Boilers in lofts, the pros and cons…
As with most things heating, I have firm opinions about boilers in lofts. I’ll nail my colours to the mast here immediately, I think they are a really BAD idea.
It’s worse than that actually. I hate loft installations with a passion. Even about the installations where the regulations have been complied with, i.e. access ladder, flooring to the boiler area, lighting installed.
So here we go, here are the ‘cons’:
1) First reason is FROST. A loft space insulated to current standards with about a foot of insulation over the ceiling will be almost as cold as outside. This means the boiler and all the associated heating pipework in the loft is at risk of frost damage. In addition, if it’s a condensing boiler, then the condensate drain is at particular risk of freezing which leads to the boiler stopping working in sub-zero weather, i.e. when you need it most. Most modern boilers have ‘frost protection’ built in but it only protects the boiler, not the condensate drain. Older, add-on frost protection systems for boilers in cold spaces tend to be unreliable and hard to control, and sometimes seem to cause nuisance firing of the boiler which puzzles the user greatly.
2) If the boiler shuts down or fails for any reason, the first thing the user wants to do is go and look at the boiler to see why it stopped working and check if it is showing an error message on the display. The user control panel on a boiler in a loft is not accessible to the user unless they pull the ladder down and go up into the loft to see what is showing on the boiler display.
3) Loft installations will nearly always be a sealed/pressurised system, and sealed systems tend to lose pressure over time. The user cannot see the pressure gauge on the front of the boiler so will not know if/when the system is losing pressure. To monitor the system pressure or to add pressure the user will normally have to go up the boiler in the loft, unless the installer thought to add a separate pressure gauge and filling valve down in the house somewhere (unusual).
4) It is not good for boilers to be operated in extremes of temperature. A well insulated loft can fall below freezing in winter and rise as high as 50 degrees C on a hot summer’s day. Boiler manuals do not generally specify a maximum ambient operating temperature but the temperature of a loft on a hot summer day seems intuitively too high to me.
So those are some technical reasons! Now the more personal ones 😉
5) It’s a HORRIBLE environment in which to work on a boiler. Everything in most lofts is dirty and dusty, including the boiler and the floor in front of it (if there is one at all) where I have to sit. Not conducive to good workmanship.
6) What floor there is, tends to be a tiny cramped area in front of the boiler surrounded by piles of junk and gloom. No space at all to unpack the toolbox and spread the contents out.
7) The workspace is surrounded by open joists and loft insulation ready to swallow up any little screws or tools dropped.
8) I don’t think the fibreglass dust from the insulation in the loft space is good for my lungs.
9) The boiler is usually a wall-mounted model designed for installation at about head height for ease of maintenance. but when installed in a loft they are usually at about knee height. A pig to work on when all the bits you need to get at are close to the (dirty) floor.
10) Lighting. Even if there IS any, it is usually a bare 60w bulb swinging with a baleful glow leaving the inside/underneath of the boiler where the work needs to be done still in semi-darkness.
11) Most lofts are the same temperature as outside. Freezing cold in winter and boiling hot in summer. Not pleasant to work in.
12) Ever tried lugging a 25kG toolbox and a vacuum cleaner with extension lead up a ladder and through a 24″ square hole? Then back down again?
Pros:
1) Your boiler is out of the way in the loft, regaining you the cupboard space it would otherwise take up.
2) They are never the prettiest things to look at, so the loft is a great place to have it.
So there you have it! These are all the pros and cons I can think of for now 😀 You’ll probably understand now why I dislike seeing boilers in loft spaces…
Mike