On 12 Jan 2005, Set Square wrote
In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Harvey Van Sickle wrote:


As an aside, I've just had a conversation with my boiler service
guy (very local -- I know him well, as he lives three doors
away), who was saying that from (April?), new installations will
have to use condensing boilers, and conventional boilers like
mine (which is 7 or 8 years old) will no longer be installed.

AIUI, boilers will have to be capable of at least a certain
efficiency level - which condensing boilers can meet more easily.
I'm not sure that it's necessarily *impossible* to meet with a
non-condensing boiler?

That would be interesting to know -- but from my friend's statement it
sounded as if the manufacturers werent' going down that road. (He
mentioned that the only non-condensing boiler which was currently
available without jumping through hoops was a floor-standing rather
than wall-mounted model.)

He understands the efficiency reasoning behind this -- although,
as he noted, placing a condensing boiler on an old system can
reduce the efficiency to the point where it's not actually
condensing

*Can* but not necessarily *does*. [explanation snipped]

Yes, right: he was quite clear that it was system-dependent. He was
just making the point that increased efficiency depends on more than
simply hooking up a condensing boiler to all existing systems.

--
Cheers,
Harvey