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Everything is overpriced, but this seems just too much...
We live in a 3bed det house, boiler is running well but old and not efficient, British Gas came to inspect the house and give us FREE advice on how to save energy.
They advised to get a new energy efficient boiler, total cost about £4800. So we can SAVE about £150 a year.
Thieves.:angry:
What did expect them to say? 'Put an extra jumper on if it gets a bit chilly'?
I just want to punch them on the nose.
It might be cheaper to buy the new boiler :closed:
True. But not the same pleasure.Quote:
Originally Posted by Derby Tup
Thats WAY over the top! You should be able to get something reasonable for half that. Best advice is to do a local search for respectable heating engineers and get 3 quotes.
I doubt you would even save that much - the new boilers seem so complicated that they need constant attention to keep them going reliably - what you save in fuel you will lose in call-out fees or an expensive contract to cover these. The new "efficient" boilers are, I understand, now obligatory - some years back, before they became obligatory, a friend was advised by a heating engineer to replace his boiler with an old fashioned one as they were so much cheaper and easier to maintain. Clearly £4800 is much too much. We had to get a new boiler a couple of years back as our old one had burnt out - it took about 6 visits spread over 12 months from various engineers to get it going reliably - it cost just over £3,000.
Don't do it!! The whole condensing boiler thing is a massive rip-off and a red-herring: both in terms of the boilers themselves (which are crap and likely to break down within four years) and in terms of energy saving (the claims made for them are vastly exaggerated - it'll probably take a century for it to pay for itself, and it'll be on the scrapheap after about 10 years).Quote:
Originally Posted by Gambatte
If your old boiler's running well - leave it alone and save yourself a lot of money. I paid for my mum to have a new condensing boiler fitted to save her on her bills, when her old one was still in working order - the worst two grand I ever spent, a total waste of money.
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/b...-of-money.html
You're very naive if you expected anything else. The free energy survey is just an excuse to get into your house and try and sell you something.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gambatte
Where's Boiler Insider when you need him.
The best boilers were designed forty or fifty years ago, and are still made in Bolton :closed:Quote:
Originally Posted by Hank
where are you based.
i know a good honest plumber,
he is based in bradford
I think you'll find that's materials produced in China are put together in the UK just enough to legally get away with saying "made in Bolton"!Quote:
Originally Posted by Derby Tup
You mean 'Mike the Boilerman' ??Quote:
Originally Posted by Hank
http://www.miketheboilerman.com/
The other British Gas rip off is telling you every year that the parts for older boilers are hard to get hold of and it might be difficult to repair in the future.
But they've been telling me that for 5 years and still get parts on the same day!
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
No point replacing summat that works.
I've seen similar posts on this here forum from folk who are obviously close to the Boiler Insider. Is there any evidence, or proof of this or is it a story put about to stir up the household appliance market?Quote:
Originally Posted by Hank
Made or Born...?Quote:
Originally Posted by Derby Tup
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hank
Most stuff is made abroad including alot of out door kit. it only has to be finished in England to get the "Made in England" labelQuote:
Originally Posted by Derby Tup
Of course you are all missing the obviuos here.... Get a wood burner! My gas bills are less than they were 2 years ago, we had 2 gas fires which havent been on since and the central heating only goes on low when the welder is needed for the brass monkeys...!
Wasn't there a thread about this in the 'Equipment' section?Quote:
Originally Posted by Derby Tup
Does Norman Walsh make them?
Yes, we are thinking about this. Only issue is how to rearrange the living room sofa bookcase tv etc, but I admit it's very tempting, we'll see ...Quote:
Originally Posted by IanDarkpeak
Someone at Lakes Runner told me that thing about them basically being made in China but 'finished' here. Not sure why he was telling me about boilers, but he was very helpful.
I want a wood burner in my new house, I do I do I do... At the moment it's got no central heating, but has got some of those horrid storage heaters and a couple of gas fires.
Gambatte, If the old gas boiler is working ok why change it? How old is it? Most older gas boilers are around 70-75% efficient and condensing gas boilers are 15-20% better but are expensive and more complex. If the boiler provides hot water, you can improve system efficiency by having this pumped and by having a well insulated hot water cylinder. ydt
Coal fire. Its the way forward.
better to spend the money on good insulation, I have saved far more that way with loft insulation and cavity walls
I work in the heating industry, and if you want my two pence, here it is.....
The company mentioned are well known in the industry for charging excessive prices, they work on the fact that people trust the brand and therefore can get away with it. In reality, they often use subcontractors (jim the plumber from down the road or whoever) to do the work and had you gone to them direct you would have probably saved half the price. New boilers are definitely more efficient when set up and used correctly, and if you buy a decent boiler to start with like Worcester-bosch or Vaillant for example, you will get a pretty reliable decent quality product with a reasonable warranty. This doesn't mean it won't break down, because modern boilers by necessity (to help make them more efficient) contain numerous electronic components and sensors thus increasing the chance of a fault simply by the law of averages, ie more things to go wrong. The main benefit of buying a more expensive quality boiler however, is the fact that spares will be much much cheaper when they do go wrong. I've known some cheaper boilers that if two or three parts go it costs more than the boiler, these are just a rip off.
That said, I have a £20 year old vaillant in my house, and as long as it continues to give me trouble free heating and hot water I won't be touching it. The older ones are much more reliable. Some only have 2-3 parts that can fault and even if they all went at once it would only cost a couple of hundred quid. Modern boilers have PCB's that can cost more than that for just one. Stick with the old one, it makes sense.
I realised the root of the problem when I got to British Gas. We had our whole central heating and new boiler done for cheaper than that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gambatte
You have got a great name for someone who works in the heating industry Rob.
:thumbup:Quote:
Originally Posted by Grouse
Anyway shouldn't we be going nuclear on domestic boilers by now?
Not as "Green" as a woodburner TrevQuote:
Originally Posted by Stagger
Annual boiler service today - condenser - we discussed their reputation for complexity/unreliability - engineer claimed 95% of the boiler breakdowns he was called to were either installation errors - poorly installed condenser outlet/wiring problems - or flat thermostat batteries! Ours has been fine the last year, thankfully.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gambatte
That is way over the top. I've had a new boiler fitted recently and I paid 800 quid. It Is a condensing boiler and made by vallant, well pleased. Ok my son is a plumber so gave him 50 quid to fit it!!!!!!!!!!! you can find this boiler on-line for roughly the same price I payed
We just had a new boiler fitted, paid a grand in total, for boiler and installation. I'm in Silsden, if it helps. I'm sure our local guy would like your business!
How much does installation normally cost? We paid - in 2008 - for an Eco tech pro/installation - £2,500 plus VAT - it would seem we were completely ripped off!
If I were buying an Ecotec pro I would expect to pay around £700 for the boiler depending on which model and a bit extra for the flue (Ecotec Plus are a bit more still). I get them a bit cheaper because of where I work and obviously it depends on the output and the amount of flue required, also whether you need a built in timer/wireless thermostat etc. Installation would depend on the amount of work required and would vary hugely. I don't do any private work so I'm no good at pricing up, however, a standard boiler swap for another combi would probably take me up to half a day from start to finish so you can make your own mind up from that. £2500 sounds steep Mike, but without knowing the exact situation it wouldn't be that easy to say.
Just been made aware of the latest boiler rip-off. I am shortly going to have a new oil boiler fitted and have been told I will have to pay an extra £120 Clean Heat Market Mechanism charge.
What is this I asked and apparently it is because the boiler manufactures are not meeting their targets for the sale of air source heat pumps they have been fined and are passing it on to buyers of oil boilers like me who have no choice in the matter. Outrageous!
This came in 2 days ago on 1st Jan 2024. It will apply to those of you lucky enough to have gas too.
I have spoken to three installers, and the guy from Worcester Bosch who has been servicing our aged oil boiler, and none of them would touch or recommend installation of air source heat pumps unless it was for a new build that was fully insulated. Even then they say that unless combined with solar panels the electricity required to run them is prohibitive.
One of the installers is fitting an oil boiler to a customer who is removing recently fitted air source heat pumps as they are not up to the job.
The sooner we stop listening to the shite spouted by the likes of Greta Thunberg and Damian Hall, the better!
I work in the industry.
You can't simply retro-fit air-source into an existing installation. They operate at lower temperatures, and therefore you would need to upgrade all your radiators to get the same heat output.
They are best suited to new builds, and then they are more suited to underfloor heating, which generally works on lower temperatures than traditional radiators.
I am often tendering for projects which are specified with air source. However it is usually the first thing to be scrapped when the client realises how prohibitive the initial costs can be. Although gas is really dying out from large-scale projects, and often electric panel radiators are used instead.
Because of market rigging by the Government. No other reason.Quote:
Originally Posted by Travs
Llani's current problem is only the latest and a relatively small financial transfer from "desirable and reliable" energy to "undesirable and unreliable" energy.
So when you hear that Net Zero scepticism is creeping in to the current Tory Government, do not believe it. It isn't.
We have one destination and two routes. Tory and Labour.
Well, gas is generally not being specified as buildings are built for a minimum 50 year lifespan.
There is a general policy to move away from gas (where possible), i assume as reserves of gas aren't infinite.