Converting OFCH to Natural Gas

[ross2012]

Hi Guys,

New here and have a question relating to a house I am looking at purchasing. The house curretnly has OFCH and we would like to get Gas installed. Natural gas is available in the area and the hosue is only approx. 10 years old, so current pipe etc should be in good condition. The question I have is regarding the work required to complete the conversion. I understand that I need a Gas Safe engineer to work with any gas appliance. In the bathroom there is a sizeable hot press with hot water cylinder. This is againast a gable wall so I was thinking isntalling it here would be ideal for the flu. Can the boiler be installed using the flow and return pipes that supply the hot water cylinder and just cap off or link the old pipework at the old oil boiler? Means that the hot water pipes would already be there too, meaning the only other pipe required would be the water mains, but shouldn't be too big a task as it should be supplying the cold water taps in the bathroom.

Is this the normal process for conversions in newer houses? What other obstacles are we likely to encounter?

All help appreciated. Just trying to gauge what size of job this will be and how much we are looking at in labour charges?

Thanks
Ross

 

[muggles]

The first thing you need to do is find out how much it is going to cost you to get a gas supply run to your house, and a meter installed. This might put you off the idea altogether.

If it doesn't, then I'd recommend connecting in the new boiler before you remove the old one. You should be able to use the primaries to the hot water cylinder to feed your heating system, but there will be a certain amount of re-jigging of pipework to be done to make it work properly.

As you presumably still have some oil left, I'd be inclined to get the gas boiler linked in and ready to go (but isolated from the system), and leave the oil boiler installed and running until you run out of oil. You can then simply call your installer and ask him to disconnect the oil boiler and fire up the gas one. Whether this is actually possible will depend on the exact configuration of your current pipework. If you go for doing it by this method, get your installer to put some cleaning chemical in when he refills after connecting the new gas boiler, that way your system will get a good clean out before the old boiler is connected.

 

[numpty1]

straight forward enough,contact supplier and agree position of meter FIRST,just because the house is only ten year old does not mean it will be compliant with current legislation,you need to decide heat only boiler or combi then check out what offers are available from supplier,this is where you need to be careful and choose your boiler/installer carefully, most of the deals at the moment in your area are quite restrictive greenstars jnr range or basic valliants .both are ok but do have drawbacks avoid ferrolli if you can, all three have ltd manufactures cover but it is slowly improving in the province.

try not to swallow the bs that both suppliers will feed you neither of the suppliers install heating but use approved contractors which can be problematic sometimes.