Extra heating cost if boiler is in the garage?

DrPhilG

Buying a house at the minute and the boiler was taken by the previous owner.

Had a plumber in to cost fitting a replacement and he was advising me to move it. The previous boiler was located in the garage, about 20 ft from the house. He reckons that it will cost far more to heat the house because you're pumping water across the back yard to the house, effectively heating the ground before you even get to the house!

I'd prefer to keep the boiler in the garage as it's just a tidier setup, wife is not keen on having one outside the back door as he suggests.

How much more do you reckon it would cost? Currently we use about 1200 litres of oil a year on heating, would expect that to increase to maybe 1600 as it's a bigger house we're moving to.

JohnnieK

It's hard to say really. The pipes could be well insulated and wrapped under the ground. If you think they could be excavated easily enough you could factor in changing the main run from the garage to the house with pre-insulated pipe. The pipe is expensive around €30 or €40 a meter but you will have very little heat loss.

P.S. I cant believe they took the boiler with them:eek:. Did they take the light bulbs too.

heinbloed

A boiler is a radiator, so are the distribution pipes. And both need frost protection. Maybe that was the reason why the boiler was "taken", it simply bursted when freezing.
Boilers placed outside are a wasting good deal of the produced thermal energy, the plumber is right with his advice. But why not puting it into the house?

DrPhilG

Boiler was definitely "taken". The house was a repo and the former owner "allegedly" came back after leaving and took the boiler, fireplace and every fitting & light socket in sight. Curtain poles, blinds etc too.

So yes, they did take the light bulbs too!

From what I can gather talking to EA and neighbours the pipes are quite deep under the concrete back yard. May be able to contact the guy who built the house, (not the one was evicted). See if he can advise on the insulation and depth.

The plumber who fitted the system is coming tomorrow to cost for reconnection though so hopefully he remembers. House was built in 2005.

gdavis

dr.phil,if it snows this winter and you notice that you have no snow on grouind where pipes run across to the house then u know u have insulation issues! i saw this a few times last winter

DrPhilG

Just spoke to the guy who first lived in the house and he says the pipes were about 300-400mm deep but he said he was considering relocating the boiler himself before he moved as he was leaving the oil on all winter to keep the pipes warm.

Solair

If it's an older house, you'd probably want to consider checking that the pipes are adequately insulated.

There are a lot of 1950s/60s era houses that have boilers houses quite a way away from the main building and the lagging is often totally inadequate.

You can usually just replace the pipes with district heating pipes i.e. pre-insulated and almost lossless.

It's still probably a cheaper and less disruptive option that moving the boiler and all the associated plumbing. Also, if it's an oil boiler, it's usually a lot nicer to not have to put up with the rumbling noise.

Modern boilers are also a lot better insulated than the old ones. In many cases, old 1950s-70s boilers are basically totally uninsulated.

Oil was cheap before the 1970s and building regulations were pretty bad when it came to insulation.

If the garage is attached to the house and you can see the pipes, you can just externally lag them with good insulation.

A modern boiler should be relatively efficient in terms of direct heat loss to the garage.

Slightly OT, but :
We actually found one major energy saving was to move the condenser dryer into the house instead of the garage. It's a great source of heat in the winter and actually quite energy efficient as the heat from the dryer means there's less call for heat in the kitchen/dining room area when the dryer's running i.e. the room stat will turn off so, the net cost of using the tumble dryer is greatly reduced as the waste heat is being used to heat the room rather than just blowing away.

Big Nelly

Had a boiler in back shed last year, cousin had his in garage.

He was laughing when he called in and you could see the line across my garden, 10ft, with no snow on it where the pipes where running

He rang me later, his shed was 20ft away and same problem. Both of us have fixed since!!!

deandean

OP I had the same set-up in my last house, external boilerhouse and u/g pipes for about 15 feet.

The heat loss underground was SAVAGE! Like, I would burn my hand @ boiler outlet but could easily grip the pipe where it entered the house proper.

i reckon the insulation must've become waterlogged or the like.

More efficient to move the boiler into the house, if you have the space of course. Best of luck!

And maybe get a witch doctor in to kick out any bad ju-ju!

Buford T Justice

If they're not adequately insulated then there's a risk of them freezing this winter again, like the last winter we had. More of a concern than the pipes bursting underground outside would be a total loss of heating when it happens. This forum was full of people with frozen heating pipes in the winter last year. If you decide to have it in the shed, then make 100% sure they're adequately insulated from the frost to prevent future problems.