New gas installation

ericbrad · Feb 29, 2012

We are having gas installed to our, at present, all electric house. The main reason we want it is so we can get rid of the hot water cylinder in the bathroom cupboard. It`s a combination cylinder with cold water tank above the hot water. It spends every night heating up on off peak electricity, but the water is never very hot, especially later in the day. The boost immersion heater near the top of the tank has not worked for years, but it`s impossible to replace it with a new one as it is jammed solid and will not unscrew.
So if we have a combi boiler installed we can have on demand hot water. Then the cylinder can be ripped out, giving us much more storage space in the bathroom cupboard.
We could also have a decent mixer shower installed, to replace our electric one.

As regards central heating though, I`m not sure whether we should have it installed. It would mean major upheaval as we have solid floors downstairs so all the pipework would have to be routed under the bedroom floors.

We have electric storage heaters downstairs and convector heaters upstairs at present ( we rarely use the convector heaters). The advantage of storage heaters is that they stay warm all day, and as we are retired we are at home all day. Whereas central heating radiators go cold when the heating switches off.

Any help and advice most welcome.

Simon F · Feb 29, 2012

if you only want hot water you could just have a mutipoint gas water heater
or it might be worth having the combi boiler and fitting some radiators that were easy to install

Barry98 · Feb 29, 2012

welcome eric , ive read your post a few times what exactly are you wanting advice on . the boiler make and size ? the costs ? etc

thanks

ericbrad · Feb 29, 2012

bod said:
welcome eric , ive read your post a few times what exactly are you wanting advice on . the boiler make and size ? the costs ? etc

thanks

Hi. I am realy asking if members agree that we should keep the storage heaters, and just use the gas supply for instant hot water. I also wondered whether it would be worth having a combi boiler with enough capacity to run a central heating system fitted, in case we change our minds about keeping the storage heating in the future. I suppose that comes down to boiler costs though. How much more expensive would a boiler capable or heating 6 radiators be compared to the cost of one just for hot water?

ericbrad · Feb 29, 2012

I hadn`t though about a multipoint gas water heater. After another talk with my wife we have decided that there is very little chance that we would ever have central heating installed. We are quite happy with the storage heating. So I suppose a multipoint heater would be a good idea.

mountainman · Feb 29, 2012

Hi Eric
All combination boilers are sized for the hot water demand which is far greater than your heating demand would be.
A 28kw boiler would give you plenty of hot water and a really good shower.
As for heating the question is how much does it cost to run your storage heaters versus the cost of fitting radiators.
As has already been suggested, a gas multipoint water heater may be your best and most cost effective choice.