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Original poster

safety of having a gas boiler in bedroom cupboard??

12 replies

ReshapeWhileDamp · 10/09/2010 14:26

We've bought (STC!) a house that needs a few things doing. One of our priorities, I'd have thought, would be to relocate the gas boiler (wall-mounted, not a combi, as there's also an airing cupboard with an immersion cylinder elsewhere) which is currently in a cupboard in DS's future bedroom. I was very surprised to see something that potentially gives off carbon monoxide in a bedroom. The estate agent agreed with me.

Yet the (comprehensive) survey we just had done doesn't even mention it! It mentions all sorts of other things, minor some of them, but not that this is undesirable or a health hazard.

So, is it a health hazard? I'd presume it was. And when we relocate it to the kitchen wall, which is directly downstairs, about how much will it cost?

OP posts:

fruitful · 10/09/2010 14:46

How old is the boiler? Has it been regularly serviced? Have they got a certificate for it from a Corgi / Gas Safe engineer?

Boilers in bedrooms have to be "room sealed" - input and output air goes outside the house and not into the room.

I would guess that the boiler meets these requirements or the survey would have pointed it out.

Boilers have to be wall-mounted now. Our house had one on the floor in the kitchen, and when we installed a new one it had to be relocated (to a wall-mounted one in a cupboard in a bedroom!). Can't remember what moving it cost. Not as much as re-doing the kitchen to put it on the wall in the kitchen, anyhow.

LadyBiscuit · 10/09/2010 14:48

Mine is wall-mounted (combi) in my DS's bedroom, If there is an outside flue and ventilation and you have an operational Carbon Monoxide detector in the room, it's not really a health hazard. Only poorly maintained boilers without detectors are dangerous.

TondelayoSchwarzkopf · 10/09/2010 14:59

In my last place, the boiler was in our DS bedroom. If it complies with safety and ventilation regs (get it serviced as soon as you move in) then it isn't a problem though I would get a CM detector.

BertieBotts · 10/09/2010 15:03

You should have a CO detector in bedrooms anyway - you can pick them up pretty cheaply now, I got one for £5 in Tesco recently. It's a battery powered alarm type so would wake you up.

Original poster

ReshapeWhileDamp · 10/09/2010 16:41

Ok, thanks, that's helpful and quite optimistic! One thing the survey did say was to get a gas person in to check everything was fine (and the electric) which might be standard but struck me as a good thing to do, as we have no idea how regularly the boiler's been serviced.

I've been living gas-free for the past 8 years and haven't been in the mindset! We will certainly have a carbon mono detector, though.

OP posts:

said · 10/09/2010 20:03

I'd get a really good detector though. We had one that was going off when I got home from work. The lights clearly said it was CO and not the batteries failing and the noise it was making agreed with that. Our boiler is OLD so I assumed teh worst. After calling out gas board (god, I sound old!) he checked and couldn't find a problem. But did say that most detectors are nto very reliable. Spooked me anyway.

itstheyearzero · 10/09/2010 20:25

Not a health hazard as long as, as others have said, it is checked over by a Gas Safe engineer. Another thought though - it could be quite noisy when it starts up in the morning (if you have it on a timer), might wake DS up if it's anything like ours!

PatriciaHolm · 10/09/2010 20:51

We rented a house with the boiler in the bedroom and it drove us nuts - the noise was ridiculous! No idea about the safety tbh.

DitaVonCheese · 12/09/2010 15:22

I'm sure that I was told recently that you are not allowed now to put a boiler in a bedroom (we have just had a boiler installed) but DH has no memory of this so I could be wrong (though I dealt with plumbers etc a lot more than he did). We spent a weekend in a place with a boiler in the bedroom cupboard and it was v annoying, little red lights winking at us all night long.

No helpful idea how much it would cost to move, sorry, but would still have a CO detector in the bedroom if it's just in the room below - housemate of a friend was tragically killed at uni because her room was over the leaky boiler :(

discount · 15/09/2010 16:48

I have a combi boiler in my bedroom, just swapped with the hot tank when I made the change a few years ago. If it is a balanced flue (with air drawn from outside and flue gas discharged outside) it should be ok, but it must be regularly serviced - I did miss one service and the latest one detected a seal around the casing that had broken down and could potentially have resulted in a co2 leak if not dealt with. Gas service man stressed "potentially" but its really important to be safe!

oneweemite · 15/09/2010 16:52

We had one in DS bedroom and it was quite noisy, especially because it goes on every time you turn on the hot tap. We kept it there for about 6 months (with a good carbon monoxide alarm) and have now moved it - boy am I happier, was always paranoid about it (can you tell I was brought up with oil fired central heating?!)

piratecat · 15/09/2010 16:54

i live in a 4 yr old house (HA) and all the homes have the boiler in the main bedroom, in a purpose built cupboard. Hot water tank is in there too. Greatinthe winter, as my room is always warm. Bit warm in the summer.

I questioned the safety too, but as long as the boiler is safe, and checked i can't see it would otherwise be any problem.

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