Do you wince when you look at your gas bill? Do you have to fire up the central heating every time someone needs a bath? Do you wish your house was always warm when you get home from work?
If you thought “That’s me!” to any of those questions, then it’s time to think about replacing your old model with a new gas boiler. An elderly boiler is losing you money every single day, as well as pumping extra CO² into the environment.
If you replace your old boiler with an efficient, modern combi boiler and also upgrade your heating controls, you’ll start to see the financial benefits almost immediately (and crucially, you’ll feel warmer!). You can even combine your new system with an app-controlled thermostat.
Find out more about the benefits of replacing your gas boiler.
A New Gas Boiler Will Save You Money
We’re all used to replacing things when they get old or become less reliable. A new car, a new TV, a new fridge. There’s always a financial outlay when it comes to buying new products; however, when you buy a new boiler, you’ll soon start to see a return on your investment.
Unlike most other new items, replacing an old boiler with an efficient new one means almost instant, visible savings. Switching to a modern combi boiler can save your gas bills by about a third. According to Bord Gais, the average Irish household spends around €727 every year on gas. By changing your boiler, you could save up to €400 every year.
An old boiler isn’t cheap to repair, especially when its parts start to become obsolete. Your new boiler will come with a five-year manufacturer’s warranty – another saving. We can also help you to apply for a SEAI grant towards a heating controls upgrade (more about this later).
You’ll Also Be Helping The Environment
The traditional old non-condensing boilers were 60-70% efficient: that means a staggering 30-40% of the energy they produced was wasted. Now multiply that by your street, or a town, or the whole of Ireland, and you’ll see why we have an energy crisis.
The typical modern boiler is around 90% efficient: that’s a lot, lot better. That’s also 30-40% less CO² ending up in the atmosphere from the wasted gas.
The combination of a new, efficient combi boiler and a responsive and programmable digital controller reduces your energy consumption. With on-demand hot water and the greater control over your central heating, you’ll save energy simply by using less gas. Again – imagine if every household in Dublin switched to an energy efficient heating system…
You Can Control Your Heating From Your Smartphone
When we replace a boiler, the controls usually need an upgrade, too. Many of our customers opt for a digital programmable system that can be controlled via an app.
Imagine the scenario. You’re going to be late home from work, and don’t want to heat an empty house. Simply change the timer on your smartphone, tablet or computer. When you’re returning from holiday, simply pull the car over when you’re an hour from home and get out your smartphone. By the time you arrive, your house will be warm and welcoming.
You can also control the temperature when you’re away. You can keep the central heating ticking over gently to make sure your home doesn’t get damp, as well as responding to sudden cold snaps or warm spells.
The app-controlled thermostat isn’t available with every combi boiler, so we’ll discuss your options with you. All the boilers we install have simple-to-use digital controls, which make life so much easier – and more comfortable. Being able to divide your home into separate heating zones is one of the real advantages of digital heating control.
You Can Set Up Multi-zone Heating
Do you heat the bedrooms during the day, or the spare room all year round? If you have a mechanical timer switch, you don’t really have much choice (unless you remember to run around adjusting all the individual rads twice a day).
A digital programmer lets you set up different zones in your home. For example, the living areas will be on a daytime programme, but the bedroom radiators won’t kick in until late evening. You can even set a separate timer for weekends. And – here’s a real benefit of replacing your boiler – the heating and hot water become separate entities, so you won’t have to fire up the whole system to run a bath.
The Heating And Hot Water Are Separate
Really old timer switches don’t differentiate between the heating and hot water. There’s one circuit, and the boiler is either on or off. The result of this is that you have to run the central heating to have a shower or wash up, even on the hottest of days.
A new combi boiler and digital programmer prevents this waste. Even though a combi boiler takes care of both heating and hot water, they are run separately. This means that (hopefully) for large parts of the year, you’ll hardly be using any gas at all.
You Can Have Hot Water On Demand
No more waiting for the cylinder to heat up: there’ll always be hot water whenever you need it. Having hot water on demand actually saves energy. When you’re heating a water cylinder, there’s an element of guesswork about how much hot water you’ll need, and most of us tend to overestimate.
You can set the thermostat to your preferred hot water temperature (around 60°C is usually recommended, or 49°C if you have young children), and your boiler will automatically switch off when it reaches this temperature.
Combi boilers heat water by drawing it in from the mains, and passing it through a heat exchanger. Because of this, you’ll get the bonus of mains pressure hot water (provided you don’t run too many taps at once). If you previously needed a pump to increase the water flow, you shouldn’t do any more. Fancy installing a power shower as well…?
You’ll Be Warm And Comfy
Thanks to the digital timer and thermostats, each room in your house can have a different ambient temperature.
Most people like their sitting rooms to be around 19 to 22°C, although this varies depending on how active you are. You’ll get a better night’s sleep in a cooler bedroom (around 16°C), but you can always set it to be warmer when your alarm clock goes off in the chilly early morning. We all hate a cold bathroom, and the ideal temperature for the smallest room is a toasty 23C.
And if a room isn’t being used, such as the spare room, you can simply keep it ticking over at a low temperature, or shut that room down until it’s needed (bearing in mind that you don’t want it to become too cold or damp).
The room thermostats will override the timer. So, if we’re lucky enough to suddenly get a warm spell, the thermostat will take care of the temperature until you can adjust the controller.
Say Goodbye To The Massive Old Water Tank
One of the many reasons people love a modern combi boiler is that it saves space. Instant hot water does away with the need for a large water cylinder, and instead, all you’ll have is a neat, streamlined unit that looks after both the heating and hot water. This design is perfect for apartments and smaller houses.
OK, the downside of a combi boiler is that you won’t have a good old-fashioned airing cupboard any more. But – think of all that extra storage… You could even have a walk-in wardrobe.
It’s A Lovely-Looking Boiler
OK, maybe it’s only we heating engineers that admire a boiler’s beauty; however you have to accept that a modern combi is a great-looking piece of kit. They’re sleek and simple, with minimal controls and concealed pipes. Wall-mounted combi boilers take up very little space, and will always look better in your cupboard than a big, ugly water tank.
At Duffy Heating, we install two types of combi boiler: the Ideal Logic System IE and the Worcester Bosch Greenstar i. Both are perfect boilers for modern Irish homes, and we’ll advise you which is the best model for your household.
There Are Heating Upgrade Grants Available
Making your home more energy efficient can have other benefits, too. The SEAI offers home energy grants to people who want to make their homes more efficient. You can apply to save up to €750 off the cost of a heating controller upgrade.
At Duffy Heating, we’re SEAI registered, so we can help you apply for a heating system upgrade grant. Here’s how we can help you with your grant application.
In Conclusion
We think you’ll agree that those are compelling reasons to replace your old or broken gas boiler. You’ll also get plenty of help and advice from the friendly and experienced team here at Duffy Heating.
To find out more about our boiler replacement service or discuss your heating and hot water needs, click here to get in touch or call us today on 087 122 1728. We’re standing by to take your call.
Published: 25 September 2019
