Tell me about it!! We have recently been informed from British Gas that we need a new boiler, and that a new one will cost £3500!!!!!
(Had a quote from someone local at £1500, less than half British Gas!!!) We own the house so will ahve to pay for it ourselves. We are just going to have to live with the big lable on out boiler saying "Danger do not use" cos we cant afford a new one!!!
Be glad you don't have the house and boiler our boiler engineer told us about when servicing ours.
It's a big country house in these parts, built in 1911 with a huge multi-fuel (can run on gas, oil, timber, peat, coal etc) boiler built into the cellar. The boiler is finally on its last legs. Our engineer has been maintaining it since he started work as an apprentice and he's near retirement!
The replacement boiler needs to be big enough to heat the whole house and, while modern ones that size are smaller than the old one, they still take up a lot of space. That would normally mean an outbuilding or purpose built shed, but it's not possible with a Category A listed building.
They're going to have to dismantle the old boiler in situ, take the larger parts out through a "small" hole in the cellar roof, then the ceiling of the room above and the ceiling of the room above that, and then through the roof. The new boiler will then be lowered in and everything restored.
The engineer said the total cost would be close to £100,000!!!!
Last edited by Stonehead on Thu Nov 29, 2007 5:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Mrs Fibble - contact your local council and ask about warmfront grants - or the similar thing you have in your area. These are grants from the government for people in "vulnerable" groups - that's elderly people, people on low income, people with children etc. You'd have to let them know if you have child tax credit or similar. The grant is for things like replacing broken down boilers with modern energy efficient ones, loft insulation, cavity wall insulation etc. I was given a grant of £4000 and now have cavity wall insulation, loft insulation and a brand new boiler (we did have to give a contribution to the latter - but it is well worth it!). As a result our heating is more efficient and we are not burning as much oil
Let us be lovely
And let us be kind
Let us be silly and free
It won't make us famous
It won't make us rich
But damn it how happy we'll be!
Edward Monkton
Member of the Ish Weight Loss Club since 10/1/11 Started at 12st 8 and have lost 8lb so far!
I am doing the same here, we're going to re-insulate this next Spring & Summer and I've found out I can get a tax rebate on the total cost of materials, as for labour that will be DIY-(Rick and I)
There may be National grants for energy savings too, look into that as well
my hubby earns too much for me to get anything from warmfront... and after the way they buggered Tea about I'm not sure I'd want to. We have double glazing (allbeit really crap double glazing), insulation, heating and I'm doing what I can with curtains and draft excluders.
oh how I love my tea, tea in the afternoon. I can't do without it, and I think I'll have another cup very
ve-he-he-he-heryyyyyyy soooooooooooon!!!!