Combi or Conventional

[StuB]

Hi All,

I'm sorry for posting a question which you must all hear all the time but I could do with some advice.

Myself and my girlfriend live in a 1920's 3 bed house which currently has one bathroom with a bath and a shower. The heating and hot water is currently supplied by a working but old Baxi Bermuda GF Super. We have a couple of cold water tanks in the loft and a hot water tank in the bathroom.

We are currently renovating the house and are looking to update the whole heating system and the question is should we go for a combi boiler or a conventional system.

A combi would free up room in our bathroom and loft and hopefully reduce our heating bills a bit too. The kitchen tap flows about 19 l/min and seems to have reasonable pressure although I haven't actually measured it.

Our concern is, is a combi capable suitable for us? Can a combi run a shower and not be drastically affected if someone turns the kitchen tap on?

The model of combi we're looking at is a Ferroli Maxima which is supposed to flow about 15 litres. Our current system only flows about 8 litres a minute so we're expecting some improvement.

We have been quoted £2600 for the boiler, 9 rads, new piping and install costs including removing the old tanks and positioning the boiler in the loft. Does this sound reasonable?

Sorry for the long post but any opinions or advice would be welcome.

Cheers

Stu

 

[breezer]

i havent a clue about price, but there is only me and mrs breezer, we are happy with a combi, it suits us very well, how ever, as its a combi you can not have a shower and do the washing up at the same time (perhaps we should take washing up IN the shower) this is because the combi can not supply shower and sink tap at same time.

If there is just the 2 of you fine, but even if you think there may be more little StuB's in the future dont have a combi as it will not be able to cope.

Other thing is , combi's seem to have lots of bits (that can and do go wrong) my old back boiler didn't and never went wrong (but we don't live there any more)

 

[oilman]

........and hopefully reduce our heating bills a bit......

A combi will make no difference to your heating bills. You may not spend quite as much on hot water but this will be made up for by your continual maintenance bills.

(Steps onto soap box)
I don't know why people want the benefit of a small amount of space compared with the aggro of living with a combi. The 15 litres /min will vary with the incoming water temperature, unless you like tepid showers in the winter, or a low flow rate for a hot one. You will also have no back-up if your boiler goes wrong, ie NO HOT WATER!!! This is the real crunch.

Your present system is very reliable, and very low maintenance. Ours has lasted 20 years, with no maintenance except for immersion heaters, but then that's what provides the hot water.

If you can get boiler manufacturers to speak candidly, many of them would not install a combi except in a very small building, and whose occupants are somewhere else most of the time.

(Gets off soap box)

Please , please install a combi and give a heating engineer a job for life

 

[StuB]

Thanks for the replies guys. You are basically backing up what I'm hearing from other people. I think I'll look into other alternatives a bit more.

Any other opinions gratefully received.

Cheers

Stu