If you are thinking of getting a new hot water boiler, you should look at installing a combination boiler. It will take up around the same space, if not slightly less, than your old boiler and you will save money and the environment by making the change.

How does the combi boiler work?  

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Looking for a new combi boiler? Compare boilers using our comparison table.

Guest Article by Louise Goldstein

Baxi gas boilers have been around since 1966 when they first introduced the Bermuda back fired gas boiler. However the history of this much respected brand goes all the way back to 1866, when its founder Richard Baxendale launched the company with Joseph Heald. Today it is one of the largest manufacturers of gas boilers in Europe.

Baxi offer a range of products and are especially famous for manufacturing compact and energy efficient units. One such example is the Baxi condensing boiler 100/2 HE Plus. This is a wall mounted open vented system, which is easy to install and integrates seamlessly into your home. This great value baxi boiler is A-rated and runs at about 90% efficiency, it costs about £800 – £900.

Guest Article by Louise Goldstein

The boiler scrappage scheme was welcomed by consumers and industry alike as a great way to help people improve the efficiency of their heating systems and at the same time stimulate flagging businesses, but the scheme has hit problems.

Recent national newspaper reports have revealed that applicants are waiting to receive their vouchers and the call centres are experiencing a backlog of calls.

The scheme is so structured that only those with a voucher (received after lodging a valid quote from a Gas Safe Registered heating engineer) can have the work started. But the vouchers are reportedly suffering long delays as scheme staff cannot cope with demand.

The voucher is worth £400 and was created to encourage people to swap their old boilers – rated G, X or non-rated – for new A rated boilers which are over 90% efficient as opposed to between 50% and 70% efficient. The scheme is being administered by the Energy Saving Trust.

But such was the enthusiastic response that the call centre had quickly received some 160,000 calls for the limited number of vouchers available: at the moment, 135,000. And some 36,000 applicants had been received.

At least say the reports, the number of call centre staff has been doubled and it is now claimed that people who qualify under the scheme will get their vouchers within ten days.

The chief operating officer at the Energy Savings Trust told the media that they had taken the necessary steps to cope with the demand and that things had been dramatically improved, with only a few days backlog remaining and a return to normality quite soon. This included an automatic email being sent to those who contacted the Energy Savings Trust about the boiler scrappage scheme.

The biggest installer of new gas boilers in the UK is British Gas and they have reported that in the first three weeks of January, they had seen a four-fold increase in the number of people asking for a quote as compared to the same period last year. British Gas offer a further £400 rebate over and above the Government voucher, and also offer other incentives on maintenance schemes, services and fittings.

Observers are now concerned that the Energy Savings Trust will have difficulty in processing the payments in time when vouchers are redeemed. The scheme says that voucher payments will only be made on receipt of a valid voucher and paid Gas Safe Registered engineer’s invoice. Payment should then take place in 25 days and the worry is that this system will suffer the same delays as the start of the process.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

As winter is upon us, Worcester is one of a number of boiler manufacturers who are offering advice on how to save money.

Worcester is part of the Worcester, Bosch Group and is a manufacturer of a wide range of gas boilers, oil-fired boilers and LPG boilers. In it’s combi boiler product range alone it has ten different models, all with a SEEBUK A rating of plus 90%.

Top of the five main tips from Worcester to help reduce home heating bills is lower your room thermostat to the lowest comfortable temperature. Bear in mind that by turning your thermostat down by just one degree, means you can cut fuel bills by around 10%.

Second tip is to remember that a number of key small measures, can collectively make a significant difference. Such moves as fitting low-energy light bulbs, washing clothes at low temperatures and turning appliances off rather, than leaving them on standby, are easy ways to reduce the amount of wasted home energy.

Tip three is don’t forget solar panels which don’t just need sunny weather to work. They are effective even in cloudy skies and provide useable energy; they can supply up to 60% of your annual hot water. Installation is not cheap, but starting at around £3,000, it needn’t break the bank and some homeowners could also receive a £400 government grant towards the cost.

Fourth tip is a new boiler. Much of course depends on the current boiler’s age and efficiency, but older models are simply not as efficient as more modern examples; a replacement condensing boiler can reduce a home’s carbon dioxide emissions by 15-30%.

It’s sobering to think that if everyone in the UK had a condensing boiler, the country’s annual carbon dioxide emissions would be reduced by 17.5 million tonnes. This would result in a saving of £1.3 billion on energy bills every year.

Last tip concerns the installation of heat pumps. A ground source heat pump, or an air source heat pump, can be used to harness the energy stored in the ground, or air, and meet a home’s heating and hot water needs. Heat pumps dramatically reduce fuel bills.

Government grants are available for the installation of such technology and costs vary from £1,500 to £2,000 for air to air systems, and between £7,000 and £12,000 for air to water.

Martyn Bridges, director of technical support at Worcester, Bosch Group said:
“Every year, millions of pounds worth of energy is needlessly wasted in our homes. With everyone watching their pennies more than ever, it has never been a better time to think about your home’s heating and hot water provision.

“Around 20% of the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions come from domestic heating systems. Householders can reduce these emissions and therefore fuel bills in a variety of ways, from small money saving measures to investing in renewable technologies.

“According to the Energy Saving Trust, each year every household in the UK creates six tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. At Worcester, we are committed to developing environmentally friendly domestic heating systems designed to reduce the amount of energy that is wasted in the home, therefore minimising our impact on the environment.”

Guest Article by Neil Camp 

Comments from the Government’s new Chief Scientific Advisor have not gone down well with top boiler manufacturer Worcester.

They were dismayed by Professor’s David Mackay’s first public comments, on his first day in his new job as chief scientific adviser at the Department of Energy and Climate Change, which were designed to set out his vision for Britain’s energy future which centre on a significant increase in nuclear power capacity.

Worcester saw the advisor’s words as a: “…a thinly veiled attack on the use of gas in domestic heating.”

They were particularly irked at the Professor’s words which said:
“Setting fire to chemicals like gas should be made a thermodynamic crime. If people want heat they should be forced to get it from heat pumps. That would be a sensible piece of legislation.”

Neil Schofield, head of sustainable development at Worcester, Bosch Group, said:
“Professor Mackay’s comments set out a vision for Britain’s energy future based upon electricity, but it does not reflect the reality on the ground that domestic heat is predominantly gas powered in the UK. The logistics of replacing all gas-fired boilers with heat pumps, even in the medium term, would be an enormous undertaking significantly dwarfing the conversion from town gas to natural gas in the 1960s and 1970s.
“Professor Mackay has issued a new series of far flung objectives, bearing in mind that nuclear technology will take at least 20-30 years to come on stream, with no thought to the short term, the next 10 years. There is still no clear roadmap for either consumers or the heating industry of how we are going to meet the near term objectives.”
“Professor Mackay talks of people being forced to install heat pumps, but gives no indication of how consumers will be helped with the capital cost or what they should do if heat pump technology is not suitable for their own home. Our experience at Worcester, Bosch Group is that heat pump technology is not suitable for all applications. I would like to ask Professor Mackay how he heats his own house.”

Schofield makes it clear that he believes that the Professor’s comments are a further example of the Government and its advisers contradicting themselves in key policy areas.

He went on to say:
“On the one hand the Government is trying to encourage the uptake of renewable technologies with its proposals for the Feed-in Tariff for the Renewable Heat Incentive, but it is providing no upfront capital help for consumers to install the equipment and is now seriously considering taxing any monies generated. This will inevitably take away a major incentive for renewable technologies and make the Feed-in Tariff very unattractive to consumers.”

No doubt this rift between one of the country’s largest gas boiler manufacturers and a key Government advisor will play out over a long period of time.

Guest Article by Neil Camp