Boiler upgrade in a 20 year old house

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rockpaper4u

Registered User
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Hi All,

I am looking to upgrade boiler in the house which is dated. The plan is also to split the house into 4 zones for water, and each of the floors.

Can i check what is involved in this interms of plumbing and wiring ? Or it can be all done without it?

Current house only has a manual thermostat on ground floor. Thanks in advance
 
Splitting the heating into multiple zones will require:
  • a separate pipe going to and from each zone, and another for the water
  • the addition of a suitable controller and motorised valves for each zone
  • the addition of wired or wireless thermostats in each zone

How complex and expensive a job will be will depend on the layout of the house and how difficult it will be to run the new pipework and cabling. Adding smart TRVs to all radiators and setting up zones and timers via an app might get you some of the same results, but isn't cheap either if there are lots of rads and can be problematic depending on the brand and wifi coverage throughout the house.
 
Leo said:
Splitting the heating into multiple zones will require:
  • a separate pipe going to and from each zone, and another for the water
  • the addition of a suitable controller and motorised valves for each zone
  • the addition of wired or wireless thermostats in each zone

How complex and expensive a job will be will depend on the layout of the house and how difficult it will be to run the new pipework and cabling. Adding smart TRVs to all radiators and setting up zones and timers via an app might get you some of the same results, but isn't cheap either if there are lots of rads and can be problematic depending on the brand and wifi coverage throughout the house.
Click to expand...
Thanks...there are total of 8 radiators. There are separate pipes for each of the floor and water.
 
The viesmann 100/200 boiler comes highly recommended.the 200 is the best.
You can get a wireless room stat too go with the boiler.
You would just need a power supply too power the boiler.
A handy enough days work for a plumber.

(Im a plumber who does installation week in/week out).
 
rockpaper4u said:
Hi All,

I am looking to upgrade boiler in the house which is dated.
Click to expand...
The boiler being 'dated' is of itself no justification for upgrading it.

What is the efficiency of the existing boiler, what is the efficiency of the proposed replacement.

How long would it cost in financial or emissions terms to justify the new boiler?

You have 8 rads and you are looking at 3 zones + water ? Is that reasonable. You could just turn off rads when you don't need them. We heat water all summer with the CH. We just turn the temp to zero.
 
Pinoy adventure said:
Have a look at board gas,they are running a promotion with Worcester borscht boilers.
Click to expand...
thanks this one? Will they also do zoning ?

  • Worcester Bosch Greenstar 4700iW System boiler with 10-year Boiler Warranty**
  • Installation by a skilled engineer
  • FREE Hive thermostat (RRP €299), installed and linked to your smartphone
  • FREE boiler service after one year
 
cremeegg said:
The boiler being 'dated' is of itself no justification for upgrading it.

What is the efficiency of the existing boiler, what is the efficiency of the proposed replacement.

How long would it cost in financial or emissions terms to justify the new boiler?

You have 8 rads and you are looking at 3 zones + water ? Is that reasonable. You could just turn off rads when you don't need them. We heat water all summer with the CH. We just turn the temp to zero.
Click to expand...
72% is current boiler efficiency. Its suggested in BER to upgrade.

Thanks reg zones..its a 3 story so i thought 3 it should be?

What is CH?

Thanks again for your inputs
 
rockpaper4u said:
72% is current boiler efficiency. Its suggested in BER to upgrade.
Click to expand...
Well the BER would suggest that. However a modern condensing boiler will achieve close to 90% so an upgrade is probably justified.

If it were my money I would still like to see the figures. €3,000 fuel a year at 72% would come to €2,400 at 90%. A saving like that is well worth it, the emissions savings would be similar.

rockpaper4u said:
Thanks reg zones..its a 3 story so i thought 3 it should be?

What is CH?
Click to expand...
I suppose it depends on how you use the house. We have 1 zone downstairs, whereas splitting that into kitchen/living room and rest of the downstairs would probably make more sense.

CH. Central Heating
 
cremeegg said:
Well the BER would suggest that. However a modern condensing boiler will achieve close to 90% so an upgrade is probably justified.

If it were my money I would still like to see the figures. €3,000 fuel a year at 72% would come to €2,400 at 90%. A saving like that is well worth it, the emissions savings would be similar.


I suppose it depends on how you use the house. We have 1 zone downstairs, whereas splitting that into kitchen/living room and rest of the downstairs would probably make more sense.

CH. Central Heating
Click to expand...
First floor is all bedrooms and top floor another bedroom..ground floor is kitchen and living room
 
rockpaper4u said:
thanks this one? Will they also do zoning ?

  • Worcester Bosch Greenstar 4700iW System boiler with 10-year Boiler Warranty**
  • Installation by a skilled engineer
  • FREE Hive thermostat (RRP €299), installed and linked to your smartphone
  • FREE boiler service after one year
Click to expand...
Yes,they will do zoning also.
If you can go wireless stats would be more beneficial too.
 
Comfortable house equation (i.e. to maintain a comfortable internal temperature) :

Heating system output into house (oil / gas / electricity consumed times heating system/distribution efficiency) ====== House heat loss (conduction / convection / radiation)

Biggest bang for buck generally (in majority of houses) is to look at and address the RHS of this equation rather than the LHS.
 
If you end up having to replumb the pipework, I strongly strongly reccomend that you future proof your pipework, by getting the plumber to use 28mm pipes for each of the main runs. This will allow you to upgrade to a heat pump later without having to do any pipework.

Also, for any radiators that you are replacing (or new ones that you are putting in) size them up so that they are appropriate for a heat pump.

For a retrofit heat pump, the pipework and radiator upgrades are usually more than half the cost. Doing them now, will mean upgrading later will take a lot less time and cost a lot less money.
 
Sum of the newer heat pumps require big flow rates ( especially the viessmann vitocal 222) so 32mm would be even better.
Most will run on inch supply though.
 
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