What's the right boiler for your home?

In most cases, the 'right' boiler will mean a condensing boiler. In fact, exceptional circumstances aside, all new gas and oil central heating boilers fitted in the UK must now be condensing boilers by law.

For more details about the Scottish regulations and further boiler advice visit the Scottish Building Standards Agency website. You can also view our booklet on how you can save on heating your home (for Scotland) for more information.

What's so good about condensing boilers?

As your installer will confirm, condensing boilers can be easily fitted to most new and old heating systems. But what makes them better than older, non-condensing boilers is their efficiency: they waste far less energy.

Put another way, while poor old non-condensing boilers convert just 60% of their fuel into heat, the efficiency rate of modern A-rated condensing boilers is at least 90%.

An A-rated condensing boiler will also use a third less fuel than an older boiler to provide the same amount of heat - potentially cutting heating bills and CO ₂ emissions by a third too.

All of which makes condensing boilers the most efficient boilers on the market.

What sort of boiler do you have at the moment?

To tell a condensing boiler from a non-condensing boiler, look at the flue that sticks out from the outdoor wall adjacent to your boiler - and the type of waste heat it lets out into the atmosphere.

A flue is a pipe that takes the exhaust gases generated by your boiler and passes them out through the wall or roof - letting them escape into the air. The end of the flue is covered by a metal or plastic protective cover, which makes sure that a good flow of air is maintained.

If the flue is made of plastic and lets out visible steam when the boiler is firing, then congratulations: you are likely to have a condensing boiler already.

If the flue is made of metal and no steam is visible, you are likely to have a non-condensing boiler. These older boilers let out much hotter gases that are invisible to the naked eye - and would melt a plastic flue.

To find out if you have a condensing boiler, visit the SEDBUK website.