OT : Boilers

'Grimly Curmudgeon' wrote...>

Heh.

The boiler's cheap shite, the rads are cheap shite and the original
thermostatic valves are mostly seized up.

I replaced about half the valves a few years ago (where I got them from
didn't have enough) but the rest still need doing.

The size of the rads feels about right, althought I want an extra one
plumbed into the conservatory.

Thinking more about it, and from the first hand accounts of BG, I might
just get them to come round and give me a quote.

Had a look on their website and they say they'll give you £500 of
"energy saving devices" free with every order, but don't say what the
hell they are - solar powered dildos? 15 x energy saving kettles?

Good to know, ta.

 

'Wicked Uncle Nigel' wrote...>

If you don't mind me asking, how much did that lot cost you?

Email me if you'd rather reply offline, reply-to is valid.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, wessie

<nods>

Customer of mine.

Sound fellows, obviously.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, fragmented

I honestly can't remember. £3k-ish, I think.

 

Barratt Mk1 16v of course

--
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Range Rover Td6 Vogue
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Focus ST3 (off soon)
Audi A3 Cab
BMW F800GS

 

All have to be condensing these days unless you have some very good excuse
AFAIK. Worcester Bosch were the mutts a while ago...

 

You really need a minimum of 9L/min for a proper shower - most pumped
ones will do that easily as will most mains supplies, but many cheapy
electric showers will struggle to do 5 or 6L/min, especially when
heating up mains cold water. A new 8.5kW electric shower will do better,
and actually be quite acceptable but performance falls off as things get
a bit clogged with chalky deposits in many areas. The heating element
gets fubared and the only way to prevent it is feed the shower with
softened water.

 

****. And that included the boiler?

Cost us about three times that when we had a new boiler fitted, plus
some extra piping for the pool and a couple of new and one re-used
radiator.

Mine dew, the size of the thing is probably worth that much in metal
alone. And I have to say it does an amazing job with minimum hassle.
And costs us about half as much to run as the previous one. Probably
saving us a couple of grand a year in fuel oil. Which is nice.

 

I'm a big fan of combination boilers, but that's personal and I'm no
expert.

 

On the principle of 'recommend what you have' I'd go for a condensing
combi-boiler by Vaillant. They're not the cheapest but they are the
mutt's nuts according to the trade. If your airing cupboard has an
outside wall then that's often the best place to fit it. However, if you
have a house full of teenage girls (I should be so lucky) you may find
their hot water output inadequate. Ours was in a 2.5 bedroom semi with
one bathroom. It took about 25 minutes to fill a bath but was fine for
showers, sinks etc. It was dirt-cheap to run. I imagine a decent heating
engineer would be able to recommend a model suitable for your needs.

 

We had a Vaillant combi when we moved into this place. Out the ark, it
was - early/mid '80s, apparently. It got to the stage where it was
running luke-warm at best, and breaking down roughly twice a year.

Could we find _anybody_ locally to even give us a quote on replacing the
boiler? Could we bollocks. So British Gas reamed us rotten on fitting a
Worcester Bosch, about five or six years ago. It's been flawless, with
nothing more than the annual service (booked for this Tuesday, as it
happens)

At least, it WAS running flawlessly until about five minutes ago when
there was a loud scream from the (suddenly very cold) shower...

Fuckbiscuits.

 

**** me rigid! The guy I use fitted central heating to the place I did
up this year for £1,200. That was a full new fit, 3 bed / 2 reception
house, including supply of everything. OK that's mate's rates, but even
so...

--
Krusty
www.MuddyStuff.co.uk
Off-Road Classifieds

'02 MV Senna '03 Tiger 955i '96 Tiger '79 Fantic Hiro 250

 

'Scraggy' wrote...>

Looks interesting, the 1.1KW electricity should run my house for most of
the time, and contribute half of the electricity I use in the evening
when I'm in.

I wonder if Valliant are going to make one? (for something like a
boiler, I'll go for a reliable make)

My current boiler is a Prima Potterton 50L, and according the the blurb
on the label its 80% efficient.

 

'Adrian' wrote...>

Was that because they didn't want to do the work, preferring charging
£15,000 or so to fit a shower, or there's no one around you?

<chortle>

The curse of UKRM strikes again!

Good job the service is due.

 

[This followup was posted to uk.rec.motorcycles and a copy was sent to
the cited author.]

'Simon Gates' wrote...>

Very helpful information, thanks Simon.

 

I thought that was more a function of the boiler thermostat setting (as
opposed to the radiator thermostats or a room thermostat?

In any case, I can recommend a high tech programmable 'room' thermostat.

When it gets really cold I like to keep the heating on to stop my 1924
detached house from cooling down too much as it takes ages for the
structure to heat up again.

I didn't want a full daytime temperature all through the house though,
even if the bedroom radiators could be controlled thermostatically. It
sounds from what someone said that new systems have to have a separate
control for sleeping floors/areas anyway.

That wasn't the case when I had my new boiler so I went for a British
Gas PT5 programmable thermostat in the hall. You can set three different
temperatures for night, day and morning/evening. Those can be different
depending on whether it is a weekday or weekend.

So now I just leave the main controller on continuous for heating and
timed for hot water. Occasionally I have to override the PT5 if staying
up late or being at home during the day on a weekday, but it's easily
done by the prod of a button.

--
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'Nige' wrote...>

Built on a Golf floor plan?

 

'Scraggy' wrote...>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MicroCHP

Reading into it a lot more since they only produce electricity when you
need heat or hot water they don't actually produce a lot of electricity.

Still, since they get a VAT reduction of 10% (now), if any of the enery
companies give a discount when you buy one though them they'll be worth
looking into.

 

'Bear' wrote...>

And the fuckwit boosts his already impressive fuckwitted reputation.

2 years out of date and counting.

Someone might want to tell Bore that Reagans out of the Whitehouse and
the Cold War is over, he's probably missed that too.

 

Those that bothered to answer the phone or return a message were
universally "Nah, don't do combis, mate"

British Gas basic maintenance contract rocks. For not much more than a
tenner a month, they were here within 2-3 hours, diagnosed a fucked fan
almost immediately, and persuaded it up'n'kicking. He was away again
within about 15min, with it working. It needs a new fan, which he's
bringing when he does the service on Tuesday - the guy who came today got
himself assigned to the service for consistency.