Fifteen years for a combi boiler is good going and personally, I would have it inspected by a reliable Gas Safe engineer. It could be just a simple repair, or perhaps, beyond economic repair. The old WB boilers were good to work on, but the modern ones are a pain in the 'arris - the same as modern cars. Perhaps you have been fortunate to have it last this long without servicing. To maintain efficiency (and sometimes to uphold the manufacturers warranty) I would recommend an annual service. As for buying a £500-600 boiler, well, OK, you MIGHT be lucky to keep it running for quite a time, however, in my experience, most don’t. Cheap parts and expensive to repair. A service plan with an established company could pay dividends in the long term. For sure it will cost you per month, however, unless you know a reliable Gas Safe engineer that is on standby, especially during winter, go for a good plan.
As for electric boilers, I am still not convinced - sorry. The same could be said about storage heaters - as Judd rightly said, the normal household wiring cannot be used for their installation.
For me, insulation is the key, as well as customer education. It may not be cheap at first, but you will save if you intend to stay in your property.
INSULATION - especially your loft. The recommended depth for loft insulation is 270 millimetres for glass wool, 250 millimetres for rock wool or 220 millimetres for cellulose. There are a number of grants and schemes available to home owners which can substantially reduce the cost of installing these products.
Also, if you have a conventional boiler(non combi) with an airing cupboard, insulate every bit of pipework on show. Yes you will still get heat to dry your clothes, but it will reduce your gas bill.
2.Install the highest efficiency boiler that you can afford. Ask friends and family for their recommendations, as well as a trusted Gas Safe engineer.
Thermostatic radiator valves (TRV’s) If possible, have these installed in every room (bar one) Remember too that once installed in the room, KEEP THE DOOR SHUT, otherwise, it is like cooking a roast joint with the oven door open! These can be individually adjusted to suit the room.
Room thermostats - essential (unless you are Mr and Mrs d00d ) In a lot of cases, I have found that room thermostats are incorrectly installed. They should be 1.5 metres from the ground. Installed where no direct sunlight, heat source or draughts can interfere with its operation. Try altering your room stat to 19 degrees and close your doors Anything between 19 and 21 degrees is a dead zone and you will not feel the difference. Remember, altering your room stat by 1 degree equates to 10% on your fuel bill! If you are cold, stick a jumper on - if you are really cold, stick a coat on
I am a firm believer in renewable energy, be it wind farm, solar, nuclear et al. However, if gas boiler technology were not taken into account and we had to rely on non fossil fuels, then the cost would escalate substantially .
If you had it 15 years it wasn’t one of the new ones that needs a service every year or breaks down totally after 6 years. They have built in a certain delicacy that never used to exist. They now sell millennial boilers. Full of short lived enthusiasm but fall apart when the going gets tough.
Nope. It used to be the case that one radiator should always be left on so that, in the event of all the other radiators being turned off (via their own thermostats), the boiler’s pump would still be able to send water around the circuit.
Modern boilers have a bypass valve which makes this unnecessary.
I wasn’t told that when ours was installed last year. Maybe it was old stock!
In any event, I don’t see any reason for a TRV in the same room as the room thermostat.
Chernobyl an obsolete design that bears no similarity with today’s design and was actually a cost reduced designs from the good 'ol gas moderated beasts in which if the gas was lost the first action would be to put the kettle on and make a cuppa, Fukushima a complex that was constructed in probably the worst possible place such a thing could be built.
Even the graphite moderated breeder things were safer though the actions needed to resolve the Wigner effect within the graphite core were more than a little dodgey as was found at Windscale when - well it doesn’t matter but the root cause was the huge pressure being put on the plant to produce plutonium without which there would not have been a problem.
The plumber probably took one look at you and decided not to confuse you with technicalities;-)
Am trying to see any fault in your reasoning about not needing a TRV in the same room as the stat. No matter what scenario I think of, there doesn’t seem to be any real flaw.
Pre 1970 a limited number of storage radiators may have been wired on separate dedicated ring main, that’s when the cables were a bit heftier than they are now. Nowadays we can’t do it because the feeling is that if one of the legs of the ring-main went down for some reason, the other leg of the ring main would supply the whole number of storage radiators connected to the ring. Imagine 8kW (say) of storage heating on a 2.5*mm cable usually rated at 20amps, that would be a current of around 32amps going down the cable. Sooner or later, the insulation on the cable would melt causing a short circuit or possibly a fire.
A 4 mm radial is feasible but not practical. (max 7kW) Each storage radiator on the circuit would need its own switched fused spur. Better to wire 2.5 mm dedicated spurs to each appliance.
From your experience, if you were rewiring a house from scratch (ignore the stuff about storage heaters please as you’ve addressed ths already), would you be inclined to use 2.5mm rings or 4mm radials? The latter would certainly be safer in terms of knowing if there was a loose connection somewhere, and also (usefully) where it might actually be.
Except for the kitchen, I started wiring socket circuits as 4 mm radials (maximum length 50mtrs) as the load these days is quite small - mainly TVs and other low-powered equipment. Ring-mains of 2.5 mm cable in kitchens as it is easier to wire and connect several sockets.
One that has a number of rings which is what we have. Even with a single ring it’s more than feasible in a small house or flat to use portable storage heaters.
NEW installations do indeed provide radials protected with an MCB but what we have in our crib (new trendy name for pad) has multiple rings.
In any case storage radiators of 2kW are commonplace and often for background heating such as in bedrooms or as in our place the study and the library1.5 kW is adequate.
For the conservatory we intend to use a 1.5 kW most of the time but we seldom use it in cold weather.
) In a lot of cases, I have found that room thermostats are incorrectly installed. They should be 1.5 metres from the ground. Installed where no direct sunlight, heat source or draughts can interfere with its operation. Try altering your room stat to 19 degrees and close your doors 
