"Andy Hall" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 22 Sep 2004 17:57:19 +0000 (UTC), "John"
wrote:

My Mum wants to do away with her immersion and loft tank (surveyor says
loft
tank in need of replacement, also convenience of instant hot water etc.).
She has had a quote from a guy who used to be the plumber at her factory
before it shut down and they all got made redundant. He has set up on
his
own and is CORGI registered, I asked her to make sure and look at his
card!
She doesn't need a combi as she has gas wall heaters and doesn't want
radiators so it is just for hot water, also removal of loft tank and
copper
cylinder etc, (the boiler is going in this cupboard). He has quoted her
"about £800, might be a bit cheaper". I appreciate you cannot see the
pipe
runs but the gas supply is on that side of the house, almost below where
the
bolier is going and presumably it is a case of connecting to the hot
water
pipework to that already in the cupboard, and a new rising main feed to
the
boiler. She is reluctant to get another quote because "George is
alright,
I've known him for years!" Is this a reasonable quote based on the
information I have given?

If this helps with the boiler spec. it is a 3 bed semi with one bath, one
sink and the kitchen sink . Bathroom is above kitchen and the 'immersion
cupboard' is next to the bathroom so pipe runs are only quite short from
the
boiler

Cheers

John


This isn't a bad price at all. An instant water heater costs about
£350 with all the bits, so £450 for what will probably be 3 days work
is not unreasonable. There's a fair amount of fiddling to do.

Do check the mains water flow rate before committing to this, though.
Use a bucket or other container of known volume and see how long it
takes to fill at the kitchen tap. To get reasonable results you
need to have around 20 litres/minute.

She also should be aware that in the winter, the hot water rate will
be less than the summer and less than she has now.
If she is OK waiting longer for baths etc. than at present and having
the extra space is more important, then that is OK.

He says combi and it may just be that. For e.g, just under £400 gets you a
combi from B&Q that gives 11 litres/min, some dealers do good deals to the
trade. A common multi-point does not give that flow rate. It is easy to
fit a combi and only use the DHW side. Also the combi is available if they
ever want rads or heat a cylinder, or just a towel rail. I would fit a
combi.