Which Replacement Central Heating System (CHS)? Help and information on all topics relating to your central heating, air conditioning and ventilation issues.

[BriscsWK]

Hi, we have:

3 bed house, 2 occupants with one main bath/shower and one en-suite bath;
25 year old Ideal conventional boiler with vented tank, and I am guessing original pipe work (solid ground floor) and radiators of 40 years; and
The tanks recovery time is ‘pants’ – I guess that is due to it being a gravity arrangement.

As the boiler cannot go on forever and as we are considering a new bathroom and would like good water pressure for showering we are considering what to do with the heating in system in general.

Would anyone have opinions in general and on:

Whether we should bite the bullet and have a total new system including replacement radiators etc with all new pipes or whether we could still utilise the existing pipes?

Which type of CHS – Combi based or an unvented system to obtain good hot water pressure? I suppose we could still have vented system but that would mean power shower pumps etc I think?

If we go combi route is it then best to go for a storage type combi (I am not keen on the idea of slugs of cold water flowing after you turn the hot water on and off, which I believe is a problem with basic combi boilers?) with a high hot water flow rate and if so which make and type to go for?

From my forays on websites the following would appear contenders:

Alpha CD50C;
Vaillant ecoTEC Plus 937 HE Power Store;
WorcesterBosch Greenstar Highflow 440; or
Glow-worm Ultrapower 100sxi.

I know it is a long first post but any thoughts you may have would be appreciated as it would be good to be forewarned before heading into the acquiring of quotes for the work.

Many thanks

[plumbbob]

This is quite a difficult question to answer as so much of it is down to personal preference.

Firstly, vented systems are a non starter unless there is a specific requirement for one such as connection to a wood burner.

Pressurised systems having a store of hot water are really only necessary in larger households where there is likely to be concurrent use of showers or other services whereby a normal combi boiler may struggle to cope.
This type of system is particularly suitable if solar heating is ever to be considered.

It is not necessary to replace existing pipework without good reason however, it may be worth considering updating radiators if they are old fashioned or particularly large.

My preference is for a Vaillant. We have installed loads, and I think they are a superb boiler, but I say again, that is only a personal opinion.