Disadvantage of bigger boiler

Disadvantage of bigger boiler

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xyz123

Original Poster:

1,065 posts

141 months

Wednesday 26th March
quotequote all
Hi, we are replacing our conventional boiler with system Boiler. Builder has suggested Valliant 30kw boiler however offered an option for one size bigger with 35kw.

Its will be a 4 bed house with 2 bathrooms and 10 or 11 radiators. There is an off we may extend the house in ground floor in future. But irrespective of this is there any disadvantage of going with bigger boiler (cost difference is not significant). Boiler obviously consumes more gas but hopefully with a shorter running time relative to smaller boiler.

Modern boilers in general seem to have good modulation range so I am tempted to upgrade just in case!

Thanks for reading my post.

Trustmeimadoctor

14,107 posts

167 months

Wednesday 26th March
quotequote all
Get a heat loss calc done it's the correct way to do it

But it's very unlikely you will need more than 10kw unless it's an old unmodernised place

Edited by Trustmeimadoctor on Wednesday 26th March 19:44

clockworks

6,603 posts

157 months

Wednesday 26th March
quotequote all
I'm in a 1960's 4 bed detached dormer bungalow, EPC E.

We recently switched from a 25 year old oil system boiler, rated at 15 kW. We now have a 6kW heat pump.

Heatloss calcs done before the heatpump install suggested we needed 5.7kW at minus 2 degrees.

The 6kW heatpump is actually too much. A 4kW unit would've coped on the coldest day so far (below zero degrees for more than 24 hours).


OutInTheShed

10,615 posts

38 months

Wednesday 26th March
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A 30kW boiler should be plenty.
It should be able to re-heat the HW tank faster than two showers can use the water.

Heating wise, the most I've ever managed to use is about 8kW continuous averaged over 3 extremely cold windy days when visiting aged inlaws wanted the place at 23 degrees.

30kW is over £50 of gas per day!
Is a lot of fair sized radiators too hot to touch.

It can be helpful to have a fast warm-up, but that carries a risk of temperatures over shooting.

30 and 35 kW are not very different. Do any other features or parameters make a difference?

B'stard Child

30,070 posts

258 months

Wednesday 26th March
quotequote all
xyz123 said:
Hi, we are replacing our conventional boiler with system Boiler. Builder has suggested Valliant 30kw boiler however offered an option for one size bigger with 35kw.

Its will be a 4 bed house with 2 bathrooms and 10 or 11 radiators. There is an off we may extend the house in ground floor in future. But irrespective of this is there any disadvantage of going with bigger boiler (cost difference is not significant). Boiler obviously consumes more gas but hopefully with a shorter running time relative to smaller boiler.

Modern boilers in general seem to have good modulation range so I am tempted to upgrade just in case!

Thanks for reading my post.
I get that if a boiler has a the same modulation range as a smaller one upsizing might not be a problem if you oversize the boiler and the CH circuit can't take move that much energy away from the boiler it's not going to be any advantage to oversize. In the warm up phase the boiler will just put in what it can so you are just spending money that isn't going to give any benefit.

1980's 4 bed (extended) 13 rads - boiler is 16kW I only need 4 kWh absolute max at -2 Deg C (Heat loss said 4.7 kWh at -2.4 Deg C) I was going to get the 11kW version but that can't be range rated down like the 16kW one can

Other issue is 35 kW boiler may need a gas pipe upgrade from 15mm to 22mm where a 30kW can cope with 15mm gas feed (provided it's not a huge distance from the meter)

silversurfer1

922 posts

148 months

Thursday 27th March
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35 kw is way to big, hot water times will be rated by the cylinder coil not the boiler.

Back calculate your radiator sizes and then add some for your possible extension.

You will be able to alter the kw output of the boiler in its software.

Probably best advice I could give it to not let your builder have anything to do with your heating system.

Get a local independent heating company out that will service and maintain it long after the builder has gone

Ss

TorqueDirty

1,580 posts

231 months

Thursday 27th March
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I 'm getting a new oil boiler fitted next week. 5 bed, 5 bathroom house - relatively modern and well insulated - with underfloor heating upstairs and downstairs. House is about 4000 sq ft I think.

Went for 25kw rather than anything bigger.

xyz123

Original Poster:

1,065 posts

141 months

Thursday 27th March
quotequote all
Thanks for your replies. Appreciate the feedback.