Indoor or outdoor and replacing boiler advice

kilburn

Hi folks, have spent a while reading the forum looking for tips on this but have a few questions. I plan on converting my garage into a kitchen, and the boiler house is in this area, so have to move the boiler outside.

Do condensing boilers have to be a certain distance away from windows due to plumes, my options are putting the boiler outside between 2 windows or moving it 20ft down to the concrete yard beside the shed and oil tank.

The boiler house backs into the current kitchen which will then be a utility and would consider a wall mounted boiler, but do not know too much about these so hoping the experts here can guide me.

shane0007

You are better not to move the boiler any great distance from the property unless you increase the pump size and use zero loss underground pipe.

The minimum distance from any opening including air bricks, etc. is 1.0m however, if the plume will be a nuisance, a plume dispersal kit can be used.

shane0007

Sorry, I am presuming you have oil, as the distances are different for gas.

kilburn

Hi shane, thanks yea it is oil so has to be a meter away from the external wall is that right?

irishrobmorris

Hi, sorry to intrude on your post but...
We're trying to decide whether or not to get an indoor oil burner in our new build. It seems to be the most efficient thing to do but some people say you get smells from them. Is this normal or are modern burners much better now? Any opinions?

shane0007

kilburn wrote: »

Hi shane, thanks yea it is oil so has to be a meter away from the external wall is that right?

No, you have misunderstood. The flue terminal must be minimum 1.0m from a building OPENING, such as a window, door or vent. It can be up against a wall.

You must also consider, even if the terminal is 1.1m away from these, it may be a nuisance to neighbours or indeed yourself. Consideration must be given to all site parameters. If there are issues, they can be generally overcome with a plume dispersal kit.

shane0007

irishrobmorris wrote: »

Hi, sorry to intrude on your post but...
We're trying to decide whether or not to get an indoor oil burner in our new build. It seems to be the most efficient thing to do but some people say you get smells from them. Is this normal or are modern burners much better now? Any opinions?

You should NEVER get any smell from any indoor boiler. If you do, there is either an oil leakage, seal leakage or flue leakage or indeed flue products re-entering the property as the terminal is too close to an opening.

As long as the boiler is properly installed, commissioned and properly maintained you should have no problems with an indoor boiler. Having said that, I personally prefer having them in a purpose built boiler room or an outdoor boiler as in practice, homeowners do to maintain their boilers every year and when they do maintain them, they are very often serviced by an incompetent person. As we do not live in an ideal world, by not having it indoors, it takes out one potential problem of CO poisoning.

If you are installing remotely from the house, make sure you use zero loss pipework underground, otherwise you will see the telltale sign of the path with no snow in winter as the pipes are heating the ground.

irishrobmorris

Thanks for the advice. As a rough estimate, how much should a service cost (assuming no parts need replacing) and how often should you get a burner serviced? The burner would be brand new initially.
We're new to oil/kerosene and are trying to get our heads around the various set ups.

shane0007

The boiler and burner forms part of the same service and should be carried out at least once a year. But doing this, you are ensuring the boiler is running at its maximum efficiency, the maximum amount of heat is being transferred into your heating system and the metals of the boiler and burner are under the least possible amount of stress and will therefore last longer.

Cost will vary from technician to technician, but for example, I charge €80 for standard efficiency oil boilers and €100 for condensing boilers. This would include the new nozzle and VAT.

irishrobmorris

That's very helpful thanks. We now have a better idea of what we're dealing with. Out of interest where in the country are you? We're in Kilkenny.

shane0007

Kilkenny also