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Condensing boilers


VandA

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We have a large house with a commensurately (is that a word?) large gas bill. Can anyone who has replaced an ageing (30 year old) boiler with a condensing boiler let me know what sort of savings they are getting on their bills?

I'm just wondering where on the list of priorities a new boiler should be, in terms of payback time etc.
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We have a 4yr old condensing boiler, but never had one before that. We also have huge gas bills, but I think it's mainly because the price of gas (propane) has increased so much the last 2 years.

 Dec 2008     1.124,24€ per Tonne

   "      2009     1.184,04€ " """""""""

   "      2010     1.483,04€  """"""""""   which is about a 25% increase over the previous year's price.

A new condensing boiler would cost around 3-4000€ - there was a thread about this a few months ago.

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In UK we had a very old, inefficient gas boiler - 25 years or so. We changed it for a condensing boiler, and at about the same time had double glazing. The bills fell by a huge amount, but that was for both improvements. We changed the boiler for a new one after about 8 years; it was still working absolutely fine, but we wanted to move the position to another room, and decided it would be better to start from scratch. The new model seems much more efficient and quieter (not that the first sounded like a steam engine or anything!); bills are staying fairly low, despite rises in UK gas prices.
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[quote user="Patf"]We have a 4yr old condensing boiler, but never had one before that. We also have huge gas bills, but I think it's mainly because the price of gas (propane) has increased so much the last 2 years.

 Dec 2008     1.124,24€ per Tonne

   "      2009     1.184,04€ " """""""""

   "      2010     1.483,04€  """"""""""   which is about a 25% increase over the previous year's price.

A new condensing boiler would cost around 3-4000€ - there was a thread about this a few months ago.

[/quote]

Latest price January 2011          1770.00 Euro  per Tonne. So any savings on gas would really make a difference

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Its true.....

What I find dificult to understand is why anyone would continue to invest in that slippery slope of rising prices.

When does it become too much? I've passed that point but it seems others are still prepared to pay and pay an pay and pay and pa

Doesn't make sense ....!

 

 

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In terms of saving money by changing your boiler you are wasting your money.  Boilers 10 years ago were iro 95% efficient, even if they were 100% (not likely) you would only reduce your fuel nils by 5%.

I would be thinking of investing in the 400% efficient inverter AC units and get off the fossil fuel cash cow.

Here's a thought.  With France being 80%ish nuclear they are one of the few countries that are not going to be left in the dark (quite literally) when D day arrives and gas/oil runs out.  Do you think the producers of these commodities are going or would be allowed to announce the date their product runs out?

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[quote user="crossy67"]In terms of saving money by changing your boiler you are wasting your money.  Boilers 10 years ago were iro 95% efficient, even if they were 100% (not likely) you would only reduce your fuel nils by 5%.[/quote]

Our boiler is a little more than 10 years old and I suspect a lot less than 95% efficient
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We burn about €7k worth of gas a year so a 20% saving on that would pay for the new boiler pretty quickly! I just need to know whether anyone has experienced savings like that.

Our quote (we've had a couple) is for a 72kW Veissmann boiler - the boiler itself is €6500 plus the chimney lining etc takes it up to €15k. Not sure if I can wall mount one of these and vent it outside or whether that is even an option!

More investigation required I think..
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I have just had a look here http://www.homeheatingguide.co.uk/efficiency-tables.php?model=000845 to see how they compare to older boilers.  I compared our old Bosch 420 to our new 24cdi and to be honest my 90% is quite a bit out.  70% compared to 80%.  There are links on this site to some with claimed 90% efficiency, well worth the investment then.  I would still go for inverter AC units though, much cheaper to buy and run, especially with gas, oil and wood getting close to the same cost as electricity per btu and it's only going to get worse.

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It does seem an awful lot of money - but maybe you have a chateau like Sweet!  [:)]

I guess our new condensing boiler in the UK on its own cost maybe £800 for a 4-bedroom, reasonable-sized house. My husband did all the fitting of pipes etc, and our normal central heating chap did the safety checks and signed it off, so the actual work we paid for wasn't a huge amount. The plumber also bought all the pipes and the boiler on his company account, so we saved a bit that way; he installed our last boiler and has serviced it every year since then. He took pity on poor pensioners, knowing my OH is good at technical stuff..

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[quote user="crossy67"]I have just had a look here http://www.homeheatingguide.co.uk/efficiency-tables.php?model=000845 to see how they compare to older boilers.  I compared our old Bosch 420 to our new 24cdi and to be honest my 90% is quite a bit out.  70% compared to 80%.  There are links on this site to some with claimed 90% efficiency, well worth the investment then.  I would still go for inverter AC units though, much cheaper to buy and run, especially with gas, oil and wood getting close to the same cost as electricity per btu and it's only going to get worse.
[/quote]

You'll have to go some to beat a Keston boiler and they are made just up the road from me in Keston [:)]

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