Choosing The Right Boiler For Your Home
When choosing to replace your the old boiler in your home, there are a number of factors that you need to consider prior to making a choice. It is first of all important to consider what companies that will best meet your needs. Choose a company with a reputation for excellence. Do they have a long-standing record in the community you live in? A good company is going to make sure they consider all of your needs and not just try and set you up with whatever model they have the most of.
The types of units you should become familiar with are Combination, Conventional or System boilers.
A Combination unit supplies hot water on demand. This being the case there is no need for holding tanks or extra pipe work. It usually costs less then a conventional boiler and normally you don’t lose a lot of water pressure for showers. Some drawbacks are that the water can take between 30 and 45 seconds to heat up. Also because of the way the system works, only one tap can receive hot water at any given time.
A Conventional unit is the type of hot water system most people are familiar with. The hot water is stored in a large holding tank for later use. A conventional boiler can also be used for heating a home if water is piped through a radiator system. This system allows for several taps to receive hot water at the same time and depending on the tanks capacity most people will not “run out” of hot water under normal usage. Drawbacks include increased installation expenses and higher energy consumption.
A System boiler is basically the same as a conventional boiler but it is a much simpler set up. The major difference is that with a system boiler, the heating element is contained inside the storage tank. System boilers give more consistent temperatures and flow rates. On the other hand, its increased installation expense and higher cost mean that it may not be for everyone.
Some questions that should be asked are what kind of fixtures do you have in your home? How many bathrooms more specifically, how many faucets or outlets are going to be used to dispense hot water at any one time? How much available space do you have? Make sure that you know the answers to these questions ahead of time and have a good idea of what kind of boiler system is right for your home.
About the Author: Jon Kilminster writes for http://www.boilerplanet.com, a website packed with information on biomass boilers and corn boilers