Old Central Heating System

hartytkd

Hi all,

I've recently aquired a house with an old central heating system (oil fired). The boiler part is quite old - about 30 years old - but the burner was replaced maybe 10 years ago. At least I think it's the burner - it's a box on the front with all the electronics.

The problem is that it's takes at least an hour to properly heat up all the rads. That seems like a long time to me (brrr..) and is probably also not running efficiently as it is so old (bad for the trees). The rad were all flushed out recently so I don't think they're blocked as we saw a big improvement afterwards.

So.. if I go down the route of simply replacing the existing boiler with something similar I am wondering would I see much of a performance gain? Also would it be fairly cheap to wire the house with thermostats and controls? Any idea of how much it would cost ..?

Any advice/experience welcome!
Gavin

antoinolachtnai

I am no expert, but I don't think replacing the boiler will make much difference, unless it's actually damaged. You could probably get something more efficient, but I don't think it would deal with your core problem.

Are you certain that the pump is working well and that the thermostat on the boiler is working correctly?

You should be able to figure this out by observing how the boiler switches on and off while the rads are heating. If it's constantly switching on and off, the probelm could be the thermostat or the pump. If the boiler is heating, and the water near the boiler is heating, but the radiators aren't heating, then there's a good chance it's the pump.

One thing i came across was a guy who had installed the pump at the boiler the wrong way round (there was also a pump on the back-boiler, I think). The engineer from the boiler company came out and looked at it and everything before they finally figured out what it was.

You don't have any outdoor runs of heating pipe where heat is being lost, do you? It sounds crazy, but sometimes you see this type of setup.

Strictly speaking, a boiler will last longer and run more efficiently if it is allowed to heat up the water slowly rather than rapidly. It is possible to 'tune' the radiators to fill with hot water more slowly so that this will happen. But this is a subtlety not often observed. (It may be that your radiators have been tuned in this way, but not likely.)

Thermostats and controls won't help anything if you don't have the power you need.

As I say, I am no expert, get someone who knows about boilers but also use your own common sense to investigate.

(And one tip: don't fiddle with the knobs on the boiler unless you are completely certain you know what you are doing. I came across somewhere where a genius tenant had turned up the thermostat on the boiler, presumably with the intention of getting hotter water. All that happened, however, is that the burner ran very hot and as a result the wiring around the burner was damaged and the whole thing went out of order.)

JamesM

A good reply from antoinolachtnai.
Replacing the boiler & Burner would cost about 2000 Euro.
I would have thought that if the rads were flushed recently, the boiler was also serviced. A dirty boiler will take a long time to heat. Also if the newer burner is not matched to the boiler, you may not have a large enough flame to heat the boiler properly.
If the boiler is outside - maybe in a shed with the pipes running underground to the house - after 30 years there will almost certainly be heat loss due to loss of original insulation and maybe even leaking and corroded pipes.
I have just read your post again - did you have the boiler serviced ? Until they see it, some people will not believe the amount of deposit you will find in a boiler, even after just a year, especially with diesel. The old boiler will not be a efficient as a new one, but if everything is working OK, it should heat the rads reasonably quickly. It will naturally take longer if all the rads are on !
Jim.

Lex Luthor

JamesM wrote:

A good reply from antoinolachtnai.
Replacing the boiler & Burner would cost about 2000 Euro.
I would have thought that if the rads were flushed recently, the boiler was also serviced. A dirty boiler will take a long time to heat. Also if the newer burner is not matched to the boiler, you may not have a large enough flame to heat the boiler properly.
If the boiler is outside - maybe in a shed with the pipes running underground to the house - after 30 years there will almost certainly be heat loss due to loss of original insulation and maybe even leaking and corroded pipes.
I have just read your post again - did you have the boiler serviced ? Until they see it, some people will not believe the amount of deposit you will find in a boiler, even after just a year, especially with diesel. The old boiler will not be a efficient as a new one, but if everything is working OK, it should heat the rads reasonably quickly. It will naturally take longer if all the rads are on !
Jim.

JamesM, sent you a PM

JamesM

Lex Luthor wrote:

JamesM, sent you a PM

Lex, Sent you a PM