You would have thought that BIGGER is always better. This is true in a lot of life’s situations, like ordering a bigger steak, buying a bigger house, watching a bigger TV and wining big money. But this can’t be said for your boiler. The right sized boiler needs to be installed into your home right from the start. If not, you could see your energy bills escalating and your hot water running out. A cold home and a cold shower doesn’t sound like much fun does it…
Fitting the correct sized boiler can benefit your home and wallet. It will produce the right amount of heat for the size of your home, which means you aren’t wasting energy. If you have an oversized boiler the energy used to heat your home could be doubled or tripled making this an expensive outlay. So, if you’re thinking of a new boiler, there are a few factors to be taken into account. It’s always best to get advice from a fully qualified heating engineer or plumber. They can calculate the cubic air space in your home with the number of rooms to know what sized boiler you need. It all comes down to how many Kilowatts it will take to heat your home.
So what needs to be taken into account when choosing the right sized boiler?
The basic principal is the larger your home the more radiators you will need per room, therefore the larger the boiler system you will need. If you live in a 2 bedroom flat your boiler is going to be significantly smaller than someone that lives in a 10 bedroom mansion with stables out the back and a triple garage. The reason for this? Yes, you guessed it, they have more rooms that need heating meaning more radiators will be linked to the boiler’s system.
Your boiler doesn’t just serve your radiators in your home, you also rely on it to produce hot water for your shower, bath and even the laborious task of washing up. These demands for hot water will determine what size boiler you need. You will need to consider the frequency you need hot water, as well as the number of bathrooms you have in your home. The more bathrooms or toilets you have, the larger the boiler you will need. You can determine the frequency of use by looking at your family size and your daily routine. How many people have showers and baths on a night and a morning? Do you need instant hot water? Chances are you will need a larger boiler to cope with this demand.
This will be a big deciding factor on your boiler size. You should know the energy rating of your home as under new EU law every home needs to come with an energy efficiency label. You will need to consider certain aspects of your home and how they are performing. Take a look at your loft insulation and see if this is sufficient enough – loft insulation regulations mean insulation should be a minimum of 270mm thick. Do you have cavity wall insulation? If not there are many government schemes that help out with paying for your cavities to be insulated. What type of windows and doors do you have fitted? If you have wooden doors and single glazed sliding sash windows, your home would be quite cold resulting in a large amount of air circulation and heat loss. If you have double glazing and UPVC doors fitted, your home would be quite airtight. This means the air in your home stays heated for longer. If you take 2 homes the same size, 1 home is well insulated and the other is not, the well-insulated home will need a smaller boiler to heat it. The air within the insulated home will stay warm longer resulting in less energy used, which in turn reduces your energy bills.
Did you know there is a heat loss calculation that can be carried out? Firstly it would have to be done by an accredited plumber or heating engineer, but this heat loss calculation on your home could be a big deciding factor on the boiler size needed for your home.
After reading this article you may be thinking this is too much to consider yourself. If that sounds like you, just call a plumbing or heating company that can assist with your new boiler installation. Our Plumbcare.com team would be delighted to help install your new boiler system into your home. Contact us today!
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