"Harvey Van Sickle" wrote in message
...

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.

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

Not so. Modern condesning boilers have load compenstion modulating control
to lower the return temperaure to the building heat load. Over 90% of the
time a normal system will be on part load, so not really an issue. Maker
have designed boioer for the replacement market.

-- but mentioned that he's quite busy
at the moment installing conventional
boilers for people who want to beat
the deadline for the new regs.

Stupid idea, condensing boilers are well worth it over regular boilers.
They are virtually the same, only one has a larger heat exchanger and a
condensate drain.....and saves lots of gas.