Replacing boiler what would you do?

[Robbrosky]

Good afternoon fountains of knowledge,

I am about to move to a 4 bedroom bungalow property where the boiler needs replacing. Exceptionally old, inefficient and outdated.

At present it is a system boiler (hot water tank in airing cupboard). This is also over 20 years old so if kept would be replaced (if that's actually needed?)

The house is on Oil (no gas) so any replacement would have to be Oil also.
The house is Timber Framed with block rendered outside walls

My question is what would you fit instead?
1. Like for like but just updated and more efficient?
2. Oil combi boiler inside (are these noisy given the house is timber framed and therefore no solid internal walls to dampen the sound?)
3. Oil Combi boiler outside (the existing boiler is floor mounted next to the outside wall and if an external boiler was fitted it would go the other side of this wall so no major drama with pipes etc)
4. Some other heating system for my budget

I have about £5K budgeted for the work so I would not be going down the route of Air source/ground source etc. The house is in Scotland.

There are 2 bathrooms in the property both with mixer showers (i.e. not electric showers)

I will be living there with my 3 boys although they will only be there every second week so 1 week on my own and the next 4 of us in the house so not huge demands on hot water every day/every week.

I am not sure what the water pressure is like so would possibly also look to install a whole house pump to make sure the hot/cold water and showers are decent pressure.

So back to my title "What would you do?" also "why would you do it that way"

Thank you for any and all input.

[ProDave]

Is the house 20 years old or more?  Trying to guess insulation levels.

 

Indoor system oil boiler will be simplest swap.  Does the old one work at all, if so that gives you an idea of the noise, a new one likely being less noisy.

 

I am not a fan of combi boilers myself but others seem happy.

 

 

 

 

[Nickfromwales]

If you want the noise / smell outside, you can have an external system or combi boiler. The downside is the latent heat off it is no longer lending itself to the heated envelope of the house interior.

 

Up to you if you want to kick it out of the house, just needs a slab to sit on and a few meters of pipe extending out through the wall.

 

Oil combi would suffice, and you get brilliant hot water off modern ones; most are heatstore so have a small tank of hot water stored inside ready to go.

 

You need a cylinder if you’re planning solar PV to store summer excess as ‘free’ hot water.

 

Water pressure will need to be absolute crap to warrant the ballache of going for pumps etc. Avoid if at all possible. 

[Robbrosky]

Thanks Pro Dave.

 

The house is 2002 build so yes just over 20 years old.

 

Not sure about the noise or smell levels of the existing boiler as not in the house yet.

 

It does still work though so a good shout to see how noisy it is and then take a bit off for the noise of a new one.