My current boiler is an Ideal HE12 Heat Only (with hot water cylinder), and this always surprised me as the house is relatively big (5 bedrooms, 18 Radiators, 3 Showers, 2 bothers. That said, many of the radiators are small.. And the house is modern and well insulated.
I always felt that 12kW was too small for a house of this size and after speaking to neighbours, it seems that in the 2 years that it took them to build the whole estate (only 24 houses), they changed to 15kW and finally 18Kw as they did it.. So the last (identical) houses to be built had 18kW (Ideal HE18).
But all this said, my HE12 is fine.. It can easily heat the house/water on the coldest of days.
However, its finally developed a fault time for a new one, so I started getting quotes assuming they would scoff at the current and suggest I upgraded.. But they didn't.. My first 2 quotes told me that 15kW was fine and when I insisted they agreed 18kW max (against their advice)
Before I gave them the go ahead I got a couple more quotes (including British Gas) and they said that i needed 24kW at a minimum...
So I have a 50/50 view.. The 15kW fitters say that I should go smaller and let the boiler work.. Their view is that a bigger boiler will constantly modulate and generate too much heat that it can't get rid of.
In contrast the 24kW guys say that a small boiler will be over worked and will fail prematurely..
An easy decision has now turned into a nightmare... At the end of the day, the current 12kW has worked perfectly well for 15 years and heats well, so a 15kW (or even 18kW) should be fine surely... But I am not adverse to going for a 24kW if there is no downside.
Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
I always felt that 12kW was too small for a house of this size and after speaking to neighbours, it seems that in the 2 years that it took them to build the whole estate (only 24 houses), they changed to 15kW and finally 18Kw as they did it.. So the last (identical) houses to be built had 18kW (Ideal HE18).
But all this said, my HE12 is fine.. It can easily heat the house/water on the coldest of days.
However, its finally developed a fault time for a new one, so I started getting quotes assuming they would scoff at the current and suggest I upgraded.. But they didn't.. My first 2 quotes told me that 15kW was fine and when I insisted they agreed 18kW max (against their advice)
Before I gave them the go ahead I got a couple more quotes (including British Gas) and they said that i needed 24kW at a minimum...
So I have a 50/50 view.. The 15kW fitters say that I should go smaller and let the boiler work.. Their view is that a bigger boiler will constantly modulate and generate too much heat that it can't get rid of.
In contrast the 24kW guys say that a small boiler will be over worked and will fail prematurely..
An easy decision has now turned into a nightmare... At the end of the day, the current 12kW has worked perfectly well for 15 years and heats well, so a 15kW (or even 18kW) should be fine surely... But I am not adverse to going for a 24kW if there is no downside.
Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
