Which Central Heating System?

[Piper]

Which is the best central heating system for the a 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom house.

From my research it has been suggested that a condensing system boiler + an unvented hot water cylinder would be the best system.

Is the above correct? If so which products/ manufacturer would you recommend?

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[corgiman]

Yes that system would fall under Building Regs BEST PRACTICE for central heating and hot water provision (subject to tests being carried out on the water supply for the unvented cylinder pressure and flow rate did they spend any time at your kitchen tap? if they did not then they did not do the tests)

Also insure that the installer is CORGI registered, holds the G3 certificate for the intsallation of Unvented Cylinders and, finally ensure that they will be informing the local authority that an unvented cylinder is being installed. Normally this is just a matter of dropping them a line but, depending on which authority, a charge may be incurred.

As for what manufacturer my recommendations (based on good quality stuff and excellent after sales service should a problem arise) are

Heat Rae Sadia MEGAFLOW cylinder (ten year warrantee) and an Ideal ICOS condensing boiler (new model is a HUGE improvement on the old and comes with a two year guarantee)

Costs

Icos (plumb Centre) $600 plus VAT
Megaflow 120 $ 500 Plus VAT

don't forget to conform to best practice the Building Regs State that the following should be installed/carried out

1 Thermostatic Radiator Valves on ALL radiators except one that is in the same room as the room thermostat.

2 Cylinder (Megaflow has an inbuilt one so a saving of a tenner to be made here) thermostats MUST be installed.

3 A programmable Room Thermostat with Anticipator MUST be fitted

4 if the property is of an area bigger than 150m2 then a second heating Zone valve MUST be fitted

5 A Full Programmer That allows the heating and Hot Water to be controlled and time separate MUST be fitted

If you want any further info for the Energy efficiency Building Regs (2002) just visit

www.boilers.org.uk

Hope this helps some Good Luck with it

 

[oilman]

Depends what you mean by "best". What corgiman has detailed may be, but remember the cost of maintenance and servicing the unvented cylinder. Compare this with the servicing of a vented cylinder. Replace ball valve washer every 15 years, er... that's it. As for condensing there are things to consider as well as theoretical fuel efficiency.

 

[corgiman]

what I meant by BEST oilman was best practice to CENTRAL HEATING SYSTEM SPECIFICATIONS (CHeSS) 2002 and PART L BUILDING REGS 2002

These documents list out both BASIC requirement and BEST PRACTICE requirements for NEW and REPLACE/UPGRADED Central heating SYSTEM
I believe that next year OIL appliance will fall in under this and OFTEC will get some rather large Teeth to enforce it

Obviously you only have to adere to the basic.

Hope this clears what I meant by BEST

Condensing Boilers have suffered from the belief in certain myths one of the biggest being reliabilty, these days they are about as reliable, and as costly to maintain as regular non condensing boilers but consideraby cheaper to run and will save, for the average three bedroom detacthed property 120-150 per year on fuel bills not to mention the savings made on the efficiency of the coil in the cylinder, compensators and TRVs.

Dont take my word for it visit

www.boilers.org.uk

I heartly agree about the cost aspect and , at present, you still have the luxury of choosing (except the cylinder as cheap medium duty jobbies are no longer availible) as next year you will have to adhere to PART L and CHeSS.

 

[corgiman]

Sorry I have just read your statement oilman of theoretical fuel efficiency

No theory to it its just a fact, thanks to the new heat exchanger technology a SEDBUK rated A appliances is considerable cheaper to run even when its not condensing.