Heating system replacement

[Fizzer]

I'd like some advice about which direction to go with heating our house.

We've just moved into a fairly large 5 bed semi which is not near mains gas (I've checked). It has 4 x 47KG propane tanks feeding a very old potterton boiler. I believe this is going to be expensive to run!
TRV's all seem siezed open so rooms get very hot - I've reduced the flow in these rads to try to keep a lid on it.
There is a cylinder near a v small bathroom. adjacent is another airing cupboard with a mass of pipes - also near the bathroom.
In addition there is a rayburn regent which feeds 3 separate rads in the house (with a pump) - this seems OK. Boiler is currently in the kitchen directly below the bathroom, rayburn is also in the kitchen on the other side.

As well as insulating the loft as much as possible and checking cavity insulation, I've been thinking about whether we should replace some/all elements of the heating system.
in our last house we had a natural gas baxi combi which was great, I like the idea of only heating water you need and the shower was great.

Would it be a fairly straightforward swap to replace the potterton with a modern lpg combi? At the same time reducing the mass of pipes and removing the tank?
I am assuming that this could be achieved quickly and without too much disruption to the existing infrastructure.

Is there are method of running the rayburn in tandem with a gas boiler of any kind?


TIA

Andy

 

[cross thread]

difficult to say without seeing property you are better getting a good engineer to survey and give advice after discussing your requirments ,most propertys can get free insulation

 

[muggles]

You want to put a combi in a five-bedroom house? Unless you've only got one bathroom and no en-suites, that would be madness...

You're right that it'll be expensive to run as-is, but changing the boiler isn't going to solve all of your problems - bottled gas is expensive. Is there nowhere that you can put an underground bulk tank?

You can certainly get kit to integrate the Rayburn with a modern boiler, but you might find that it's more trouble than it's worth. Is the Rayburn running off the bottles too?

 

[Fizzer]

Free insulation! Why didn't I think of that...

It has a single bathroom at the moment and we are thinking of adding an ensuite. Mind you, that's probably going to be electric.
Our experience of our baxi combi was buckets of hot water in our last place, mind you that was just a single bathroom. The shower was amazing!

Should have mentioned - rayburn is solid fuel.

There is space for an underground tank - is there a ready-reckoner anywhere for difference between bottled and bulk gas costs?