BOILERS & CYLINDERS
Do you need a helping hand with your boiler or cylinder?
Approximately 55% of what you are spending each year is on your energy bills, having an efficient boiler can make a huge difference.
Modern built boilers are much more efficient than their older counterparts for a number of reasons, but one of the main advantages is that they are all now what is known as condensing boilers. Any boiler that is well-maintained will burn their fuel source incredibly efficiently but will inevitably lose at least some of the heat energy in the gases that escape out of the flue.
Condensing boilers have a much larger heat exchanger than other kinds of boiler, meaning that they can recover more heat energy and release cooler gas via the flue, which in turn means that it becomes much more energy efficient.
The reason for the name “condensing boiler” comes from the flue gases as these can occasionally become so cool that the water vapour in the gas condenses, recovering even more energy from the condensed vapour.
What should I consider when I want to replace my boiler?
If your boiler is nearing the end of it’s life, or you feel that it is time to change your boiler, you need to research and decide what will be the best type of boiler for your needs. There are a number of things to consider such as;
Type of fuel
If your gas is supplied via a mains gas supply, a gas boiler is more often than not going to be your cheapest option to provide heating. Average fuel prices (based on values taken in April 2018) show that gas is the cheapest fuel for heating per kWh when being compared with oil, LPG, coal and economy 7.
If your home does not have any form of mains gas supply, there are low carbon heating options available like an Air Source Heat Pump. When this is combined with the renewable heat incentive, this could even work out to be cheaper overall for you.
Type of boiler
Old gas and oil boilers, more often than not, are simply regular boilers that will have a separate cylinder that is used for hot water storage, rather than having the boiler provide the hot water directly. When you are replacing a boiler, you have two choices and these are either buying a new regular boiler and continuing to utilise the same hot water cylinder or buying a combi boiler which does the job of both and doesn’t require the use of a cylinder.
When it comes to energy efficiency, a regular boiler is much more efficient than a combi boiler when it comes to the initial production of hot water, however some of the heat energy is lost via the hot water cylinder even if it’s insulated which means that a combi boiler can be much more efficient on the whole. The type of boiler that is best for you will depend on a number of different things
Your average hot water usage
Larger families more often than not are likely to be using lots of hot water and are likely to be better off with a regular boiler, whereas on the flipside to this a smaller household which uses less water (on average) will probably be better off with a combi boiler.
Size of your home
A combi boiler will be much better for a physically smaller property as they don’t require the usage of a hot water cylinder and take up less space in your home.
Compatibility with solar heating
If you’re debating using solar water heating for your home, it’s imperative that you do your research on the boiler you will be using as many combi boilers are incompatible with this form of heating or can’t use it very effectively. If you wish to use solar water heating then we use specific Solar Compatible boilers to ensure that the system gives you the very best performance.
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