Am I being sold the right boiler

[Countrygirl]

Hi I live in an old one level converted barn and currently have a vaillant turbomaxvuw vuw 282 LPG boiler . It was installed approx 1997 by prev owners, we feel and breakdown engineers have suggested a more powerful boiler may be better,there are 3 bathrooms ,10 radiators. Vaillant are offering a scheme of fitting new boiler for £1860 and guy who surveyed barn has offered vaillant ecotec plus 831 LPG to vaillant. We are concerned they could be offering only older models and is this a more powerful option without changing all the current pipe work. We thought he was going to reccommend a boiler with a 30k output.
any advice greatly appreciated

 

[Countrygirl]

47 paces end to end!!!!

 

[Dotty]

47 paces end to end!!!!

Pigeon steps?

 

[Dotty]

Whereabouts are you? One of us could come and take a look for you. Most of us have their own teeth and hardly ever bite.

Plus we're all certified housetrained.

Except Howsie.

He's just certified.

 

[Rickster123]

47 paces end to end!!!!

Lady steps?? Or strides?!

 

[lame plumber]

have you looked at oil as an alternative to lpg, which is probably the most expensive form of fuel bar electric!

 

[Countrygirl]

Barn80/90 ft long according to husband.

 

[GArlington]

Barn80/90 ft long according to husband.

1) If your current (old) boiler was correctly sized, and it looks like that it was because otherwise you would have been freezing last winter, than there is no need to replace it with the more powerful one, especially at this price. If the boiler IS close to capacity you may be better off investing in extra insulation instead of new boiler.
2) If the problem is with hot water: heat losses over long pipe runs are easily (and cheaply) reduced by adding pipe lagging/insulation and replacing the copper pipes with plastic pipes.

You should consider installing a wood/multi-fuel burner/boiler with heat store which will be able to provide both heating and hot water.

 

[Countrygirl]

1) If your current (old) boiler was correctly sized, and it looks like that it was because otherwise you would have been freezing last winter, than there is no need to replace it with the more powerful one, especially at this price. If the boiler IS close to capacity you may be better off investing in extra insulation instead of new boiler.
2) If the problem is with hot water: heat losses over long pipe runs are easily (and cheaply) reduced by adding pipe lagging/insulation and replacing the copper pipes with plastic pipes.

You should consider installing a wood/multi-fuel burner/boiler with heat store which will be able to provide both heating and hot water.

Because of cost LPG we use central minimally. We have a log burner. Have considered putting in back boiler to allow wasted heat to heat bedroom at far end of barn but have been put off cos of length it has to travel. All our pipes run down one side of barn concealed. We live near wincanton,somerset if anyone's interested.

 

[Countrygirl]

Have been advised by service contract engineer surprised that oh serve still agree to offer all inclusive maintainence contract cos of age1997. So we are waiting to get letter they won't renew

 

[GArlington]

Because of cost LPG we use central minimally. We have a log burner. Have considered putting in back boiler to allow wasted heat to heat bedroom at far end of barn but have been put off cos of length it has to travel. All our pipes run down one side of barn concealed. We live near wincanton,somerset if anyone's interested.

I was suggesting multifuel boiler, if I understand your layout correctly you need something more powerful than the average log burner, there are few good and not expensive boilers that should provide enough heating and hot water. The boiler is around £1200-2000 and heat store (LARGE water cylinder) is another £1300. This can be installed with few changes to the your existing central heating system, though you may need an additional/new chimney for the boiler.
The advantage of this setup is that you get heating and hot water for free for the rest of the system's life (10+ years).