British Gas half price boiler offer.

Derek S-H

Valid until January 18th.

Have booked a free appointment with one of their energy consultants and they're due to see me on February 2nd. I'm sure they'll be impartial and independent, but I wanted to ask some questions on here as well.

1. Are British Gas as terrible as their reputation claims? I must admit that they wouldn't have been my first choice, but I have no intention of having a service contract with them or anything. If I'm happy with their offer, I'll just install and go.

2. A plumber once told me that combi boilers, "just go and go and go, and then they stop". Is this true? Mine's a Worcester 24 CDi installed in 2003, and apart from one failed pump in 2010 it's been 100% reliable. So it could keep going for another five years or stop working next week?

3. To use an analogy, are combi boilers a bit like cars? I mean, a 1 litre car cruising at 70 will be working harder than a 2 litre car at the same speed as the smaller engine will be nearer maximum capacity whilst a larger engine will still have plenty in reserve.
I only ask as the BG website gave me a choice of three Worcester boilers after I'd filled in the information fields about my flat - two were for small properties and one boiler was for small to medium sized. Is it better to go for a bigger boiler for your needs or is it just wasted energy?

If I've got this right, a new boiler will cost between £1200-1500 with around another £300 for installation (price quotes taken from the BG website). So if the boiler is half price, they become £600-750 plus an extra £300 = around £1000 all in. Not a bad offer.

Any help with this would be much appreciated - thanks!

Nerox

Ok, so firstly British gas boilers are rebadged Worcester bosch units anyway so reliability should be the same.

The boiler analogy is not really true, there are various heat output models which relate to the hot water only!

Looking at worcester 24 30 or 38 Kw the central heating system is 24kw for them all, the higher power only relates to the hot water side as 24kw is pretty much sufficient for even the biggest of 'normal houses'. As far as the hot water side goes, i've got a 24kw worcester and even with the hot water set to maximum its got enough hot flow to pull a layer of skin off, the only time you'll need a higher output is if you have more than 1 bath / shower running at the same time.

if you get a bigger one and don't use its full potential, its likely it would be less efficient.

Finally a British Gas sale is a bit like DFS or PC World, Their standard price will probably be at least 3x that of an independant guy, so they can give you 50% off and still make a tidy profit. Seriously if you are considering a new boiler get a few local guys in the give you a price.

When i had mine done last year my quotes were:

British Gas £4000
Local Geeza 1: £3000
Local Geeza 2: £2300
Local Geeza 3: £2200

Ps british gas salesmen will tell you anything to get you to buy, no matter how good the deal, discounts, promises, i'd almost guarantee you could get better elsewhere

Derek S-H

Thanks very much for your reply.

I suppose you confirmed what I already knew about BG - that they're far more expensive than the norm and that I could probably get a better deal by shopping around.

I think I'll go ahead with the free consultation and see what price they quote. As I said in my original post, I hope a new boiler to be around the £1000 mark all in with their half price offer, which I think is a pretty good price as I expect it to be double that even with an independent.

And thanks for informing me about the technical stuff - I can just go with whatever meets my needs (single person living alone, two bed flat, 1 shower) and maybe the cheapest model.

FZR400RRSP

I think you're in for a shock.
I will wager their 50% price is still £2000 or over.
And still easily bettered by a local guy.

Derek S-H

Ha ha!

Does anyone actually rate BG at all? How do they manage to have so many customers?

I think I'll treat the consultation as a social exercise, but I suspect you're right regarding their price.

I shall post the outcome on February 2nd!

Nerox

i think a lot of people use them as a trusted 'brand' and nobody is suggesting they wont do a good job, just that the same job could be done by a local trader for a lot less cash, and you'll be helping a neighbor pay his mortgage instead of lining the pockets of billionaires

Derek S-H

Okay, I cancelled my appointment today.

I went back to the BG website and suddenly their installation costs had rocketed up to £1800 - just for installation!

I obviously need at least £2000 set aside for this project and putting away £250 a month into my ISA means I should have the funds around September time. I just need my current boiler to get me through the rest of the Winter now.

And yes, I will probably go with a local trader. Thank you everyone for your input.

Too late

I never ever recommend BG.
Get a local heating engineer ( they are not plumbers !)
To do a survey and quote. And it is not just their costs that I dont like .
They are there to take as much money as possible out of a job

blankscreen

I can't speak highly enough of BG.

I asked them to quote out of curiosity, having researched boilers the cost of the Worcester Condensation Boiler with 10 year warranty was my choice.

My intention was to get the boiler privately and have it fitted by the gas safe guy who has looked after us previously.

Rep came around, discussed and took all our details, applied 'old geezer' discounts, trade in and other discounts i'd never heard of, and short story we got it for £1800.00 all in.

Agog, as the boiler alone i was quoted over 2k, i also signed up for their service and maintanance agreement. Under which an existing radiator was replaced for free.

Apart from not showing me how to re-pressurise it, 8 years in imho the best money i've ever spent and a big 'UP' to the much me-lined British Gas.

I since had the early version of 'hive' installed, trust me a very dosh saving device.

Alan

(Psst to BG - can i get another discount in 2 years time lol!)

blankscreen

Well i do, elsewhere i have said of my excellent experience. System fitted 9 years ago, they were far cheaper @ £1860.00 than any if the like for like 8 quotes to replace my combi with a condensation Worcester boiler i had from sny local guys, in fact i could not even get the boiler for that price!

To get the 10 year Worcester warranty you have to have anti-sludge chemicals in the system and serviced every year by a bonofidi company.

The boiler has been excellent, heats our 3 bed bungalow superbly and quickly when we turn it on from cold setting (Hive 1 Installed - slsi excellent).

Routine Service Visit has been punctual excellent and on time by a real experienced engineer (not some retrained dead beat).

Only crit of BG is i have a simple separate open gas fire, the cost of adding that to be checked during the routine visit is imho way to high.

Well worth getting the quote, remmember if your local guy is on holiday or sick during bad weather what will happen if your system fails?