Heat only boilers good for green homes

If you want to build a green home, or make your existing home green, heat only boilers are a good way to getting over the tricky problem as to what you are going to install. Heating your home is one way to quickly make your home have a high carbon footprint, and make your bills a nightmare. To avoid this you need to choose an energy efficient boiler. By choosing a boiler that is suited for your home, is energy efficient, and can be regularly serviced, you are going a long way to making heating your home more green.

Boilers that are heat only provide a great way to heat radiators in your home. They suit larger homes best, as there they need quite a bit of space for installation. If you have a larger home then, they are perfect, allowing you to have hot water at multiple sources throughout your house. Boilers that are heat only have, however, only recently turned green. The cylinders that make up an integral part of the system can often be lacking in insulation, making the efficiency plummet and your bills increase.

However, a new range of high efficient and green heat only models have been recently designed and sold by a number of boiler manufacturers. With these models focusing on making the boiler as efficient as possible, they are your best bet if you are wanting to be green in heating your home and use a boiler that is heat only.

Is a system boiler good for your home

If you are planning on buying system boilers, just like any type of boiler, you need to establish whether it is suitable for your home. Some homes suit some boilers, which may not be beneficial for other types of homes.

A boiler can be unsuitable for a home on many different levels. For example, some boilers suit small homes. Combination boilers are great for small homes or flats, as these typically don’t have multiple numbers of bathrooms. They are also great if you are short on space, as the ‘combination’ element of the boiler means they are certainly more compact, without the need for a loft tank. Hot water in on-demand for combination boilers, which obviously works best if you aren’t putting them under constant strain from a big family or high water demands.

On the other hand other boilers are suitable for bigger homes, and larger families. A system boiler can be included in this bracket. Just because you have a bigger family or larger home does not mean you want loft space taken up, and this kind of boiler works with that need to make a boiler that can work at multiple outlets but still not need to have a tank in the loft. Instead, a tank is only needed for an airing cupboard, which means less space is taken up. So this type of boiler would be suitable for a home where there might often be the situation of someone having a shower and another person washing up.

A system boiler, like any type of boiler, needs to be suited to the home it is going to be fitted into. Try to do some research to establish what sort of boiler is best for your home before deciding.

Combi boilers and energy prices

Another year, another energy price rise. Combi boilers are one of the many new energy-saving devices that are once again being praised for helping to lower energy prices in households across the UK.

Bills will rise this year for many, as energy suppliers find the wholesale costs that come with buying from the global energy market a struggle to keep up with. Many companies are rising their gas and electricity prices, so it will be difficult to not be affected this year. If you do find yourself affected, however, there are ways to alleviate the pain to your wallet.

One of these is to fit an energy efficient combination (also known as ‘combi’) boiler. Boilers are one part of the house that are instrumental to your energy bills. If you have a boiler that is faulty, inefficient, or broken down, then you can see your bills start to peak with few results to show for it. Having an efficient boiler, then, should be at the heart of every plan to get your bills down in these times of hiking energy prices. Look for boilers that are SEDBUK (Seasonal Efficiency of Domestic Boilers in the UK) ‘A’ rated. This means that they are the most energy efficient they can be, and will therefore help to save you money in the long run.

So there are a number of different ways of keeping energy bills down in these current times of high prices. One of the major ones is having an energy efficient boiler, and one great example is a combination boiler.

Condensing boilers and becoming green

Condensing boilers, like other types of energy efficient boilers, are becoming part of the ‘being green’ revolution in boilers. It is not just an ethical, political or ideological belief that drives people to go green. Sometimes it can be purely for financial reasons.

Going green is not all about saving the planet, although of course that is one of the major and best impacts that behaving in a green way can have. However there are many people that enter into it as a way to save money, and find themselves very successful in doing so. Putting in insulation, making sure that taps aren’t left on, unplugging electrical equipment and turning things off standby are all great ways to turn green.

The one way you can really impact upon your bills, however, is to get an energy efficient boiler. One of the most efficient types is a condensing, gas, combination boiler. These boilers are extremely energy efficient, because they use the heat that is produced as the fuel is being burnt. Their thermal efficiency is often rated around 98%.

Having a SEDBUK (Seasonal Efficiency of Domestic Boilers in the UK) ‘A’ rated boiler means having a boiler that is at the extreme end of energy efficiency. It was developed by the Government’s Energy Efficiency Best Practice Programme, encouraging manufacturers to make it simpler to grade their products according to energy efficiency, which in turn pushes up the number of manufacturers who are concerned with creating energy efficiency products. Condensing gas boilers are one category that regularly feature in the A rating, making them a great boiler to purchase if you wanting to turn green in the home, for whatever reasons.

Schemes for replacing boilers such as back boilers

Back boilers can be difficult to replace, but there are a new wave of schemes being introduced right across the UK to make sure that everyone can replace the boiler that they have – regardless of type – with a newer, more energy efficient one.

Recently a scrappage scheme was announced for England by the government, and similar schemes are now to be introduced in Scotland and Northern Ireland by their respective governments. The Boiler Scrappage Scheme in Northern Ireland was started recently as a pilot, to try to help households with costs towards replacing old, inefficient boilers with new energy efficient ones.

Up to 1300 households could benefit, and households who apply will need to have a boiler that is over 15 years old, want to switch to a renewable energy heating system, or want to switch to mains gas from oil. It is also aimed for those over 60 and who are on state benefits.

A similar scheme has been started in Scotland by the Scottish government, and it hopes to allow 6000 households to receive money that could go towards the cost of a new boiler. Those who qualify will have to have a boiler that converts under 70 per cent of fuel to heat. Not only will this help to make homes in Scotland more energy efficient, it will help to lower people’s fuel bills over a period of time. It is clear from this new set of energy schemes that governments across the UK are interested in getting homes not only more energy efficient, but helping homeowners along with this aim.

Regular boilers need regular serving

Regular boilers are like any other kind of boiler: they need regular servicing to make sure that they are kept in top condition. Without this, your boiler could be at a higher risk of breaking down or of running at a lower efficiency.

Of course most modern boilers that you might have bought in the past few years or intend to buy in the future will be made to the highest standard (if you buy in the right place and from a good manufacturer). Still, boilers are prone to problems, particularly due to seasonal variance. These sorts of problems and break downs can be exacerbated by irregular servicing.

Some boiler insurance policies might not even pay out on your insurance if you have not had your boiler regularly serviced. This servicing could be provided and sought from the manufacturer of your boiler. Your energy company might also provide a service for you. Just a few enquiries could see your boiler, whatever type, regularly serviced and looked after by a professional. This would, however, benefit you in the long run as it would keep down the costs of having to replace or get your boiler fixed in the future.

It’s not just regular ones that need servicing, obviously. Any kind of boiler you can imagine would benefit from regular servicing, whether it’s a state of the art renewable energies boiler or a conventional back boiler. Whatever kind of boiler you have, investing in servicing of it will be a great help for its longevity.

Saunier vs Viessmann boilers

When comparing Saunier vs Viessman boilers, it is important to keep in mind that today boiler manufacturers are very different to how they were a number of years ago. Now, with new energies and expanding markets, boiler manufacturers are very diverse in their offerings.

With Saunier vs Viessman boilers, it is easy to see that both do similar things in most ways. They both have a large range of products, each with their own different specialities. For example, Viessmann boilers has more outside of the traditional boiler models. For example, they sell solar systems and biomass boilers. These are new technologies that can be used alongside existing or more conventional boiler systems in the home.

Saunier have a range of combination boilers as well as a number of system boilers. These are two of the most popular boiler types, and so their models reflect the demand of homeowners to have the best efficiency possible. In their system boilers range they have the ThemaClassic F18E, and the ThemaClassic F30E. Their high efficiency, condensing combination boilers include the Thema CONDENS Range, the IsoTWIN CONDENS Range, the IsoFAST CONDENS Range, and the Semia CONDENS Range.

When looking at Saunier vs Viessmann boilers, then, you need to know what exactly it is you are looking for. Saunier may not have products Viessman has, but one particular model of boiler they sell may be more appropriate to your home type or size than a Viessman one, or vice versa. The best thing to do is to understand what you need, then compare a range of products from both sides.

Compare regular boilers

If you want to compare regular boilers, there are a few things that make the whole process much easier.

To compare regular boilers is, of course, to compare most boilers. Almost all boilers are ‘regular’, but it is a helpful grouping for boilers that may be considered as more traditional. So comparing regular boilers can mean comparing a lot of different types, systems and ratings, so it is best to get an idea as to what you need before you start your comparison.

For example, you may want to compare regular boilers in terms of finding a refit for an existing system, or you may want to find a boiler for a new build. This may have an effect on what sort of boiler you look at. It may depend on your existing system, or you may have a completely blank canvas. Sometimes some boilers cannot be fitted into existing systems, whereas others – particularly if they are just an upgrade – are simple to do so.

Another factor to consider is the rating. A SEDBUK rating (Seasonal Efficiency of Domestic Boilers in the UK) of ‘A’ means that the boiler is extremely energy efficient. This is usually advisable to install in your home, although that rating can often be reflected in the price. Still, in the long run, a more energy efficient boiler is going to save you money.

So there are a number of factors to consider if you want to compare regular boilers, and the term ‘regular boilers’ itself can mean a large range of different boiler types and designs. Establish what you would need, would like to pay, and what your existing system is, and work from that.

Something to note if you buy back boilers

If you are to buy back boilers, either to replace an existing one or to upgrade your system, then be aware that you could now get rid of your old boiler through a scrappage system.

British Gas are one of a number of companies and bodies that offer boiler scrappage schemes. All customers have to do is trade in their old boiler and they will get a model which is SEDBUK (Seasonal Efficiency of Domestic Boilers in the UK) ‘A’ rated for efficiency, meaning that it is highly efficient and will not only help the environment but will help the impact of your bills.

The programme follows a similar one that was started back in January 2010 by the government. It was criticised for missing out a number of households after a cap was placing on a number available, but British Gas promise that that won’t happen with their new scheme.

Scrappage schemes have long been thought of as a great way to ensure homes have energy efficient boilers installed, but they have been difficult to set up on such a large scale in the past. But with new measures coming in from the government, increased activity by boiler manufacturers into providing more energy efficient boilers, and pressure from consumers to facilitate their first steps into an energy efficient home, means that these sorts of large scale scrappage schemes will probably become more and more popular. So if you are getting a new back boiler and want to throw out the old one, think first about a scrappage scheme which may get you money off a brand new, energy efficient one.