Oil boiler advice needed

Hello,

I know there is quite a lot of threads on this forum already concerning home heating boilers so apologies if I'm going over ground that has been well covered.

We need to replace our existing oil boiler as it is on its last legs and is literally falling apart. Following some research I undertook on this site myself and my other half had more or less decided to change from oil to gas, largely because it seems the cleaner, more hassle-free fuel and probably better value. I had a high efficiency condensing gas boiler in mind.

The current Riello boiler is outside in a boiler house. The rads are in good nick and I'm told do not need replacing. The house is 35 yrs old, c. 1,600 sq ft and has a mix of gun barrel and copper piping throughout.

We had a plumber look at the setup and he advised that it would be very inadvisable to choose gas. He would be willing to install gas, but advised that it would be better to stick with oil as it would be far more efficient and the boiler could be housed in the existing boiler house structure.

Furthermore he said the oil boiler he would install would be a SIME AR4 (with a KW Output of 29.5).
I have since checked www.sedbuk.com , as recommended on this site, and can't find this boiler in its listing.

Has anyone had this boiler installed and would they recommend it?

Secondly, the plumber gave us a ball park figure of €2.5k for the installing the boiler and burner and removing the old boiler. Does this seem reasonable?

Lastly, I know my description is pretty sketchy, but can anyone understand why the plumber was not in favour of converting to gas?

I appreciate any suggestions.

M

i dont know about your specific boiler but i recently installed a 90,000 btu warmflow boiler (galvanised housing) in a rented house ive got. i went for that one as the pump etc was pre-plumbed and there was only the flow,return,oil and 1 electrical cable to hook up. it was not exactly rocket science. total cost 799.99. total time , about an hour.

i forgot to ask if you are sure that you actually need a new boiler as they tend to last forever. it might be that you just need a burner and if so , they cost about 300 , are held in place by a single nut and have electrical and oil connections

General recomendations are "if your boiler is more than 15 years old, replace it". Condensing boilers are a LOT more efficient. The extract a good bit of heat from the ehxaust which was wasted in older units. 2.4k seems exorbidant. The old one is probably cast iron, which actually has value, but probably not worth looking for money for such a small amount. Gas certainly is cleaner, both for you and the environment, but, I believe, is marginally more expensive to run. I think you should consider installing the new on indoors rather than in a boilerhouse, due to the extra distance for the water.

Thanks for your helpful reply!