Re: Central heating boilers

[Martin Howell <martin.howell@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks to all who offered boiler suggestions, currently waiting for
the=20
man from B Gas to come and give a quote in a couple of weeks.  The old=20
boiler has done a good job of heating the place and if it wasn't so=20
unreliable I would keep it.  It lives on a north facing wall so adding=20
the weather comp won't be a problem, I guess its benefit depends on how=20
much Mr Gas charges for it.  Watch this space.

M

Martin Howell
Woodworker, artist and engineer

On 21/07/2013 21:42, Simon Haslam wrote:
> I've got a Viessmann WB1B system boiler (there's a newer WB1C version
now=
) and have been v pleased with it - it has a long warranty (5 years or so)
=
and hasn't missed a beat (3 winters so far, serviced annually). I had some
=
questions for their technical support and they were superb - same day
usual=
ly, even when referred back to Germany. They're still fairly unusual in
the=
UK I think - my plumbing firm sent one of their engineers on the Viessmann=
training in Telford to get them certified (and for the extended warranty).=
I did consider Keston as it would have been nice to use a British manufact=
urer and their specs looked OK, but sadly read nothing but trouble about
th=
em online. Vaillant was on my short-list too - definitely more plumbers
kno=
w them but they didn't have an OpenTherm interface (which was on my HA
wish=
-list, though as yet unused!). I think having something that your plumber
w=
ill be familiar/happy with is important - in that respect Worcester
>   Bosch is probably most common.
>
> I've also got weather compensation, plus my HA system can switch in an
ad=
ditional resistor (using a 1-wire controlled relay) to lower the flow temp
=
further. If you compare the performance charts you will see a 10% or more
(=
IIRC) difference in efficiency at something like 70C flow compared to 40C
(=
UFH) IIRC and so there are gains to be made. The benefit probably partly
de=
pends on whether you can be bothered turning down/up the boiler output
betw=
een autumn/spring and winter though. Weather compensation is built into
the=
Viessmann circuit board (this is their entry level too) but you need to bu=
y their thermistor/cable assembly, though it wasn't a ludicrous price
(~=A3=
20 I think) - providing you can get a cable to a north facing wall it
seems=
pointless to scrimp on it.  I think with a better insulated house the gain=
from weather compensation should be better than an old house too as you do=
n't need a high output to change the temperature, only to maintain
>   temperature in very cold weather. I can't remember if weather comp
is i=
n the building regs for new build yet but I expect it will be soon.
>
> Anyway, my new heating system made a huge saving on gas usage (~50%)
but =
that was due to a lot of factors other than just the boiler (re-siting the
=
boiler in the middle of the house & moving the pipes out of the loft,
havin=
g a small condensing boiler instead of a 10 year old F-rated oversized
(44k=
W!) clunker, proper controls (7 zones), etc, etc).
>
> HTH
>
>
>
> Simon
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>




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