I welcome some experience on this question. I'm planning to change from coal room heater (lounge) to oil wall mounted (kitchen). Currently all WM oil boilers are non-condensing (~85%). The only sedbuk listed WM oil boiler (~91%) is no longer available from the importer. So after 1/4/05 I'm stuck (unless the rules only apply to new houses).
But HRM, for example, say they have a condensing WM under development. Still is it a good idea to buy an untested boiler? Plus will this new boiler be too big? I would have thought if it was easy to make a WM condensing it would have been done by now which suggests to me a WM condenser might be tricky to service or unreliable.
The maths don't look too good either. If my heating bill is 500pa (about what I pay for coal but I would expect oil to be less), then 6% saving is 30pa and assuming the boiler price difference is 300, the same as floor boilers, the payback is over 10yrs.
The other concern is the plume effect. The flue will exit into the top of a 0.9m passageway open to the air above. The opposite wall is a 6ft high fence and I think the flue will be about 6ft high, perhaps more. V.hot flue gases will just rise (i.e. not condensing). But will the condenser plume fall or worse, will it fall over the fence and in next door? Their washing line is a few metres from this fence.
Advice?
TIA
But HRM, for example, say they have a condensing WM under development. Still is it a good idea to buy an untested boiler? Plus will this new boiler be too big? I would have thought if it was easy to make a WM condensing it would have been done by now which suggests to me a WM condenser might be tricky to service or unreliable.
The maths don't look too good either. If my heating bill is 500pa (about what I pay for coal but I would expect oil to be less), then 6% saving is 30pa and assuming the boiler price difference is 300, the same as floor boilers, the payback is over 10yrs.
The other concern is the plume effect. The flue will exit into the top of a 0.9m passageway open to the air above. The opposite wall is a 6ft high fence and I think the flue will be about 6ft high, perhaps more. V.hot flue gases will just rise (i.e. not condensing). But will the condenser plume fall or worse, will it fall over the fence and in next door? Their washing line is a few metres from this fence.
Advice?
TIA