It is important when choosing the type of boiler to be installed that you choose the correct one. This section briefly outline the advantages and disadvantages of common heating systems.

Back Boilers
This was a very common way of providing heating and hot water. With a boiler being situated behind a gas fire and using the existing chimney as part of the flue. Using just gravity to heat the water and a circulation pump to heat the radiators Probably one of the most reliable boilers, however, not very efficient! Not the quickest way of providing heating and hot water but these boilers generally last for over 20 years.

Conventional Boilers
A boiler normally mounted on the wall working very much the same as a back boiler. However, in newer installations a valve was used to mean that you could use your heating and hot water independently. Still extremely reliable but if you require regular amounts of hot water not the best choice as once the cylinder is empty you have to wait for it to heat up again. (In older tanks about an hour but new ones approximately 25 minutes).

Combination Boilers
Just like its name these boilers combine heating and hot water all in one. No tanks and instantaneous hot water. This type of boiler will provide bath after bath full of hot water but it is important to remember that in the summer when your heating is off there may be a short delay in getting hot water to a tap as the boiler has to heat up before the water can. Early Combi boilers were not very reliable but as with everything the newer one are very good.

Warm Air Heating
This type of heating is rarely installed now as the efficientcy and performance is poor. The principal behind it is that cool air is drawn into the appliance and the heated and blown out with a fan. They normally have a separate appliance within them to heat hot water with a similar method to a back boiler.

Boiler/Radiator Size
It is important that the size of boiler and radiators are correct for the job they are doing. There are methods for calculating this However it is not ok to just add on radiator if you have an extension as the boiler may not be "man" enough to cope with the extra output required.