Gas Boilers – What type should you choose?
There is a few different types of gas boilers for you to choose from. Each type of gas boiler has it’s advantages and disadvantages. Below we have written a short guide to assist you in making an informed choice. When spending thousands of pounds on a new boiler installation it is important you make the right gas boilers choice.
Conventional Gas Boilers
Conventional gas boilers burn fuel in a combustion chamber, which is surrounded by a water jacket. These are probably the boiler system which is most familiar to us all. The water, when boiling; is circulated around the heating system. The problem with a conventional boiler is that they are not that efficient, as much of the heat is dissipated into the air and also up the flue.
As a result of the recognition of some of these inefficiencies, the boiler manufacturers produced condensing boilers which take more heat from a given amount of fuel in comparison top a conventional boiler
Condensing Boilers
These boilers are high efficiency boilers that are specifically designed to waste virtually no heat at all, out of the flue. Condensing boilers although environmentally friendly, only work in the condensing mode when the working conditions are correct – less than 50% of the radiators must be fitted with thermostatic radiator valves. Burning any fuel is not only an environmental problem it also wastes your cash but condensing boiler is extremely efficient so is kinder to you and the environment once installed.
Combi Boilers
Great for providing both instant hot water and running the central heating, but not at the same time – they are “hot water priority”, which means that when hot water is being run there is no heat output to the radiators. This also means they have low water rate, so they can only feed one tap at a time, but you don’t need tanks in the roof or cylinders in the airing cupboard, so you do also free-up lots of space.
If hot water demand is not a big issue in your house then combination boilers are probably your ideal solution- the take up little space, fairly easy to install and cheap to run, and it is great to have instant hot water without waiting for a tank to heat up.
Back Boilers
Some homes still have back boilers, hidden away behind the chimney. It is likely that you will only want this system if you already use similar – they tend to need lots of space and produce very low water pressure. They were always regarded as fairly inefficient but the modern ones are much better
