Researching boilers - please help

[jalopy]

So our boiler is probably over 25 years old. Although it's working, it's hugely inefficient energy wise and our bills reflect this.

It's an IDEAL 'Mexico' gas fired, floor standing one, that is situated outside our house. I don't know what 'type' of boiler it is but we have a hot cylinder tank in one of the bedrooms and a cold storage tank in the loft space.

What sort of boiler should I be looking at for to heat our old, fairly large house?

Any recommendations and advice would be welcome. Ta

We are looking at a new boiler too and I have been told that valiant and worster bosch are the most reliable brands. (apologies for the terrible spelling)

how many people live in your house? How many bathrooms and showers?

Fill a bucket at your kitchen cold tap (and at your garden tap and utility room cold tap of you have them). Time it. How many litres per minute do you get?

How old is the house?

There is quite a lot of useful info on the Which? website which anyone can access as far as I can see. You need to subscribe for see all the best buys etc, but they used to have 30days for £1 option.

Get some quotes. Ask for local plumbing recommendations and if your looking at financing it consider British Gas as they have a short term offer (and only time in last 15 years) of 0% finance, so might be worth considering. Get at least 2 opinions, local plumber will be cheaper than BG, But they usually do things li,e power flush the system which you may or may not need but a local plumber probably won't do, BG only put in WB boilers I think.

At any one time, 5 people use the house.
2 bathrooms. 2 showers
House built in 1910.

Will do the water test later when I've found a bucket!

Thanks for the helpful replies so far.

Im getting a Worcester Bosch for my 4 bed, 2 bath house.

Piglet Approximately 9 to 10 litres a minute.

That's not really enough for a combi in a family house. If you live alone it would give a reasonable shower, and fill a bath slowly. It is not enough for an unvented cylinder.

If funds allow, you could upgrade the supply pipe out to the water main under the pavement to a larger size, in which case an unvented cylinder would givd you unbeatable hot water, and with one or two electric immersion heaters, you could still have hot showers and baths on the rare occasions when the boiler is out of action. Otherwise, if it was me, I would stick with a cylinder and tank. What colour and size do you have now?

If your house is old enough to have lead pipes in the ground, ask your water co to test the drinking water for lead content. A subsidy may be available.

Worcester Bosch, you can search their website for accredited installers and contact them directly for a quote, a good engineer will design the right system for your house.