Hi I am looking at putting an offer in on a house but they have recommended that the old oil boiler needs replacing, it’s a five bedroom house, any ideas of costs ? As they haven’t mentioned it and the property is already overpriced!! Merci
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Who are the "they " that says the boiler needs replacing, and are they the same “they” that haven’t mentioned it?
Most things can be fixed😉
BTW, welcome to SF
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Could be time for a heat pump? 
Also welcome 
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They as in estate agents, but it’s all very vague merci
Thank you
Bienvenue! re your question: How long is a piece of string? I’d second the heat pump idea.
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I am having an old oil burning boiler replaced with a pellet burning boiler. Had 3 suppliers in to quote and all said existing radiators are good.
Quotations were between €14000 and €21000 depending on make and specification of boiler.
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I wouldn’t consider a heat pump for anything but a very recently-built house (unless you’re made of money). We bought a house with one already installed - I’m already thinking about a pellet-burner when the time comes to replace it.
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I am going through the same process of replacing an oil boiler.
I had 3 quotes. First said either air sourced heat pump or pellet (not sure about the company), the second said only look at pellet and the third has carried out an étude, we get the results tomorrow.
For pellet burner you need a large storage space for pellets if you want to benefit from bulk pellet prices.
Heat pump ground or air you need to look at the climate/altitude, stability of electric supply, amount of insulation, radiator or underfloor heating size, room volumes, are you putting in hot water storage to act as a buffer, which producer you go with (Steibel Elektro or Viessmann appear to be two of the better ones), are you putting in photovoltaics as well. Further factors: are other heating sources such as a pôele used and are there any internal walls that will act as a heat storage.
Prices currently range from €21k to €32k. Cost of bore hole for ground sourced is about €15k.
Whilst that is probably the ideal scenario, properly designed they certainly can work and cost effectively in old stone buildings. Many of the oil burning heating setups I have seen use a decent sized pipe work and rads. Of course insulation should still be the first thing on the list no matter what form of heating. With the cost of electricity being much lower in France than the UK, I feel done properly it could work very well.
Dont confuse buffer with volumiser, buffers seem seldom necessary, whilst volumisers seem to be a good idea. The best heat pump installers are stripping out the additional gubbins in favour of a less is more approach and a pretty open flow setup where the flow temperature and weather compensation are the key to efficiency.
Consider Nibe heat pumps as well.
If we use a heat pump the 400 litre tank also acts as our hot water supplier for washing etc.
I will see the results of the étude tomorrow and if a heat pump is a suggested option I will see the proposed design. I am a Chemical Engineer by profession and specialised in heat flow and thermodynamics.
Thanks for the Nibe suggestion; I will take a look.
@Tobyuk44
I’m in the process of replacing mine, I’ve found a very reasonably priced Viessman 300C condensing boiler compatible with new fioul types so fine for the futur, on the LBC. A lot of people are replacing their heating systems with heat pumps which many will regret if they are taken in with the publicity & bumpf if not knowing the basics, insulation, kwh out put COP, need mono or 3 phase supply, geographical location.
If you do go down the heat pump route… Look at the grants available, but I also strongly advise at looking at managing the works yourself, through local companies they will ou should work out cheaper. I ask for a quote through France Ren’ov. They weren’t interested in coming to the house or my detailed plans with all walls, windows, doors etc with thermal calculations etc (part of my day job btw) before I signed on the dotted line? Though they quoted over the phone 16-20K€ & then they’d send out a expert, not on a low income, they would argue to get me a rebate of +/- 2 k€ on the amount. I could fit and plumb in a heat pump in less than a day, so can any professional heat engineer. I worked out I could do my HP installation for 9k€. But I chose to replace the boiler.
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Yes, ok understand now. You’ll still be using the primary circuit into the tank, rather than a buffer that has hydronic separation and a secondary circuit?
Typical, sadly a lot of companies taking that route after all they will actually pocket the grant and most would still end up paying the correct amount if there was no grant, same in the UK although the Heat Geek training school is doing well educating or re educating ex boiler fitters.
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Yes, that is correct.
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Yes, the problem is to find someone that is prepared to do a study of heat flow.
The majority of companies are not serious and are only interested in a sale and taking the subsidy for themselves. I will not qualify for any intervention.
My hate is when sales persons say that heat pumps are more than 100% efficient, thus breaking the first two laws of thermodynamics.
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I think its dumbed down for non techy customers. KISS principle.
Good old US Navy; “Keep It Simple Stupid”
I’ve found that if you think people are stupid they behave as being stupid.
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What’s reasonably priced? Water and CH or just CH?
And …sorry …do you know if it needs a double flue? Access to the chimney to reline is evil
Ive been waiting on the condensing/biofuel models reaching sane prices.