Man (I feel like a, erm, man) - The Bear and Badger

poprock

Dinostar77 wrote:

Anyway my plumber recommended me a boiler guy just called him. He said he can put a new fan in and have it sorted by end of week for under £500 all in. Said its a good solid boiler and not to spend money i dont have on a new one. I took him up on the new fan. Now need to find circa £500 to pay him. Hoepfully i can pay him on credit card.

To be fair, that sounds about right doesn’t it? If the big brand guys quote £700 and an independent boiler tech quotes £500 … that feels like a price variance I’d reasonably expect.

Can you claim the offered £250 and put that towards your £500 repair cost?

Dinostar77

Unfortunately not stupid halifax wont allow that. New boiler only. Though i may just submit the invoice anyway as they have been so bloody slow. I have just been told new fan is arriving tomorrow so with any luck it could be fitted tomorrow or worse case Thursday. Fingers crossed.

SonicBoomBoy

Boiler insurance to cover your boiler but we'll only give you 10% if you make a claim??!! Shove it up your fucking arse

davyK

£1000-£2000 for a top brand boiler depending on size / number of radiators but you can get a decent one for less than that.

You might be able to do a deal with British Gas who will also have a service plan? There are monthly payment options with different vendors.

Dinostar77

Boiler man been and gone. New fan installed. We have central heating again. Phew. Fingers crossed there isnt another gremlin other than the fan.

Dinostar77

By the way anyone have Nest or Hive controller for their boiler installed? Worth the change?

Syph79

I updated to a Hive, but only after I had some issues with my original controls. If you have a working thermostat, you can decide whether being able to turn on your heating using a phone or via voice (with an Alexa or Google device) is worth £200.

Roujin

YHeah I'm with Syph, I would generally avoid Hive unless I had to replace my controls, and even then, I think I'd still be tempted to go for a traditional control scheme if I didn't have mobility issues or need to make sure I was able to heat my home while I was out (which do exist).

poprock

Seems like a nice gadget for people with spare money.

I have nine thermostats around the house. That’d be knocking on two grand to switch to something like Nest or Hive. Seems a lot to save a few button presses.

Roujin

Yeah I think a lot of people assume before reading into it that you get the Hive and it controls all of your heating.

poprock

If I was building a new house from scratch, then I’d probably spec it. But switching to it in an existing home feels OTT.

Tempy

Nine thermostats, Jeremy? Nine? That’s insane.

Dinostar77

Good feedback, maybe digital TRVs are a better spend of money in the future for heating.

Also as tempy said thermostats why?

Kow

I think something popped in my boiler last night too. Pop noise and error code. Reset it and it's working ok but the hot water seems to be very hot, if I'm not imagining it. Probably the thermostat safety valve. Fucking thing went out of warranty 6 days ago.

Roujin

Dinostar77 wrote:

Good feedback, maybe digital TRVs are a better spend of money in the future for heating. Also as tempy said thermostats why?

Cos thermostats control when your heating comes on and off and can control any kind of heating system you use (underfloor, radiant panels, electric heaters, etc.) and a TRV is thermostatic radiator valve which can only control the flow of water through a radiator when the heating is already running.

poprock

Tempy wrote:

Nine thermostats, Jeremy? Nine? That’s insane.

Wait ’til you hear about my five ovens.

Dinostar77

Roujin wrote:

Dinostar77 wrote:

Good feedback, maybe digital TRVs are a better spend of money in the future for heating. Also as tempy said thermostats why?

Cos thermostats control when your heating comes on and off and can control any kind of heating system you use (underfloor, radiant panels, electric heaters, etc.) and a TRV is thermostatic radiator valve which can only control the flow of water through a radiator when the heating is already running.

Looks i have some homework to do.

poprock

Dinostar77 wrote:

thermostats why?

You can have a single thermostat for an entire heating system – that’s just an on/off control on your boiler. Or you can have a separate thermostat for each ‘zone’ in your building. Whether that’s individual rooms or groups of rooms. In that case you set your boiler to be permanently on and allow the separate thermostats to do their thing and control how much heat is needed when for each zone.

Tempy

the rich getting richer by saving i heating with their thousand zonally incremental thermostats whilst us poe a have one! One for the pleb class! Let the heat cake!

poprock

Tempy wrote:

Let them heat cake!

This is V. good punning. More of this.

Roujin

I saved my house deposit through hard work and the nine thermostats I was given by my parents.

Dinostar77

poprock wrote:

Dinostar77 wrote:

thermostats why?

You can have a single thermostat for an entire heating system – that’s just an on/off control on your boiler. Or you can have a separate thermostat for each ‘zone’ in your building. Whether that’s individual rooms or groups of rooms. In that case you set your boiler to be permanently on and allow the separate thermostats to do their thing and control how much heat is needed when for each zone.

Need to research this. Would you save on heating costs this way? Also isnt leaving your boiler permanently on a bad thing and expensive?

Kow

Boiler should always be on, heating not necessarily.

Roujin

Yeah typically your boiler is usually on all the time, unless you are going away on holiday during the summer and therefore wont need hot water, heating and there's no risk of pipe freezing etc.

What multiple thermostat systems allow you to do is better control the heat in each zone or room of a home with less effort. But you can do the same thing with TRVs to be honest anyway if you have radiators with them installed, it's just a manual process of if you aren't using a room and want to be super economical then turn the radiator off (or leave it on low if it's the winter and there's a risk of damage from the cold being done if the space is left unheated).

Dinostar77

By boiler on i meant/thought heating on 24/7. I worded it badly.

Btw, thoughts on running heating overnight? I dont do it. Missus complains and wants it. Try to explain to her that her own body heat will be caught in the duvet and keep her nice and toasty.

Kow

If you have automatic settings, just set it to come on 30 minutes before you get up. Would cost a fortune to run all night.

Roujin

Yeah i don't normally run heating overnight, when it's cold I set the thermostat to put the heating on between like 5:30 and 7:00 AM if it's going to be cold so it takes the edge off a bit when I wake up.

g.man

Roujin wrote:

I saved my house deposit through hard work and the nine thermostats I was given by my parents.

*chortle*

Dinostar77

So while we

Roujin wrote:

Yeah i don't normally run heating overnight, when it's cold I set the thermostat to put the heating on between like 5:30 and 7:00 AM if it's going to be cold so it takes the edge off a bit when I wake up.

I have heating (in winter) come on around 530am as well. Off by 8am. Then back on at 4pm and off by 8pm. I have the thermostat (only have one) set to 20 degree and normally have the rad TVRs fully opened for the house.
Though with 16 rads in the house i dont think leaving them all fully opened is the most sensible idea money wise?

Roujin

Yeah if there are rooms you don't go in very often, then you can put the TRVs to low in those rooms if you don't already. Shutting doors into rooms you don't use when the heating is on will also help a bit as it will keep the warmed air to the spaces you are using, rather than mix with the cool air in any unheated/low use areas.

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories