Novocastrian

Our house in Normandy has a furnace which was originally designed to run on oil but was converted to use "gaz de ville" when that became available many years ago. It heats water for radiators throughout the house and of course separately provides hot water for other uses.

Now this is an old furnace/boiler which is starting to cause problems.

Can anyone advise what a more modern high efficiency replacement would cost and where to go online to find out more about options?

I think it'll get through this winter OK but I'm thinking about replacing it when we're next "in residence" during the summer.

Any/all advice appreciated.

Sherlock Holmes

Hi there. I had to put in CH from scratch in Australia and it took me yonks to find somewhere to provide all the componenst of a system.

The boiler I got was by Ferroli. Italian obviously and if they ship to Aus, they might manage France.

37kw output, dimensions: 800 x 400 x 200

37 kw is very approx 100,000 btus though that is comparing apples to oranges but it would easily deal with 9 + radiators or a medium size 4 bed house in England.

These modern boilers are very efficient but they are designed to cope with modern radiators which contain a very small quantity of water.

I found this: http://www.ferroli.fr/

there is also http://www.ferroli.co.uk/

The cost of the boiler was AUS $2,000 which considering the high cost of European stuff here was very reasonable. I should hope that you could get something in France for £600 - 800.

Hope this helps.

A.

Novocastrian

Hi alistair,

Thanks for the input. I'll follow up on those links.

BTW, the i30/Touring is working out fine.

le plumber

37kw for 9 radiators so on average each radiator is 4kw??!! Blimey and I thought Oz was a warm country

As for Ferroli, it is available in France but what I would recommend is to fit a boiler that installers in your area usually work with. The reason for this is that it in case of a breakdown it would be highly likely that a heating engineer/local supplier would have the part in stock. Around here its usually Frisquet, De Dietrich or ELM Leblanc. Of course there are all the other brands but parts aren't usually in stock.

As opposed to the Uk, in france there is no obligation to install a condensing boiler. For a condensing boiler to be worthwhile, you're radiators should ideally be oversized. If this is not the case then you're probably better off getting a "basse temperature". Condensing boilers are also more expensive than the normal ones and since there will soon be no more crédits d'impots on these machines I would advise you to get a normal boiler - basse temperature - and to invest in a good "régulation", with a motorised 3 or 4 port valve which takes into consideration the temperatures inside and outside the house.

racaille

Is it really possible to get a boiler for at little as €800? How wonderful to have gas ....

We were quoted €10,000 to replace our ancient and huge (size of a small room) Chappée oil boiler. We have no mains anything but are quite taken by the Perge wood gasification boilers.

Anyone anything to say about them?

le plumber

10000€ I think your heating engineer is mistaking you for an american - Solid wood boilers are not that much to install, especially PERGE

Novocastrian

Thanks for the excellent advice. From memory I'm fairly sure there are 12 radiators around the house but I've no idea how they're rated for output power. Most of them are about 60x60 cm. (And they're not modern).

Roughly how much would some appropriate gas boiler cost to buy and to install (bearing in mind the old unit will need to be disposed of as well, BTW I think that one's a Dietrich)?

Sherlock Holmes

If only! Today it's 12 C here, supposedly in the middle of summer. Down south we get several frosts a year in winter.

le plumber

It sounds to me like your installation isn't oversized so a condensing boiler would be hopeless, unless of course you wish to change all the radiators too. By the way are the radiators made out of steel or aluminum?? I ask this because you may have a build up of sludge in the aluminum radiators due to the water coming into contact with different metals. In any case, I would highly advise that you jetflush the system - in the UK this is done almost automatically but in France its not quite so widespread. Again find an installer who will do this properly and not just link up the cold water supply to the boiler and letting it circulate for an hour or so (very common practice in France).
A difficult question to answer without a few necessary questions : floorstanding or wall mounted?, Chimney or room sealed flue pipe?? How many people living in the house?? (this is for the hot water), type of insulation you have, double glazing etc? Thermostatic valves on radiators?? etc etc. You're looking at about 5000€ for a wall mounted boiler and 6000€ for a floor standing model - this would be the boiler, plus installation + jetflush and chemicals. If you want you can PM me your email and I can do you a rough quote just to give you an idea of the price your local plumbers should be giving you.

le plumber

Even so, we're in a cold part of France where winters are severe. We have a house 170m² and with a Delta T° of 30° we still only need 24kw, and thats just for the hot water - otherwise the heating would never use the full 24kw. The french have a proverb "qui peut le plus, peut le moins", which litterally means "He who can do more, can do less" - at least you'll have plenty of hot water and you'll never be cold lol


PS I like you're Xmas avatar - pity you weren't nominated!!

Novocastrian

Thanks again. I'll send you a PM.

Sherlock Holmes

I was concerned initially that 37kw was way to much and that the boiler would spend it's life switching on and off. I did question this with the supplier and he stated that it was the only one (at the time) to be Aussie approved (bloody cheek, never mind that's another story). So I was stuck with the size anyhow. It's modern design means it can cope with short bursts and there is no internal condensation problem. The boiler is mounted outside and has an extremely short balanced flu. It seems fine after 3 seasons.

The insulation of the house is rubbish also.

It is a sealed system. Once heat is reached and the room stat cuts in, the pump runs for a minute or so to dissipate some heat.

It claims to be accurate within +/- 0.2 of a degree and indeed it is.

I changed may avatar after noms went in, but thank you all the same!

In case you wonder, Australia is way behind with central heating - here known as hydronic heating.

Novocastrian

I just want to acknowledge publicly the very detailed and helpful sample devis that le plumber has sent me by e-mail.

Many thanks to him and to the forum.

le plumber

Your more than welcome Glad to have been of assistance

fidobsa

Is it the same as UK in that you are not allowed to do DIY gas plumbing? I installed my own mains gas combi boiler but had to get a CORGI engineer to plumb in the gas, set the meter pressure and commission the boiler.