We have been living in our bungalow for a couple of years now with our current Ariston Combi boiler system (which I've heard nothing but bad things about ever since moving in!!) servicing 4 bedrooms and a bathroom and en suite. It has actually been fine until recently when the hot bath tap keeps going cold, then hot, then cold, then hot, etc... because the combi boiler keeps firing up the new cutting out.
I've had a few companies out to look at it who have all diagnosed that the heat exchanger needs replacing. Given the cost of replacing this, and some impending building works on an extension which will add another bathroom, enough is enough and I will replace the boiler!
From what I've read and heard a combi boiler isn't sufficient enough to cope with 2 showers running at the same time, or a shower running and the bath so I started to look at an unvented system. However more research into this is showing me that you need a decent water flow rate and water pressure!! Our water pressure (on the outside tap) is 3 bar which drops to 2 bar working pressure. Water flow is approximately 9 litres per minute.
So I have a few of questions really.
I've had a few companies out to look at it who have all diagnosed that the heat exchanger needs replacing. Given the cost of replacing this, and some impending building works on an extension which will add another bathroom, enough is enough and I will replace the boiler!
From what I've read and heard a combi boiler isn't sufficient enough to cope with 2 showers running at the same time, or a shower running and the bath so I started to look at an unvented system. However more research into this is showing me that you need a decent water flow rate and water pressure!! Our water pressure (on the outside tap) is 3 bar which drops to 2 bar working pressure. Water flow is approximately 9 litres per minute.
So I have a few of questions really.
- Is an unvented system actually going to work
- Am I ok moving the boiler (and possibly hot water cylinder depending on whether an unvented solution will work?) into the loft... the current position of the boiler means it needs to move anyway when the building work gets started.
- I think the water pipes carrying the water from the road to the bungalow are lead pipes so could be corroded and stemming the water flow. I was going to replace those to see if it will improve the current flow rate (not sure if it will improve pressure?)... would this be worth doing?
- What would actually be the best solution?! Any recommendations on boilers would be great too, so far we've had quotes for Worcester Bosch, Alpha and Ideal Logic+ boilers on unvented systems.
