Homeowner Solutions
If everyone in the UK installed a
high efficiency condensing boiler
with a full set of heating controls,
we would save enough energy to
heat nearly 1.9 million homes for
a whole year - and save around
6.7 million tonnes of CO2. Boilers For A-rated efficiency and less energy wastage, it’s time to consider a condensing boiler.
What’s the right boiler for your home?
A qualified, registered installer will help you to buy an appropriate boiler for your
home. But first, here’s a little background on boilers: what’s hot and what’s not!
In most cases, the ‘right boiler’ will mean a condensing boiler. In fact, exceptional
circumstances aside, all new gas and oil central heating boilers fitted in the UK
must now be condensing boilers by law.
What’s so good about condensing boilers?
As your installer will confirm, condensing boilers can be easily fitted to most new
and old heating systems. But what makes them better than older, non-condensing
boilers is their efficiency: they waste far less energy.
Put another way, while poor old non-condensing boilers convert just 60%
of their fuel into heat, the efficiency rate of modern A-rated condensing
boilers is at least 90%.
An A-rated condensing boiler will also use a third less fuel than an older boiler
to provide the same amount of heat - potentially cutting heating bills and CO2
emissions by a third too. All of which makes condensing boilers the most efficient
boilers on the market.
What sort of boiler do you have?
To tell a condensing boiler from a non-condensing boiler, look at the flue that
sticks out from the outdoor wall adjacent to your boiler - and the type of waste
heat it lets out into the atmosphere.
A flue is a pipe that takes the exhaust gases generated by your boiler and passes
them out through the wall or roof - letting them escape into the air. The end of the
flue is covered by a metal or plastic protective cover, which makes sure that a good
flow of air is maintained.
If the flue is made of plastic and lets out visible steam when the boiler is
firing, then congratulations: you are likely to have a condensing boiler already.
If the flue is made of metal and no steam is visible, you are likely to have
a non-condensing boiler. These older boilers let out much hotter gases that
are invisible to the naked eye - and would melt a plastic flue.
How efficient are condensing boilers?
Obviously the ratings can vary between models,
but the high efficiency condensing boilers are
usually within the A and B tiers of the energy
efficiency chart below.
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