Electric Boiler Question

[Sonic70]

Just been to look at a 70s house with my nephew who is looking to buy his first home and the property had an electric boiler in the loft. What I did notice was that where the pipes come out of the boiler they had all been connected up with Flexi hoses, I know you would not do this on a gas boiler and it doesn't look right to me but I've never seen an electric boiler before so I'm asking the question on here if anyone knows if this is correct? Also what are the general thoughts on these electric boilers? This one says 'Strom' on the front.

Victor

 

[Sonic70]

In fact it comes out the boiler on a flexi and joins a couple of meters of copper pipe and then joins plastic speedfit pipe. Looks shoddy to me.

 

[Murdochcat]

If you want to buy it, make sure you get the heating system properly inspected etc

 

[stem]

I've seen one in the past (in a holiday let) and it had flexi hoses, a quick internet search of 'Strom Boiler' images also showed quite a few with them as well, so, I suspect it's OK, if not the norm.

However, running costs will be an issue. The running cost of an electric boiler will be 3 to 4 times that of a gas boiler. So I would ask to see the present owners last winter electricity bill.

 

[Sonic70]

Thanks appreciate the replies. The flexis look pants but if it's the norm.

 

[flameport]

nephew who is looking to buy his first home and the property had an electric boiler in the loft.

Hoses and how it's installed aside - if he goes for that property it should have a very substantial reduction in the asking price, as an electric boiler is a gigantic negative in every way.

 

[Sonic70]

I will tell him that flameport. I overheard the estate agent telling him it was cheap to run lol.

 

[Sonic70]

I havent looked into electric boilers, apart from running Costs what are the other negatives with them.

 

[flameport]

If it's a combi boiler (hot water on demand) then it's performance will be feeble, think of filling a bath using an electric shower and you get the idea.
Single phase electric combi limited to about 12kW, and even a small gas combi will be 24kW or more.
Some electric boilers are less than 12kW and are therefore even worse.

If it's being used to heat a hot water cylinder then it's less efficient than just having an immersion heater in the cylinder as there will also be a pump and various lengths of pipework between boiler and cylinder, and that's also more things to go wrong.

For heating the building it may be adequate - or perhaps not, all depends on the heating requirements. Same ~12kW limitations on heat output which is due to the electricity supply, there is no way around that other than a 3 phase supply which will not exist in the majority of domestic properties.

12kW is also shoving up against the absolute maximum for a domestic electricity supply and could well be over it in some cases once other items in the property are in use.
If the installer checked this properly and made enquires with the DNO before installation as they should have, then perhaps not a problem.
More likely it was just slung in and they hoped it wouldn't take out the main fuse all that often.

Basically electric boilers have no real use cases and should not exist. Even if electricity is the only option available, there are better choices for space heating and hot water.

 

[Sonic70]

The wiring to it and plumbing look like they may of been put In by homeowner. For instance the cables are poorly clipped to wall and cable not straight, breaker on wall is not level either.

 

[Sonic70]

Also I'm not sure the cable going in is adequately sized.

 

[Sonic70]

My son reckons its 10mm but I thought it needed to be 16mm

 

[ETAF]

A friend of mine is all electric and had very old overnight storage heaters on E7 , she was then sold some all day radiators by a well known company advertiesed on TV and told this would be better and cheaper than her current setup - any long story - she went ahead and the BILL doubled !!!! that was in KW - as i used to keep a note of all her reading etc - and now with the increase in the last few years it very very expensive - her monthly bill is £1,200 now from £400 before covid

so beware - and as suggested get some visibility of previous bills at least for the last year or 2

 

[Sonic70]

Just done second viewing. 16mm cable feeding boiler in loft with a 63a breaker next to boiler. 63a mcb in fuseboard with main 100a rccb. Incoming Fuse next to outside electric meter is only 60A though.

 

[ETAF]

did you note the make model and kW of the boiler
How many radiators is it feeding