New Gas Boiler or not?

rsmike

I have a 22 year old Potterton Netaheat 80e boiler, Its never had a problem, been faultless. My gas bill for last year came to €820.

I just got a quote for a new condensing boiler (Vokera 20/25 KW), cost €2175.

Its an old house with the hot press located a good bit away from the boiler, so adding zoning controls (which I'm told have to go in the hot press) would add lot of mess (2.5 ft stone walls, floorboards etc) and I expect cost.
Having completed other alterations/decorations recently not encouraged to start tearing everything apart again to do the zoning.

I am told by the engineer who quoted that without getting zoning controls, I can't get the SEI grant, so looks like if I do anything right now I would just go for the boiler replacement.

I hear advice (from the trade) saying I'm unbelievably lucky to have got 22 years out of a gas boiler and I am now skating on thin ice.

Am I? Funnily enough I read a couple of other posts on here from folks with older Potterton boilers like mine who are also having little or no problems and some who have decided not to upgrade to newer more complex ( and troublesome) boilers.

I guess you can see where my thinking is going on this.

I can afford to upgrade, but if I don't do the zoning, how much will I be saving, and savings alone are not everything, reliability is also important.

Advice, Should I upgrade at all?, If I do is Vokera a good brand?

Thanks for your thoughts

JohnnieK

You can get a better boiler for that price than Vokera. Viessmann, Worcester, Ariston, Glow-worm all have 5 year parts and labour warranties.

Vokera are o.k. but if I was spending the money I would be going towards A viessmann or the likes.

You wont save a fortune on your annual gas bill but it will be a bit better, and you should consider something like a programmable room stat for some kind of control. You can get wireless ones so no mess.

They say you can save 20% on your bills if you have controls but this is generous in my opinion, without controls it could be 5% to 10% but only if there is some kind of room stat controlling the boiler.

It sounds like there is a good bit involved in zoning it and the cost could be high, so the payback would be longer.

I had one contractor tell a customer that with the saving's they would make on bills would pay back the installation cost in as little as two years. This of course is complete Bo***x.

Netaheat's are robust boilers but it is 22 years old and parts are bound to start going in it sooner than later. The good thing is you can still get parts for them.

antoinolachtnai

Good advice there.

You at least have to zone between your hot water and your central heating, otherwise a condensing boiler is pretty pointless.

Netaheats fail all the time. The odd one needs a replacement electronic board and it costs 200 euros or so when it goes. If it goes during winter you don't have much choice but to spend the money and replace it.

Mind you, it could last for years. The construction is really simple. There is very little to break (apart from the electronics).

The downside, of course, is that one-third of the heat from burning the gas goes out the duct into your back garden.

I had a netaheat and changed it for a viessmann this year at the beginning of January. I'm saving about 20-30 percent on the amount of gas used. I am getting a bit more comfort than before too, I think. I am also saving because I no longer use the immersion to get hot water. That saving is 1.5-2 units a day, so maybe 100 euros a year.

rsmike

Right, thank you for that advice, makes sense. The engineer was telling me yesterday I would still be saving 20-30% on my gas bill, just with a new boiler, but in retrospect he was quoiting the same figures at the beginning of the conversation for a system with zoning, that was when I smelt a rat.

Antoin, you mentioned with the Viessmann you are not using the immersion anymore, I assume that is because your new boiler also supplies hot water. I guess if I have to tear up floors and go through stone walls, it might be worth doing it to get that extra benefit also.

I think I need to think this through a bit better and have an engineer spend a bit more time looking at my setup and recommend the best solution.

The guy yesterday was from a big organization, probably used to banging out standard quotes for a modern house where the hot press is sitting conveniently above or next to the boiler.

antoinolachtnai

It might make sense to move the boiler to a different location closer to hot press. A good plumber should be able to work out some options.

There is nothing special about the Viessmann for heating water. Any boiler maker has this facility.

These projects are not cheap, so you have to be sure you are doing it right.

It is not just about saving money, it is really about comfort and reliability.

JohnnieK

Viessmann's come with a 4 pipe conection on the boiler with a built in diverter valve. It makes spliting the system a little bit easier. I does turn the boiler into a hot water priority boiler which means if your heating is on and your cylinder needs to be heated then it will divert from the heating to heat the cylinder.

Some people think this is a down side but I dont think so for a number of reasons'

1. Set hot water times different to space heating times
2. The boiler fires at maximum power to heat the cylinder as quick as possible
3. Change the cylinder to one with a high output coil to decrease the heat up time
4. You would not be heating the cylinder from cold.

I have one customer that leaves his hot water times the same as the heating and the cylinder is kept warm all the time and has no negative affects on the heating side.