This is a question that we receive all the time from our customers. In this blog, I’m going to help you look at the numbers to determine whether it’s worth spending money on the latest and most energy efficient boiler!
There are two pieces of information to complete this. The first is the amount of gas kWh used per year. Your utility company will be able to supply you with this information and it could be included on your gas bill.
Another thing to look into is the efficiency of the boiler you have. This is a easy process, provided that you determine the manufacturer and model number of your boiler.
Near your boiler you’ll see the annual SAP2009 efficiency rating This will provide you with the efficiency score of your boiler.
It might surprise you to learn it is the European Union are still messing about how to set up an European-wide benchmarking system to assess the efficiency of boilers. Hence, we need to look at the SEDBUK ratings for boiler efficiency (which are much more reasonable in the sense that they go A-G, rather than having A+ A++, A+, as well as A +++).
The table is located on the right hand side. your boiler ought to be somewhere in that range. If someone is now talking about the need to replace a ‘G’-rated boiler, you know exactly the issue they’re talking seriously.
Do I need to replace my boiler right now?
Now that you have how efficient your energy is (both numerals and bandsed letters) and also the use of the boiler, you can perform easy math to determine what savings you can make installing the latest boiler. I will walk you through an example that uses the following 3 assumptions:
Yearly usage of gas 15,000kWh (slightly less than the average for the nation)
The boiler that was old: the Baxi Combi 80e – D, rated at 78.6 percent efficiency
The new boiler is Baxi Avanta Plus 39c Combi A rated operating at 90.8 percent efficiency
Look below to see how the numbers are in line for you!
Step 1: Determine how much heating units my boiler currently produces each year.
So , my boiler currently in use will transform 15,000 kWh in gas to 11790 units efficient heating (simply determined by multiplying 15,000 times 0.786).
Step 2: Determine the equivalent number of kWh of propane my brand new boiler will need to consume to generate the same amount of heat that is useful.
11 790 times 0.908 = 12,984 kWh gas.
Step 3: Determine how much gas you’re using by installing a new boiler
15,000 minus 12,984 = 2016. kWh or less gas units required
Step 4. Multiply the units of gas saved by the cost average of gas (4.5p per KWH)
2016 kWh * PS0.045 equals PS90.72 per year.
A typical boiler now costs around PS2,500 to purchase and the lifespan for the boiler is between 12 and 15 years. If you replaced this in the near future, you’re thinking of saving around the sum of PS1,088 in 15 years by the replacement, basing upon this energy consumption.
What happens if you use 27,000kWh of natural gas? Would that justify the cost of to replace the boiler?
Old boiler generates 21,222 units of heat that are useful to the environment.
The new boiler requires 23,372 kWh of natural gas to create the same amount heat
The new boiler installation will save 3627 kWh of energy per year.
3627 kWh multiplied by 0.045 is PS164.24 per year.
Keep in mind that an average boiler will cost PS2500 to replace. Replacing the D-rated boiler one described above could yield around PS1970.88 worth of saving over 12 years (without including any rises in energy costs over the course of period). You’ll begin to realize the benefits of this worth your time!
The problem becomes more evident but this is especially true if you have to pay a monthly amount to maintain your boiler. If you’re paying PS200 annually to have an engineer to apply a plaster to your boiler in order to help it get through another winter, could be an even more attractive option.
The most important thing is to do this calculation yourself to determine whether it’s worth doing.
I hope that the article above will help you to determine if it’s worth replacing your boiler with a more efficient model. As I stated earlier, we did not take into consideration any fuel price increases case, therefore should gas prices continue to increase at 10% per year then your savings will rise substantially.
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