boiler with the same fuel as the cooker, not really worth doing. THe rate of heating water would be rather slow.
If you want to use a single appliance, the Rayburn would be a good choice. This has a similar cooking principle to the Aga but less thermal mass so could be turned on and off if you wanted. There is then a separate integral boiler for CH and DHW production which behaves much like a conventional boiler.
I have natural gas, so have the NG Aga and a gas condensing boiler. As much as anything, this is useful for rapid hot water production in the cylinder
In its absence, my second choice would probably be oil. There are oil condensing boilers, although not as much choice as for gas.
No, they're fairly crude compared to modern boilers. On the gas-fired side they get away with it because the appliance is classed as a cooker rather than a boiler so apparently doesn't have to comply with current regs for boilers' energy efficiency. (They are also classed differently from either cookers or boilers as far as qualifications for installing and working on them are concerned - again this is for gas.)
Quite different: you have to work with what the cooker wants to do for you rather than getting it to do what you want. Love it or hate it. Discuss ;-)
Where else would you be able to get a range (pun intended) of oven temperatures contiguously from about 50 to nearly 300 at all times?
I can cook an enormous turkey for Christmas perfectly, without any drying out and with virtually no attention from when it goes into the simmering oven on Christmas Eve.
I can make and cook pizzas quickly and perfectly (and I mean the proper ones, not the American stuff) with no waiting.
Where else can you get boiling and simmering surfaces with easy control simply by moving the pans slightly?
I have places to warm butter and chocolate carefully for cooking as well as to dry herbs.
I have a place for storing and warming plates to avoid the capital offence of serving hot food on cold plates.
I can warm towels and coats for the winter on its rail on the front.
I'd say it does pretty much everything I want from a cooker and when I want it and a lot more besides.
Plus it's a pussy magnet. Well, Magnus thinks so, anyway.....
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.