Choosing an oil-fired boiler

[DRW]

Hi,

Hope someone can help me to select a new oil-fired boiler. I've done a search on here, and see the likes of Worcester, Grant and Boulter are recommended. Are there any others to consider?

I'm looking for a floor-standing utility (or even boiler house) model of about 100,000 BTU. It's to run a 200-year-old three-storey farmhouse with about 15 (not built the kitchen extension yet) new column radiators and two or three bathrooms.

I don't like combis, and am not convinced by the benefits of condensing boilers.

Thanks for any help.

 

[cozzmic]

Grant's are very good no problems to report, heard that the Boulter has had probs with their L/L BF but this may be resolvewd now. Worcester are a reputable make, but myself wouldn't look past the Grant.
Just installed two multi-pass 160/200 boiler house models this week and they are very quite constidering they don't have a fully enclosed casing. The smaller models have the RDB burners and a practically silent inside.
Hope this is of some use to you. ps the grant has a 5 year shell warranty I think.

 

[COG]

Worcester and Grant both good boilers but you should consider a condensing oil boiler with the price of oil still going up. An avv flue temp for a 100,000btu oil boiler is between 200 to 240 deg C , a condensing boiler has a flue gas temp below 60deg C if set up corectly.

 

[oilman]

Don't bother about condensing boilers. You will not recover the extra outlay by the time it comes to replace the extra parts, and the servicing costs will be higher. A high efficiency unit like the multipass, is more efficient than a gas condenser. Grants are the only (to my knowledge) company that make a boilerhouse model, which you should have if it's in a boilerhouse, (except when you get to larger commercial units). The bigger Grants use a Sterling burner. Which ever burner you have, I could make it virtually silent, (no more noise than a laser printer).

The number of radiators you have is irrelevant, you need to find out the heat losses, then decide how much of them the boiler is going to provide.

You should be looking at zoning the installation (mandatory), and putting in some controls so you aren't chucking heat away willy nilly, in parts of the house you do not need heating all the time. With a house that big I would seriously consider 2 boilers. One supplying 60% and the other 40%, Its a bit of a pain when your only boiler packs up and you can't get it fixed for a couple of days. This will allow the use of two smaller boilers, but you will need 2 flues.

 

[DRW]

Thanks very much for the advice – a Grant is on my shopping list. Out of interest, is there much difference between the Euroflame and Multi Pass? We've no intention of ever selling the house, so ideally want to invest in the right boiler for the job.

My current favourite is the Multi Pass 90/140 boiler house model. It's going to live in a separate room of its own, so is it worth spending an extra £150 on one that looks a bit prettier?

The twin boiler set-up sounds interesting, but we work from home, so want the whole house warm all the time. I've spent enough cash on sticking Kingspan everywhere, so hopefully it should retain some heat before it all departs through the sash windows...

Finally, Oilman: is it a specialist job to make the boiler extra-quiet, or something you supply?