Retrofit a back boiler : Worthwhile?

[polo1]

A friend is just about to complete sale of a new detached house (about 1700sq ft dormer ) which currently has OFCH installed. She was just wondering how expensive it would be to install a Back Boiler and whether this would really be efficient of not. She has two open fireplaces - one in the kitchen area and one in sitting room? Would this be a big job? Is it a sensible thing to do? Thanks, joanne

 

[xt40]

all depends on how near your pipes are. nowadays, stoves are the in-thing

 

[Ceist Beag]

All the advice we got was that back boilers take all the heat from the fire and offer little in return in terms of hot water. So I guess it depends, if you want the fire to heat the room then based on the advice we got (and followed) they would not be recommended.

 

[Jock04]

You won't find many houses in Scotland with a coal fire but without a back boiler.

Fire still warms the living room, and there's a rad. in the living room anyway to top this up.
I had a real ding-dong with my own builders here - they were convinced back-boilers were inefficient. But in my experience, they're great.

You'd have to ask a plumber/heating engineer about retro-fitting though. Potentially a fairly big & messy job.