House with two boilers!

[Megahertz]

Hello Everyone

This is my first post so I thought I'd start with something simple (not!)

We've just moved into a 100year old house which has been knocked about considerably. 20 years ago it was two flats, with separate heating and electricity systems, then it was an old peoples' home for a few years, before being turned back into a private house.

Fortunately it has been recently rewired, which just leaves the heating in a mess! It has obviously been 'bodged' considerably, and still has a few horrors such as lead pipes and a very dodgy looking header tank in the loft which I am intending to replace over the next few days if it doesn't collapse first!

The main question I need help with is this:-

Currently, we have two boilers in the house, and two seperate heating systems. The upstairs system is a fully pumped system, with indirect boiler system for hot water. This supplies hot water to all the hot taps in the house. All the upstairs radiators are also fed from this system.

A second system downstairs feeds hot water to all the downstairs radiators. There is a very old cylinder downstairs which has been disconnected, although I believe the coil inside is still connected to the downstairs boiler as it does get warm when the heating is on.

The two systems aren't connected together in any way as far as I can tell. Currently there are three tanks in the loft. The biggest is the header for the hot water supply, and as far as I can tell the cold water taps are fed from this as well. The tank which needs replacing is the header for the upstairs boiler, and the third tank is the header for the downstairs boiler.

My intention is to carry out a major refurbishment of the back of the house in about two years time (I can't afford it before then) so this would seem the best time to rip out the heating system and replace most if not all of it. I can cope with the occasional leaky pipe or blocked radiator in the meantime as long as nothing major happens!

But, are there any disadvantages in having two boilers? Obviously most houses just have one so am I paying over the odds for gas? At the moment as it's cold I pretty much have all the systems on all the time anyway, but are there benefits, say, in having the downstairs radiators on during the day and the upstairs ones on at night? I'm sure I read something on one of these posts that it was a false economy to have part of the house cold?

Should I be aiming to move the system over to just one boiler or is it likely to be better in the longer term to have two systems? Clearly, some of the work is fairly recent (plastic pipes etc) although there is still some lead pipework as well. Is this a sign that repairs have been done on the cheap? Is is better to rip the whole system out and start again, or would it be better to keep the good bits and upgrade the rest?

The other point to mention is that whilst we can barely afford the house at the moment we intend to stay here for the duration so we are definitely thinking long term. The house is big, but not overly large - a five bedroom victorian semi. All of our neighbours only have one boiler!

I do realise that some of my questions are a little subjective, but would welcome any comments or thoughts you experts might have! I'm fully expecting to make some repairs over the next few months but would like to have a fixed plan in mind so I have something to aim for, rather than just patching it up!


Thanks in advance for any advice!

Tim James

 

[lord nicon21]

well well it looks like your going to be having some fun with this lol
if i was you i would only have one boiler system. now what you need to look at is which one is better and will it do the job of heating the hole house.

at one time there was only one boiler system in the house fine out where it was if you can and see what if my pipe work is still there.


but really over time you want to rip it all out by the sounds of it and start again but most of the pipe work if looks ok and if its in the right place you can use again.

try putting the other boiler on ebay to try and get some money back coz by the sounds of it if you can do most of it your self its mostly pipe work if the boiler needs moving and its gas get some one in unless you know what your doing.

hope it helps i might of said things more than once sorry its just a bit post

 

[oilman]

I'm sure I read something on one of these posts that it was a false economy to have part of the house cold?

Rubbish. The colder you have the house or part, the less it costs to heat. Houses do not suffer because of lack of heat, they suffer because of lack of ventilation.

Why not have two boilers? look throught the forum posts and see all the problems people have with their boilers. If they have only one boiler, they have no heat, and if they have a combi, they have no hot water either. You could connect the two circuits and the two boilers to a single system, look here

I don't know why you would want to heat the bedrooms at night, but I accept it might be nice to wake up to a warm bedroom. With independant systems you have the basis for the current building regs requirements with seperate upstairs and downstairs zones.

 

[Megahertz]

Thanks for the advice guys!

Just to lead on from what you said - if the pipework looks ok is it still ok to use it? Even if it's quite old? Impossible to determine the exact age but does copper pipe have a lifespan? Is it worth flushing it out? I don't expect that the correct procedures have been followed with regard to putting inhibitors in the system seeing as most of it has been done on the cheap.

And also, we still have some lead pipe - should I think about replacing this or can this be kept if it's sound? My dad (who's not around anymore) was the only person I ever knew who could make lead joints!

Cheers


Tim James

 

[kevplumb]

do you have moles where you live

 

[felix]

If you need both systems running to keep the house warm I suspect that one boiler alone will not be big enough. Of course you could reduce your boiler requirement - and gas bill - by improving your insulation. Come to think of it, in a house that old you might not even have any insulation. I rented rooms in a couple of of old houses in my student days and they tended to have solid walls, minimal loft insulation and enough draughts to run a small wind farm. I even heard of somebody who rigged up a fan as a generator and put it in the wall between two rooms. He though he was getting free power!

You need to do some heat loss calculations, both for the house as it is and for the house as it could be. That will tell you what size boiler you need. Hopefully one will be enough. You can extend the fully pumped upstairs heating downwards. The downstairs system sounds like it's not so good to start with.

Lead pipe was in common use for water supplies, both hot and cold. I've never heard of it being used for heating - that would have been iron - but there's always a first time! Lead is poisonous so get rid of it. Go all the way back to the mains supply in the street if have to. Ask your water company about updating their part of the pipe. If you're really lucky they might give you a new plastic pipe and street stopcock for free. Ours did.
You'll have to lay new pipe on your side of that stopcock yourself.

Can't afford all that? At the very least you should eliminate all lead on your side of the house stopcock.

 

[felix]

I remember the advice back in the sixties about optimum room temperatures. The recommended temp for a bedroom was 55 deg F. That could only have been written by somebody who thought bedrooms were for sleeping!

 

[wilhelm]

they still are, if youre married.

 

[kevplumb]

 

[lord nicon21]

they still are, if youre married.

lol well unless she wants kids but anyway back the this heating thingy. it would be nice to get some pics or a boiler systems

 

[kevplumb]

http://content.honeywell.com/uk/homes/systems.htm#C

fill yer boots mate