Back boilers any good?

Mink

Moving into a rented property soon. It has rads heated by Oil burning boiler. But there is also a fire place in the sitting room & the landlady says it has a back boiler which can heat the water & upstairs rads??

Does this sound about right & do people find them any good for actually creating heat in other rads?

items

Mink wrote: »

Moving into a rented property soon. It has rads heated by Oil burning boiler. But there is also a fire place in the sitting room & the landlady says it has a back boiler which can heat the water & upstairs rads??

Does this sound about right & do people find them any good for actually creating heat in other rads?

If you find you'll be lighting fire often then having back boiler is a good call, its pretty much free heat if looked in the right way. Back boilers were more or less the main source of heat (hot water / rads) before Oil and Gas boilers arrived in Ireland. Most people like to hold on to them and use back boiler in addition. Depending on the back boiler system, age and condition it should work fairly well.

You wont know unless you try, once you've been given correct instructions on how to use light up a fire and see for yourself.

Mink

Thanks Items. Yes will try it out once landlady shows me the ropes. Just wondering if people found them effective. It probably would have been better to test it during that 4 month cold snap!

Red Alert

You might want to check if there are any changeover valves or the like if there's also an oil boiler, and possibly also how to run the pump without the boiler.

volvo 240

We have installed a multifuel stove with a 13kw back boiler in our house in NW France and took out the oil boiler 2 winters ago. The oil used to cost 1200-1500euros to heat the 11 radiators over 7 months of use and now we use between 500-700 euros worth of wood for the same heat and duration. 15-20 cubic metres of mixed wood. We have used 20 cubic metres this winter, but it's been a very cold one:(

In fact it's such a good way to heat the radiators when we move to Ireland we will be fitting just a stove with a back boiler to heat rads and hot water. We will use coal and peat mostly, unless logs are a good price.

The 11 radiators get warm-hot in about 1 hour of lighting the fire. The great thing about it is you can just buy it in when you need too and no great huge oil bills in one hit. Its a very reliable system too!!:)

I would think in our new place we will use up to 2 tonnes of coal a winter over 7 months but could be less as Ireland does seem usually milder than here. We would have about 8kw of radiators and hot water.
Is it an open fire with a back boiler or a stove with one? The open fire boiler may/will not be as effective as a stove with boiler. The boiler stove being more efficient, and the heat from the open fire mostly going up the chimney. But as I have never had an open fire with boiler it may be great.
James.