I have a 20yr+ backboiler, hideous gas fire etc, in a 2 bed terrace, gravity fed HW, pumped CH. It all seems to work fine, however my gas bills are around =A3500 a year. Is that normal? and what real (plumber claims "up to" 40%) savings will i get by spending a couple of grand on a new boiler? I've upgraded the loft insulation, but aside from the aesthetic hatred of the gas fire, the only reason for changing is economic. Is the cash better spent on somethig else? Advice please...thanks
Since it'stoo old to have a flame failure device this sort of boiler can produce carbon monoxide if not serviced to keep airways clean, if there's a blockage in the flue, or if the ventilation is inadequate (you haven't blocked up that brick-sized hole letting air into the room for the boiler, have you?!) Replacing it with a vastly more efficient boiler won't repay the money spent on doing so but adding the safety factor to the aesthetic may make it worth it to you.
On 21 Mar 2006 04:39:37 -0800 someone who may be "Spat" wrote this:-
Do you have gas cooking? Even if you do that sounds a lot for a two bedroomed house with only two external walls. How many people live there? Are they the sort of people who feel cold in bright sunshine? How is the heating system controlled?
To what depth of what sort of insulation?
The first thing to do is insulate the walls. Assuming they are cavity walls (depends on the age of the house) this is relatively easy. Energy suppliers will do this for a subsidised rate, the money comes out of everyone's bills. If they are not cavity walls then it becomes more interesting. Also insulate hot water pipes and heating pipes outwith the heated area (such as under the floor).
After that a new condensing boiler and fully pumped hot water supply may well be in order. For a two bedroomed house a combination boiler may be suitable, which would save a bit of space by eliminating the hot water cylinder at the expense of slow bath filling. However, condensing boilers really need the radiator sizes increasing to work properly. Thus you are into an investment that will take a number of years to come to fruition financially.
From an economic viewpoint things like solar heating are a long term investment, at current gas prices.
Thanks. It's a solid wall house, so sadly no cavity insulation. There's two people living here, no gas cooking, but I've insulated all pipes outside living areas, insulated the suspended floors and am in the process of upgrading the loft insulation. On that point, it's chipboarded out with fibreglass underneath, obviously not too thick, so I'm replacing the fibreglass with insulation boards to increase effectiveness, is it worth keeping all the fibreglass and putting it on top of the boards? I can't be doing with raising the boards off the joists to get more underneath. With insulation, is it only as good as the least effective part of a wall, floor etc or does adding more to only a part of the floor still make a difference? I ask because I don't want to have the insulation really thick where the roof meets floor to keep the ventilation good, and there's also an extension to the house that i can't get access to, I was going to go overboard everywhere else possible.
Thanks. It's a solid wall house, so sadly no cavity insulation. There's two people living here, no gas cooking, but I've insulated all pipes outside living areas, insulated the suspended floors and am in the process of upgrading the loft insulation. On that point, it's chipboarded out with fibreglass underneath, obviously not too thick, so I'm replacing the fibreglass with insulation boards to increase effectiveness, is it worth keeping all the fibreglass and putting it on top of the boards? I can't be doing with raising the boards off the joists to get more underneath. With insulation, is it only as good as the least effective part of a wall, floor etc or does adding more to only a part of the floor still make a difference? I ask because I don't want to have the insulation really thick where the roof meets floor to keep the ventilation good, and there's also an extension to the house that i can't get access to, I was going to go overboard everywhere else possible.
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