There is new government legislation coming into force for new combination gas boiler installations. This will impact both new builds and homeowners/private landlords when upgrading from old combination boilers to new combination boilers in existing homes. They have called this Boiler Plus.
Boiler manufacturers have been under greater pressure to lower the boiler emissions and increase overall efficiency which also helps customers reduce their energy bills. This all goes towards helping the government’s pledge to reduce overall carbon emissions.
What this means for the property owner or developer is, that firstly the combi boiler you purchase will be the most efficient on the market. However, the installer must recommend further controls to make the heating system be even more efficient in line with the government legislation.
Smart Thermostat
This could be a Smart Learning Thermostat (Smart Stat) like the Nest pictured. This connects to your phone and monitors your movements and can even recognise when you’re at home. This is the most accurate in terms of your specific lifestyle, which can always be overridden by the app on the user’s phone.
Weather Compensator
Weather Compensators connect directly to the outside of the property and dependent on the weather conditions and external temperature, the boiler will modulate and keep the temperature of the water inside the radiators relevant to the external temperature. Rather than just on or off.
Load Compensator
A Load Compensator works in a similar way to a Weather Compensator, but the thermostat is placed within the property rather than externally. The boiler’s thermostat is then controlled based on the room thermostat and again, the radiators may feel warm to touch rather than simply hot or cold.
Thermostatic Radiator Valves (TRVs) should always be installed for individual control of radiators too. Even further measures like magnetic filters can help improve overall efficiency.
Flue Heat Recovery System
Flue Heat Recovery System involves reusing the heat produced from combustion to reheat or preheat the heating or incoming cold mains pipe so the boiler doesn’t have to use as much energy to make it reach its target temperature.
There are several other ways to make your home more efficient, but one of these four as identified is required.
Marvel are always more than happy to provide free quotation and advice which one is best for your needs and budget and whether magnetic filters or scale reducers are necessary to further improve efficiency.
Dependent on your favoured choice of manufacturer, some of these features may already be built into the boiler itself.
New Intergas models as well as the Vaillant Green IQ range tick many of these boxes. This means in some instances there is no real increase in installation cost but still a long-term saving on energy bills over the years.
Here is the whole document from the Government.
Blog originally published here.