After basic advice for new central heating system.

[wcavanagh]

So I am about to buy a new house, and at the moment is does not have any central heating installed at all, just a wall mounted boiler supplying hot water to kitchen and bathroom.

The house is a 3 bedroom Semi Detached 1960's in the Northampton Area.

Only myself will be living there, and I work from home so it will be occupied about 80% of the time.

As this is a blanc canvas I am after some ideas for what would be the best system to get installed, my last house had a Baxi Combi that was nothing but trouble, maybe this is just bad luck.

For me I am looking at something that is good on the pocket to run, install costs are not too important at the moment, as I don't mind making a bit of an investment.

I would be interested to know what is being installed at the moment, are combi's still popular, are they reliable?

Cheers,
Will

 

[bengasman]

Have a read through the forum, subject has been done to death; thousands of posts on it.
Bottom line is: the only really important part that you can do something about is finding a good installer; nobody can give you better advice than a good pro who has actually been on site.

 

[wcavanagh]

Thank you. I was hoping to have a bit of an idea before I get someone to the house, and of course I dont have keys yet, and when I do get them, 1st thing on list is to get a few quotes

Cheers

 

[bengasman]

What is the point of wasting people's time to come over giving you quotes? The only things you can compare will be their price and their sales skills.
It will tell you nothing about how good they are at their job, nor about the quality of their proposed design.
Add to that the fact that buying cheap will get you cheap, and you will come to the conclusion it would be wasting your own time too.

 

[wcavanagh]

What is the point of wasting people's time to come over giving you quotes? The only things you can compare will be their price and their sales skills.
It will tell you nothing about how good they are at their job, nor about the quality of their proposed design.
Add to that the fact that buying cheap will get you cheap, and you will come to the conclusion it would be wasting your own time too.

How else am I going to find out how much it is going to cost without getting someone over? Sorry I am missing your point here?

 

[bengasman]

How else am I going to find out how much it is going to cost without getting someone over? Sorry I am missing your point here?

Yes, you are missing the point.

What is the point of knowing a price without knowing what quality product you get for it? Presumably you wouldn't go calling garages to find the cheapest car for sale, or even the cheapest offer for a specific make and model.
As you know nothing about ch, a clever salesman could sell you the biggest lemon in the country by offering a 10 year warrantee and a " 40% special offer discount, this week only"
You would be chuffed as Larry because it seems you got a £4000 product for "2400. In reality, you would have paid £1400 to get £1000 worth or materials poorly installed.

You can't do without heating and gfch is the best in terms of cost/reliability, which is why you have decided to get it.
All you need now is a reliable bloke who is good at his job and is unlikely to rip you off. Somebody like that is clearly not going to be the cheapest and therefore just comparing prices is utterly pointless.

Find a good installer, and the rest will be what it will be.

 

[wcavanagh]

I see what you are saying. As I said in my 1st post I am not too worried about the price, as long as it is the right system for me.

Problem is the house is 100 miles from where I am now, so I do not know any local plumbers in that area.

I was more looking for peoples thoughts on Combi vs MegaFlow, etc..

I need a few quotes, as it would be silly to just get one, no matter how good the reports are, that does not mean I will go for the cheapest, I am not that type of person, but end of the day I cant just accept one quote as that would be a little mad

 

[bengasman]

I was more looking for peoples thoughts on Combi vs MegaFlow, etc..

Apart from the odd exception where one of the two is a no-brainer, the only guy who can judge that accurately is the installer who has been on site.

Long distance is a bit more work than where you live, but it is still well possible to get recommendations from people locally who have used the installer and are very satisfied.

Personal recommendations are the only way of finding somebody that is good. Neighbourhood forums are one way of doing it long distance.
Schemes ( scams ) like "trust a trader", Corgi and Trustmark are utterly useless.

 

[bengasman]

I cant just accept one quote as that would be a little mad

Can't you?
What if 3 ( or more ) people told you: "Dave is the best you will ever find, he ain't cheap but worth every penny."

Would you take an unknown chap just because he was £1000 cheaper and had a smooth presentation?


When my car needs a service, the same guy who always does it gets the job; I couldn't care less if somebody I don't know offered to do it for half the price.

 

[bengasman]

edit

 

[Agile]

I need a few quotes, as it would be silly to just get one, no matter how good the reports are, that does not mean I will go for the cheapest, I am not that type of person, but end of the day I cant just accept one quote as that would be a little mad.

If a professional was to come to you, test the water and gas supplies, calculate the heat loss, specify a system and give a quotation then that will take him about three hours unless he lived in the same street in which case two hours!

Ask five people and you will have collectively wasted 15 hours of their time!

Thats why I dont go to give free quotations! Instead I ask a few questions and give a budgetary quotation over the telephone. That means that I dont waste 12 hours giving free quotations for each job that I actually do. That enables me to keep my prices to a minimum.

In your case using average quality bits and a reasonable quality installer the cost will be about £3600. A poor installer using the cheapest bits will cost about £2200. Thats based on a combi boiler, add £900 for an unvented cylinder.

Why do you focus on wanting to know how much it will cost? What a sensible person would want is a good quality installation at the appropriate cost for that. Buy cheap, get cheap!

As Ben as said, you need to find a good installer. You do not need multiple quotes from others who you will not engage. Thats wasting their time and putting up our costs which have to be passed on to YOU the customer!

Tony

 

[wcavanagh]

I need a few quotes, as it would be silly to just get one, no matter how good the reports are, that does not mean I will go for the cheapest, I am not that type of person, but end of the day I cant just accept one quote as that would be a little mad.

If a professional was to come to you, test the water and gas supplies, calculate the heat loss, specify a system and give a quotation then that will take him about three hours unless he lived in the same street in which case two hours!

Ask five people and you will have collectively wasted 15 hours of their time!

Thats why I dont go to give free quotations! Instead I ask a few questions and give a budgetary quotation over the telephone. That means that I dont waste 12 hours giving free quotations for each job that I actually do. That enables me to keep my prices to a minimum.

In your case using average quality bits and a reasonable quality installer the cost will be about £3600. A poor installer using the cheapest bits will cost about £2200. Thats based on a combi boiler, add £900 for an unvented cylinder.

Why do you focus on wanting to know how much it will cost? What a sensible person would want is a good quality installation at the appropriate cost for that. Buy cheap, get cheap!

As Ben as said, you need to find a good installer. You do not need multiple quotes from others who you will not engage. Thats wasting their time and putting up our costs which have to be passed on to YOU the customer!

Tony

Thank you, I am NOT focusing on how much it will cost, but I DO need to know roughly as I need to budget for that. I have never had a whole system put in from scratch, so of course I want to know roughly, and not once have I said I am going to take the cheapest quotation.

Like I said I don't live in the area yet, so finding local recommendation is tricking, but the local forum is a great idea and I am going to hit Google next.

I am starting to regret asking here now all I wanted was a bit of guidance to what systems are good, so I can ask the right questions, that way im not in the dark about the whole thing.

Anyway thanks all.

 

[Agile]

If anyone does want me to come and specify and quote for a system then I charge a nominal £84.

In that case I dont feel so bad if they then hawk it round to get cheaper quotes!

Without seeing the layout, testing the services and questioning you about your lifestyle no one can tell you what system you should have.

Tony

 

[wcavanagh]

If anyone does want me to come and specify and quote for a system then I charge a nominal £84.

In that case I dont feel so bad if they then hawk it round to get cheaper quotes!

Without seeing the layout, testing the services and questioning you about your lifestyle no one can tell you what system you should have.

Tony

Hi,

I find that fair to be honest, and would have no problems paying that kind of thing for a couple of quotes IF I cant get a good recommendation local to go on.

Cheers,
Will

 

[Agile]

I need a few quotes, as it would be silly to just get one, no matter how good the reports are, that does not mean I will go for the cheapest, I am not that type of person, but end of the day I cant just accept one quote as that would be a little mad

You say that you "can't just accept one quote".

But surely you are only going to accept just ONE quote!

You need a good local installer. Knock on your neighbour's doors and ask them for recomendations on who to call and more importantly who NOT to call !

Tony