The heat is off...

I think I may have mentioned that the central heating and hot water system in this 60s house was pretty ancient. Not necessarily the original, but I would guess as old as me or T!

The boiler had an efficiency/environmental rating of G, the worst possible rating. We kept thinking about how much it would cost to run for just one year; I thought we would be likely to see a return on our investment in a short space of time, purely in the lower running costs of a new super efficient A-rated boiler.

What with the asbestos flue and asbestos cupboard door, we had quite a cupboard of horrors.

The thermostat didn't work - it was either HOT or COLD with nothing in between. And the radiators were the biggest things I have ever seen. Another photographic opportunity missed was the radiators in situ. It was a sight to behold. But you can just about make out the dining room behemoth below.

I did take a photograph of all of them on the driveway waiting to be collected by the disposal team. They didn't make it in time, though, as T sold (!) the old boiler to a man up the road, who eventually came back and took all the radiators too. Another man had taken the radiator valves in the interim. Amazing how one man's trash really is another's treasure. It was good to know that they will be used somehow and not just chucked in landfill.

Thankfully moving into the house in September meant that we would be ok for a while, without too much need to use the radiators. But we still needed hot water, so we had to use the decrepit boiler for a while until British Gas were scheduled to replace the entire system. Warts and All.

  

Can you just make out the shabby carpets in the bedrooms? Oh my. More on those later.

The hot water cylinder. Somewhat surprising how the engineers don't leave those copper bad boys on your driveway to be haggled over. Hmmm.

But they did leave all this. Asbestos is a really scary word these days. But the engineers assured me that it was low grade and didn't pose a threat to us for the time it was in the house. Good to know.

So there you have it. All the bad stuff ripped out, and a complete new system installed. One happy family. Just in time for the weather to turn cold. Lovely.



I found B-Gas extremely efficient and helpful. I would certainly recommend them. Of course we could have paid a lower amount for this work if we had chosen an independent tradesman. And for most things I would always try to use local and independent tradesmen where possible. However, with such a large job as this, we felt using a large company would give us some comeback should anything go wrong. I guess we paid the extra money for the peace of mind.

For us, it was worth every penny.

Very happy indeed. Not to mention, warm as toast.