Postponement to part L (condensing boilers)?

[John Stumbles]

Word on the street[1] is that the requirement to fit high efficiency boilers has been put back for 3 months or even a year. However I can't find anything on either the ODPM or CORGI[2] websites. Anyone have definite info?

[1] tutor and fellow students on CG6084 course last week, and from PMs who seem to be still selling only standard efficiency boilers. [2] I can imagine the 3 month bit might arise because when notifying it's possible to say that a contract fro a SE boiler had been agreed before 1st April, allowing installation up to 1st July.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Can't shed any light, but in Plumbcenter last weekend, and they said they were selling just as many non-condensing boilers now as they were before April 1st.

[Rob Morley]

They would say that if they have a load of stock to shift :-)

[Peter Taylor]

I appreciate this is a different question, but I rang Aga-Raeburn the other day to ask whether their combined boilers/cooking ranges are still legal, and they said Part L won't apply to these for "at least 5 years".

[ski]

There is this weird get out clause which says that for installers that have boilers contracted to be installed have until July to install them. So what does the cowboy do? He installs a non condensing boiler saying that the works were contracted before April. Bare in mind he still has to register the installation with CORGI/ Building control. I have yet to find an installer who thinks Part P is a good idea. If people have a choice of an installer who installs a condensing boiler, registers it and charges the money or someone who can do the work ok but does not give a toss about the Regs but saves you hundreds of pounds who does the customer go to in at least 50% of cases, and bare in mind there are still a lot of people who do not even know about Part P who will only find out when they go to sell their houses and do not have the certificate

[Tony Bryer]

There is more than a little heat ATM re an amendment to the Building Regs L1 Approved Document which was released without warning at the start of April to take effect from April 1. It's meant to require the installation of condensing boilers (no surprise there) but goes further and could cause some designers real problems. Check out

for one of our competitor's take on this.

[Mike]

There is a two year delay for oil boilers - see OFTEC website

[Ed Sirett]

My PM is saying this too, when I queried why he had a non-condensing unit sitting by the doorway. Nothing about the year only 3 months.

[Ed Sirett]

At another PM round here (WMI Simpsons) they about 20 W-B Juniors stacked up ready to go.

It looks like no matter how much legislation is passed no one is going to follow it until everyone else does.

[Doctor Evil]

In London that is understandable, as condensers will not be suitable for most flats because of the plume.

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[<me9]

I wonder when people will start getting leigionaires disease from the low temperature plumes.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Do modern ones really do that? I've never managed to get much of one out of my Keston (actually I was looking forward to seeing large fog cloud when I installed it). I don't think it's very much worse than a convensional boiler. Maybe this is because it spends most of its time with the flow temperature set to 45C, and I didn't ever set it above 55C this winter. Maybe it's just better than some others at routing the condensate down the drain rather than out of the flue?

[Ed Sirett]

many non-condensing boilers now

A somewhat over-stated case IME.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Just why would this make a difference? Not that I expect a sensible answer.

[John Stumbles]

Suspect you'll have along time to wait! As I understand it Legionella breeds in warm water, not gas flames.

[John Stumbles]

London is not all flats[1]. There will probably still be a significant market for non-condensers where proximity to windows and adjacent properties makes it impossible to site condis in accordance with recommendations[2]

[1] for usual values of 'London'. I'm reminded of an old boy in a sleepy village in Sussex who went up to London for the first time in his life on the Waterloo train one day. He came back full of awe and wonder about how big the city was. "And all under glass" he said. [2] which according to our CG6084 tutor are to place further away from windows and adjacent properties than statutory minima, but now I come to look for it in the printed bumph they gave us I'm damned if I can find it.

[Paul Giverin]

I had my regular heating engineer quote me for replacing my back boiler with a combi last week. I don't want a condensing unit and he dislikes them intensely too as he says that he's fed up fixing the ones he's installed.

He says that it won't be a problem supplying and fitting a non condenser and has quoted me for a Worcester Bosch 28Si.

[<me9]

Is it guaranteed that there is no condensation (in a condensing boiler) that sits at about the critical temperature for legionella formation, and will not escape as an aerosol?

[DJC]

The plume from the flue is likely to be clean, but the condensate that drains outside, (the only option for my flat), might be another matter.

[Andy Hall]

If there were an issue with this, it would have been noticed before now since condensing boilers have been in use in Holland and Germany for 20 years.