* RodWarnock.com *

Hi,

      This week I have been reading about a new supposedly energy saving product, namely the GasSaver. This device is claimed to cut gas bills by around a quarter. Apparently the device uses the boiler’s flue gas that is expelled to heat incoming cold water and is claimed to increase efficiency to between 95% and 98%.

Now this poses an interesting question. The boss of Zenex Technologies who produce the GasSaver claims that modern condensing central heating boilers are only around 75% efficient. Condensing boiler manufacturers on the other hand claim that their boilers are typically 86% and even in excess of 90 % efficient.

It occurs to me that someone is not being totally honest here. I have mentioned in a previous post that it is wise to be cautious in changing from an old 65% efficent non-condensing boiler (especially if you have microbore pipes). Modern condensing boilers which extract heat from the exhaust gases that would otherwise escape through the flue, do not seem to be powerful enough to heat microbore systems effectively in many cases.

In view of the fact that the GasSaver costs around £600 and seems have a similar action on flue gases to the condensing boiler, I personally cannot see this device as being of much benefit, particularly since it can only be fitted to new condensing boilers.

Hi,

       This is an important message for those of you who are considering changing your old boiler to a modern energy efficient condensing boiler. Perhaps you have set some money aside and are now ready to spend anywhere from £1,500 to £3,000 on a new boiler. STOP! before you do please read this story and learn from it. eighteen months ago I decided to replace my old Potterton boiler (it was 30 years old) for a modern efficient condensing boiler. I should add that my house was built in the 1970’s.

The reason I am telling this story now is that the UK Government has just announced that they are providing a grant of £400 to 250,000 people to encourage them to change their old boilers for modern efficient condensing boilers. To get back to my story, I duly replaced my old Potterton boiler which I might add worked very well and heated all but one of my radiators very well ( the remaining one had a leak). What I discovered having also replaced six of the twelve old radiators, was that this new efficient condensing boiler barely heated my radiators.

Good Heating engineers are unfortunately like hen’s teeth, and I have had a number to look at my system. Some told me that because I had small microbore pipes I would have to replace all the pipes in the system. I eventually by recommendation got a good heating engineer who told me that I should have my heating system power flushed. He did it twice and still the heat from the radiators is at best adequate in some rooms and really poor in others.

Th conclusion I draw from all this following discussions with others who have had the same problems is that these modern condensing boilers may be efficient at burning the gas and so are more environmentally friendly, but they are not powerful enough to heat a microbore system efficiently. Manufacturers deny that this is the case, but lets face it these modern boilers only last for ten years anyway.

So I urge you to think very carefully before throwing out your old boiler if it still works well, because you may well be sitting in the cold for the rest of the winter or using secondary heating as I have to do. Fortunately I have solar panels which heat my water from April to September and this is the best investment I have made in my home to date. I would love to hear from others about their views on this subject. I suspect nothing will change until there is a design change in these boilers.

I should add that the cost of replacing your microbore pipes could be £5,000 or more. OOUCH!