Written by
Tim Buckman
on 11 Oct 2023
and updated on
12 Dec 2023
Categorised in
Sustainability
Following up on the article I wrote back in February, I took the plunge to replace my old boiler in an attempt to reduce my bills and carbon footprint. Having told a number of friends and contacts about my experience, it is evident there is a real interest in the subject, so I do hope you find this useful!
On paper this was an easy decision. However, parting with a lot of money when my old boiler was working just fine required some consideration. Most people replace their boilers at the point they fail, only around 20% of households do so proactively.
A reminder of my checklist:
I went for the much-acclaimed Sapphire boiler from EOGB - I was impressed with its performance stats, the efficiency and emissions reduction, which you can see in my previous article.
My local engineer, K Fisk Plumbing and Heating completed a heat loss calculation of the house which helped me decide which boiler I needed, and allowed the team at Sapphire to configure the output accordingly. The owner Kevin Fisk gave an independent review of the install from an engineering perspective.
In my case I needed 24 kWs of output, for which this particular boiler is rated to go well beyond. For context my old boiler was 50+kW, totally overpowered! I was using too much energy for the heat output required, something that I understand is a common issue with kerosene boilers.
I purchased the boiler directly from the manufacturer at a price just under £4,900, we have made these available on our shop, I went for the external option. The installation, plumbing and system flushing came to around £2,500. So all in, £7,500.
We live in a big, old, drafty house and are therefore heavy heating oil users, in a normal year getting through at least 5,000 litres. I would be happy if I have reduced this by 25%. This would mean worst-case I’m looking at around a 8.5 year payback, although we believe the reduction could be as high as 50%, with further savings on electricity and reduced maintenance costs.
Back to the checklist, this is how it's shaping up:
Looking good so far, as for saving money, I’ll report back on this at the end of the winter!
