In article ,
Fred writes:
On Wed, 27 Mar 2013 19:11:38 +0000 (UTC),
(Andrew Gabriel) wrote:

I installed it myself about 7 years ago, and
it cost £400 at the time (B&Q, but they don't sell them anymore).

I remember the sheds selling these a few years ago. Why don't they
sell them any more?

I could well imagine a high rate of returns of wrecked units,
and/or callouts to initially installed units which don't work.
Many of these were probably beyond the ability of the people
who installed them, particularly the split unit ones.
But this is all just guessing.

Wickes did them for some time after B&Q stopped. They're only
sold in the summer, for cooling. However, I mostly use mine
for heating.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On Mar 27, 6:28*pm, Fredxx wrote:
On 27/03/2013 17:52, harry wrote:









On Mar 27, 12:13 pm, Bill Wright wrote:
1. We're on LPG. I've just had Calor Gas here. They want me to
have a new boiler. It would be a Worcester Bosch Greenstar CD1 24
combi. It would cost £3,000, including VAT, fitted. How does that
sound to you?

2. We have electric water heating as well as gas. Does anyone know
the theoretical energy equivalent between electricity and LPG? And
while we're at it, between electricity and oil? These two
salespersons didn't know the answer.

3. I'm paying 49p per litre for LPG. How does that sound?

Any help on this issue would be appreciated, as I am totally
ignorant in these matters.

Bill

There is an alternative you might want to think about. That is a
heat pump,either ground or air source. It will cost you more then a
boiler but can connect to your existing radiators. Should be cheaper
to run than propane gas.

A heat pump system will typically have an efficiency of 300%, which if
using electricity at the standard rate still brings it down to a nominal
5p/kWh. *If you take into account the other running and service costs,
plus the cost of the initial installation, is it a really economical?

If the user is an enthusiast and willing to get their hands dirty, then
of course it is a different matter.

There is the running costs subsidy to take into account.
More than covers electricity costs I think.

On Wed, 27 Mar 2013 10:52:52 -0700 (PDT), harry wrote:

Well worth looking into especially as you have no mains gas, I think
you get extra money.

No mains gas is a requirement to get the RHI(*) and pretty sure to get
the RHPP capital cost help as well. For GSHP the RHPP is £1250, ASHP to
water £850.

http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/...ing-money-back

Not a bad idea, ground source would be best but rather disruptive to the
garden (if it's big enough) or you can drill bore holes. Trouble is to
fit to a conventional HW/CH system you need a more expensive two stage
heat pump.

There are implications relating to the electricity supply. If you need 20
odd kW of output that implies at least 6 kW of input on top of whatever
load is already present. This is also a relatively long term load, unlike
a shower for example. If you only have small (but common) 40 A supply
that is only 9.2 kW...

(*) No defiante figures for the RHI payments but the range is 6.9 to
11.5p/kWHr for air source and 12.5 to 17.3p/kWHr for ground source.

--
Cheers
Dave.

Bill Wright wrote:
1. We're on LPG. I've just had Calor Gas here. They want me to have a
new boiler. It would be a Worcester Bosch Greenstar CD1 24 combi. It
would cost £3,000, including VAT, fitted. How does that sound to you?

I know someone locally who might do a quote for you if you want.

--
Adam

ARW wrote:
Bill Wright wrote:
1. We're on LPG. I've just had Calor Gas here. They want me to have a
new boiler. It would be a Worcester Bosch Greenstar CD1 24 combi. It
would cost £3,000, including VAT, fitted. How does that sound to you?

I know someone locally who might do a quote for you if you want.

Thanks Adam, but I have a good bloke near here. I only got Calor out
because they enclosed a flier with the gas bill promising that they
would give me a new boiler at a fantastically cheap price. Clearly this
was not true.

Bill

On 28/03/2013 02:27, Bill Wright wrote:
ARW wrote:
Bill Wright wrote:
1. We're on LPG. I've just had Calor Gas here. They want me to have a
new boiler. It would be a Worcester Bosch Greenstar CD1 24 combi. It
would cost £3,000, including VAT, fitted. How does that sound to you?

I know someone locally who might do a quote for you if you want.

Thanks Adam, but I have a good bloke near here. I only got Calor out
because they enclosed a flier with the gas bill promising that they
would give me a new boiler at a fantastically cheap price. Clearly this
was not true.

You should have seen the price before they gave you a discount! ;-)

(Note that a "like for like" combi change is easily DIYable for someone
with a bit of practical ability - that brings the price for a new high
end boiler down to around a grand, which may change the outlook somewhat)

--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

In article ,
John Rumm wrote:
(Note that a "like for like" combi change is easily DIYable for someone
with a bit of practical ability - that brings the price for a new high
end boiler down to around a grand, which may change the outlook somewhat)

I'm not exactly an expert plumber, but had no problems changing my boiler,
although I do have all the basic plumbing tools like a pipe bender, etc.
Found it very satisfying.

Many installers will simply do things the easiest and quickest way -
regardless of what it looks like - even when charging a high price. My
brother's installation has surface mounted pipes running along a wall when
with a little more work they could have routed them under the floor.

--
*Virtual reality is its own reward*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Thu, 28 Mar 2013 10:58:05 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

I do have all the basic plumbing tools like a pipe bender,

I wish I knew how to use a pipe bender. Knowing where to put the bend
and how much of a bend to make seems like magic to me!

I had one for microbore but took it back for a refund! If I knew how
to use one, one for 15 and 22mm would be useful but they are expensive
at that size. Do you have to get a branded one or are the no-names
just as good?

Bill Wright wrote:
ARW wrote:
Bill Wright wrote:
1. We're on LPG. I've just had Calor Gas here. They want me to
have a new boiler. It would be a Worcester Bosch Greenstar CD1 24
combi. It would cost £3,000, including VAT, fitted. How does that
sound to you?
I know someone locally who might do a quote for you if you want.

Thanks Adam, but I have a good bloke near here. I only got Calor out
because they enclosed a flier with the gas bill promising that they
would give me a new boiler at a fantastically cheap price. Clearly
this was not true.

Fair enough - did I mention that this bloke could offer you a biomass
install with a 5 year payback time as an alternative to his LPG quote?

And I hope you saved the Calor flier to wipe your arse on.

--
Adam

ARW wrote:

And I hope you saved the Calor flier to wipe your arse on.

It was on very shiny paper; quite stout card in fact. Are you sure it
would be suitable for the purpose you mention?

Bill

On 29/03/2013 01:56, Bill Wright wrote:
ARW wrote:

And I hope you saved the Calor flier to wipe your arse on.

It was on very shiny paper; quite stout card in fact. Are you sure it
would be suitable for the purpose you mention?

Bill

Was the flier printed on Izal paper?

Anyone remember Izal paper from their school days?

I certainly do... its rougher than 40 grit sandpaper....

(for those who don't know what Izal is, its medicated *HARD* & *SHINY*
toilet paper.

Can one still get it, and more to the point why would any sane person
buy it?

On 27/03/2013 12:13, Bill Wright wrote:
1. We're on LPG. I've just had Calor Gas here. They want me to have
a new boiler. It would be a Worcester Bosch Greenstar CD1 24 combi.
It would cost £3,000, including VAT, fitted. How does that sound to
you?

2. We have electric water heating as well as gas. Does anyone know
the theoretical energy equivalent between electricity and LPG? And
while we're at it, between electricity and oil? These two
salespersons didn't know the answer.

3. I'm paying 49p per litre for LPG. How does that sound?

Any help on this issue would be appreciated, as I am totally
ignorant in these matters.

Bill

This is a helpful energy cost comparison, though I don't know how
accurate it is.

http://www.confusedaboutenergy.co.uk...ls/fuel-prices

My dislike for LPG for heating is exemplified by costing more than
Economy 7 and oil. LPG boilers are perhaps better known by plumbers
than oil, but this is very area dependent. TNP will probably question
the true cost of logs for burning!

£3,000 is extortionate for a straight swap. I have seen a straight swap
done in a morning (non condensing to condensing of the same make), but
not knowing the boiler you're having removed it's difficult to compare.
If the flues line up then it should be an easy job.

On 27/03/13 12:13, Bill Wright wrote:
1. We're on LPG. I've just had Calor Gas here. They want me to have a
new boiler. It would be a Worcester Bosch Greenstar CD1 24 combi. It
would cost £3,000, including VAT, fitted. How does that sound to you?

Admittedly it was 8 years ago but business was booming then and I am in
central London: WB 24 combi, replacing cast iron lump, including
modifications to gas and water pipework, was about half that.

So I'd say too much.


--
djc

On 27/03/2013 12:13, Bill Wright wrote:
1. We're on LPG. I've just had Calor Gas here. They want me to have a
new boiler. It would be a Worcester Bosch Greenstar CD1 24 combi. It
would cost £3,000, including VAT, fitted. How does that sound to you?

2. We have electric water heating as well as gas. Does anyone know the
theoretical energy equivalent between electricity and LPG? And while
we're at it, between electricity and oil? These two salespersons didn't
know the answer.

3. I'm paying 49p per litre for LPG. How does that sound?

Any help on this issue would be appreciated, as I am totally ignorant in
these matters.

It is an utter rip off! Not only the boiler cost but being locked into
one supplier. Oil would probably give cheaper running costs but
obviously yhe cost of an oil tank would need to be factored into the
calculations.


--
Regards Peter Crosland