Get A New Oil Boiler Before The Old One Is Dead?

[dunwerkin]

What's the sensible, most economical, solution - wait until the boiler packs up, or have a new one installed now to take advantage of what the adverts claim are savings due to efficiency of the latest technology? I have oil-fired central heating and the 16 year old boiler is in the garage which adjoins the house. What would you ABers advise?

[DTCwordfan]

Get an idea on what the new one will cost in terms of fuel per year versus staying on the current oil one. If the payback is less than, say, 4 years go for it. If more, I would hold. In terms of energy efficiency, the boilers will continue to hold and the deals out there will, most likely, be around if not even better.

[dunwerkin]

Thank you DT. Your comment re fuel price is interesting. The price per litre has increased from 9p per litre in 1996 to 59p at the last bill. I will have to ask the boiler manufacturers what their new boilers are likely to consume and then do the sums. It will be difficult to compute as the weather is the main usage factor. Two years ago in N.E. Scotland we had three months of snow - we've hardly had any since I fitted snow tyres on the car in time for last winter and they are still on !!

[buildersmate]

You really don't want to be changing boilers in the middle of the heating season, when any heating technician worth his salt is far too busy keeping people's systems running. The technology (whatever the hype you've seen) will still be there later.
Change it in the summer - before it breaks down, as that is another time when you will be under pressure so are unlikley to achieve a good deal.
If you are keeping the boiler in the garage, the feed/return pipes need to be checked and re-insulated really really well. Otherwise you are just heating a nice place of earth between house and garage. This just didn't happen 16 years ago

[DTCwordfan]

they can advise you on an average year and that is what I would go off......more extreme weather may help impact on the delta, true - so one thing you could do is look at the economics by multiplying the delta by, say, 25% or 40% to give you a sensitivity to extremes.

[The Builder]

Good point by BM. Wait 'til the summer. 16 years is getting on for an oil boiler. There are plenty of older ones, nut they tend to be "nursed" along.

Boiler technology has raced on in 16 years. Efficiency advances are very impressive.

[The Builder]

oops ^^^ "but"

[dunwerkin]

Thank you all for your considered replies and common sense. Answerbank is a great help to me when dealing with stuff that I haven't done before particularly when there's a lot of cash involved. Thank you again, you are great people to know. Jean xx