New Boiler - Recomendations

[Robert]

+1 investigate attic or even bathroom.

[Theo]

How does an electric boiler feeding radiators work out simpler and lower maintenance than electric heaters in each room?

I wonder what size of cylinder you'd need to heat overnight on E7 to use it as a thermal store to run the heating during the daytime/evening? Kind of like storage heaters but with a super-insulated central tank rather than a pile of bricks in each room.

Theo

[www.GymRatZ.co.uk]

But that's not how they work though, as far as I understand it if they don't make it to temp on time they "try again" the following day but a bit earlier so they're never particularly accurate. That said, there's no reason not to use them but the best solution is weather compensated boiler which responds immediately to temperature changes.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I did the calcs once. To use summer generated heat over the winter a 5ft deep insulated swimming pool geated to near boiling under the whole house suffices as a heat bank.

For one day storage - well lets say te hous ruins its heating at 5Kw in winter. Probably an average for a not well insulated house in cold weather.

So total demand to supply say 16 hours is 80Kwh.

68,787,618.23 calories.

Assume a usable temperature range of say 60C down to 40C. and that's

3,439,380.9115 cc of water. 3500 litres. Give or take.

Or 3.5 metric tonnes.

THAT is why storage heaters were crap. You need in excess of 3.5 tonnes of material in them for a house, and a lot of insulation.

But an insulated concrete tank below ground level containing 3.5 tonnes of water is a piece of piss really.

3.5 cubic meters.

one by one by three and a half. It just needs doing before you build the house.

[Fredxx]

If fitted in the attic, it would be wise to have a decent hatch, lighting and boarding from the hatch to the boiler for fitting and servicing. Talk to the installer regarding position. A frost stat in the attic is also a convenient position. It is possible to vent the flue out of a ridge tile if a wall is not suitable.

Given the convenience, I feel this is a small price to pay.

[Andy Bennet]

In the 1980's GEC produced a beast called nightstore. A tall cabinet full of firebrick with heating coils. This was heated overnight on E7 then when heat was required a fan blew air through the core and then an air water heat exchanger to heat up a conventional wet system. Usual problem of course was heat leakage from the boiler which made whichever room you installed it like a permanent bakehouse, which then meant naff all heat left for the evening.

[John Rumm]

Not a boiler problem. You can certainly reduce noise from pipe expansion

- although that is better done at installation rather than after the event. Its difficult to eliminate altogether. You will always get some noise from the rads themselves as they heat and cool.

[ARW]

Do they not vent out of a replaced tile (with flashing) and not a ridge tile?

Also the OP might have a gable end to mount and vent the boiler.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

No pump? Must have pretty large pipes for the water to circulate. But surely a system boiler already includes one?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Really? I use a fair quantity of both and my leccy costs approx 4.6 times more than gas.

If I work out the cost of my gas boiler - even if it had to be replaced today - it is under £100 a year. I'll leave you to say how much your electric one is in capital and service costs over 15 years or so.

[Fredxx]

Typically either:

shortened to: Also: It is common for the exhaust to vent above the ridge and take air from within the attic. I would have thought since the attic is going to be slightly warmer than the outside air that sounds an improvement over conventional flue.

Which is the best solution. The OP mentioned a chimney, so should have a vertical wall in his attic.

[Fredxx]

Yes, no pump in the boiler. You simply fit your own outside.

Replacement is a fraction of the price where you feel obliged to call a Gas Safe engineer if it's in the boiler.

I've also come across WB boilers where the CH pump fails (seizes) through lack of use in the summer. Some have two pumps and non return valves rather than 3-port diverter valve and a single pump.

[ARW]

It's now obvious why you cannot spot the ridge tile version:-) Ta.

Did the op say that he lived in a terrace? He might have two vertical walls but they might both be into the next-door neighbours house:-(

And you would not believe how many terraced housed I can gain access from one neighbours roof space to next-doors roof space.

[Fredxx]

Do you recall the loft insulation scam in Shooting Fish 2007?

[Fredxx]

Correction ^^^

[ARW]

Never seen it.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Good reason not to feel obliged to call one, then? Do you need a gas safe type when replacing an electric part? Why not an electric safe one? ;-)

Cheap boiler. A decent one will run the pump and operate the flow share occasionally to stop this happening. Unless you power it down completely.

[ARW]

Even with the correction, and I was quite a movie goer in those days, I have, for some reason never seen it.

[Fredxx]

It had a scene where they installed insulation in one loft, went to the next terraced house and simply moved the insulation along, obviously getting paid for the materials as they went along. Obviously they get rumbled and chased. They lived in a gas holder!

When I watched it I felt it was a good film but not sure how it's passed the test of time.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Ah. Your family I presume?