Boiler Plus – What is it? How does it affect me?
Hello again all, it seems that finally the economy is gradually beginning to open which is great news for everybody. For us, we are seeing an increased demand particularly in quoting for and installing new boilers. And talking to friends in other trades it seems the public are on the topic of home improvements, which is great news for us for sure.
Which brings me nicely on to the subject of a set of regulations which apply to us as installers as well as those of us who are homeowners or landlords when installing ALL new combination boilers. This regulation is known as the Boiler Plus Regulation.
Before we dive into the regulatory bit, you may be asking…….What is a combination boiler??? I often have a lot of customers who become confused between a combination and a condensing boiler. So just very briefly…..
- All new boilers now are condensing no matter what kind of system you have. Condensing refers to the process of gases becoming cool enough to condense back into a liquid. This process happens in tumble dryers, badly insulated windows in winter and all manner of other applications. Within a boiler, the principle is the same, your boiler ignites gas or oil to generate your heat. The technology and materials within the boilers now enable them to extract so much heat from the gases created as part of the firing process that they condense back into a liquid. This process of condensing releases a lot of heat back into the process which is why they are so efficient. I wont dive in to too much of a technical explanation but that is the general principle. All new boilers do this now.
- A combination boiler is a boiler which heats your hot water within the boiler instantaneously. In general, you will no longer have a large storage tank in the airing cupboard or tanks in your loft. These boilers are literally a system in a box. These kinds of boilers are a little more efficient in terms of gas usage over storing water in most cases however they are certainly not suitable in all scenarios, especially in larger houses. They are not everybody’s cup of tea but if you get a good combination boiler (such as our ATAG iC range) and have it installed in the correct manner, it will serve you very well indeed and is often the best solution.
Now, on to the Boiler Plus regulations……. These set of regulations set out some ‘must haves’ when we install a new combination boiler to fulfill our responsibility in meeting the ever growing need to lower our CO2 emissions and increases the efficiency of our domestic heating systems.
These regulations have been around since mid-2018 but they were a bit of a grey area and the following months were spent with many engineers and manufacturers liaising with Gas Safe and the government to understand how to implement these properly, what complied and what didn’t. But there is now a good understanding and if your installer does not have knowledge of these regulations or how to implement them then they can be contravening these regulations. And unfortunately, in all too many cases, I would say 50% of the new combination boiler installs we see which should comply, do not. And I put that down to a lack of education and understanding with installers.
So, if/when you have a new combination boiler installed, make sure you ask your installer how they will comply with these regulations. The way we see it here at FJM, these regulations are a fantastic thing, purely because they make sure we are installing some fantastically efficient systems, which not only means we create less CO2 emissions, but our customers actually save in their pockets too in terms of gas bills. Win win!!!!
The regulations say that when you install a new combination boiler:
- The boiler itself must have a minimum efficiency of 92%. Thankfully, just about all manufacturers have dealt with this on their own. Tick!
- But it must also then be installed with AT LEAST ONE of the following: Flue Gas Heat Recovery, Weather Compensation, Load Compensation or a Smart Thermostat with automation and optimisation.
These sound complicated but it is actually fairly easy to achieve but there are also a couple of little caveats and traps that customers and installers fall in to when complying.
Flue Gas Heat Recovery sounds like a piece of rocket science but it further applies the same principle as I have explained above with condensing theory. There is an additional heat exchanger which allows the boiler to further extract additional heat from those gases and reclaim even more heat and efficiency and allow the boiler to condense even more. Some manufacturers offer these devices as bolt on boxes, but they are bulky and costly, most offer nothing at all and thus this method is not possible to use. There are some manufacturers out there who have managed to squeeze it in to their boilers like our flag ship ATAG iC Economiser Plus range. So, you have a Boiler Plus compliant boiler straight out of the box, no fuss, no stress, box ticked again. Well done ATAG!
Weather and load compensation are very similar and very different all at the same time but the sake of explaining it to our customers and the public I will keep it as simple as I can. These methods rely on sensors (outside on a north facing wall for weather compensation) which then talk to the boiler and ask it for a specific amount of heat which is just enough for what you need, rather then always coming on at a high load as older boilers do. So if it is extremely cold outside in the winter and you are asking for the temperature to be high in doors, the boiler will know it needs to make your radiators nice and hot to achieve this, thus it will increase the LOAD on the boiler. However, if it is say a nice spring day and cool in the evening, you need a little boost in the temperature. These sensors can then tell the boiler it only needs to use 50% or less down to even 10% of the full Load to achieve this (Some boilers are able to rate lower than others, it is a fantastic capability for a boiler to have. Let’s see how low you can go!!!). In doing so, your boiler works at a much lower rate and just sips on gas rather than guzzling it. This is fantastic technology when understood and used in conjunction with smart thermostats. Which brings me nicely on to ……
SMART THERMOSTATS. Now when I mention this to a customer I often get ‘Oh no I don’t want anything on my phone, it’s too complicated, I can’t work it’. This is a monster MYTH. The whole point of smart technology is that you do not need to touch it or play with it to get it to work. In fact, it has very little to do with your phone. A part of technology moving forward with the times is that you can have the capability of using thermostats with your phone, but that ISN’T what make a thermostat SMART. What makes a smart thermostat smart is it’s ability to learn how your property heats and cools so it doesn’t over or under heat, know when you are not in the house to save heating for no reason and engage with the weather and load compensation to produce a tailored heating plan for your home. This technology is designed to work in the background, not with any of us playing with it. Smart thermostats include the likes of Nest, Tado, ATAG One, Worcester Comfort/Wave along with others. Manufacturers own systems tend to work best with their own boilers as that is how they are designed to work. The likes of Nest are designed to work with most boilers offering load compensation abilities and will still work perfectly well. We prefer to use ATAG One with our ATAG boilers, the results are fantastic.
On one last note, I know this is a bit of a long blog post, I feel the need to dispel another myth and set some records straight. Coming back to what our customers think of a smart thermostat, a Hive is a very clever piece of kit. It can connect to our heating, we can add lights, cameras and most probably get it to clean our teeth for us in the future, but it is NOT a smart thermostat which complies with Boiler Plus. Hive does not have the capability to communicate with your boiler in a way which regulates its output or have any form of optimisation or loading capabilities. A Hive can only tell your boiler to turn on or off, this is NOT smart, all thermostats have been doing this for years, this is not new technology or boiler plus compliant. If your installer encourages you to have a Hive, please find out how else they plan to comply as this doesn’t. I do not have anything against Hive, I have one myself and it works great on my system (I don not have a combination boiler), but unfortunately it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be behind the scenes. They have marketed it well!!
An ATAG One smart thermostat will tell your ATAG iC Economiser Plus combination boiler (with Flue Gas Heat Recovery) it needs to come on at around 40% of its maximum rate and only heat to say 45 degrees (system temperature in your radiators) in order to achieve the temperature required of say 21 degrees internally which is also based on the current outside temperature (Sensed via your weather compensator thermostat). That is SMART and you as the customer need not to play with a thing other then turn your thermostat to your required temperature. Other manufacturers can produce similar results but as you all know by now, we absolutely love ATAG boilers and their products for their quality. We can and often do fit systems which comply with every layer of these regulations. Our customers have the leading edge of technology and efficiency fitted in their homes. I am yet to hear of anybody who is underwhelmed at we do and our knowledge.
I can appreciate that this may be a bit of an information overload for most people and I have explained it as simply as I can. The moral of this story being that if you are having a combination boiler fitted, speak to your installer and find out how they will comply with these regulations. This will only help you as a customer save money but contribute towards saving this beautiful planet of ours for future generations.
If you have any questions, comments or wish to have further guidance on this, please feel free to contact us.