The majority of homes in the UK use gas boilers to heat and provide hot water, in the 21st century all boilers must reach exacting standards in terms of efficiency and CO2 emissions. This is why it is has been a legal requirement from April 2005 to install high efficiency condensing boilers.
What is a high efficiency self condensing boiler?
A condensing boiler captures much more usable heat from its fuel than a non-condensing boiler. Its high operating efficiency is made possible by the design of the condensing boiler’s larger – or sometimes dual – heat exchanger.
The heat exchanger makes sure that as much heat as possible is transferred from the boiler’s burner – and as little as possible lost in hot gases through the flue.
There are two types of condensing boiler: regular and combination. Regular condensing boilers heat your hot water through a hot water cylinder, combination condensing boilers give you instant hot water without the need for a cylinder.
Will it save me money?
Fact
There are now almost 50 boiler manufacturers in the UK so it is essential to get professional advice on buying a suitable boiler to meet the demands of your home and modern living. Our professional and friendly staff will of course advise you on the most appropriate boiler to meet your requirements and budget. Fortunately most existing systems will accept a modern boiler without too much additional work being required apart from the installation of the new boiler. It is however important to have good heating controls as well, these require a minimum of 4 things to ensure maximum efficiency:-
DHS supply and install all major brands and are approved installers of Vaillant and Worcester and therefore can offer a 5 year warrantly on these products.
Additional controls that may be worth considering to get the very best from a central heating system include intelligent heating controls, a weather compensator, a boiler energy manager and full zone control.
Maintenance and service
The boiler is the heart of your home, regular servicing is essential to make sure it is always operating at peak efficiency, keeping your fuel bills and CO2 emissions to a minimum.
- an electronic timer or programmer that allows seperate switching of heating and hot water
- a room thermostat
- themostatic radiator control valves
- seperate thermostatic coontrol on the hot water system
Are there alternatives to high efficiency self condensing boilers?
The traditional gas boiler is still the simplest and most economical for of heating in the UK but there are now many alternatives from biomass boilers, ground source heat pumps to solar panels. Click here for more information.
Installation
If everyone in the UK with gas or oil heating installed a high efficiency condensing boiler we would save enough fuel to heat 1.9 million homes a year and reduce CO2 emissions by 6.7 million tonnes
