Average Cost of New Boilers

Whether it's a planned expense as part of a renovation or an unexpected bill due to failure of your current equipment, paying for a new boiler is likely to cost you thousands of pounds. The NimbleFins team has researched the market and found both boiler equipment purchase and installation costs to give you an idea of how much you'll need to pay.

New Boiler Cost

The cost to buy a new boiler is roughly £1,000 but ranges from as little as £500 up to £3,000 or more, uninstalled. Boiler price is variable depending on a few factors, such as type of fuel (e.g. natural gas, LPG, oil or electric), type of system (e.g. combi, heat only or system), warranty (e.g. 5 years or 10 years are common), hot water flow rate and central heating output.

Boilers for larger homes tend to cost more than boilers for smaller homes and flats. For example, a Worcester Bosch Greenstar 8000 Life 50kW costs around 70% more than a Worcester Bosch Greenstar 8000 Life 30kW—while the larger boiler costs £1,000 more, it provides an extra 8 litres/min of hot water flow and 4kW of central heating output mores suitable for a larger home.

Combi boiler cost

Combi boiler costs start from £500 uninstalled, plus another £2,000 or so for installation in many cases. But more combi boilers cost over £1,000 than under £1,000. It's now quite common for a combi boiler to cost £3,500 all in for supply and installation, although some companies advertise prices from as little as £1,499.

What makes some combi boilers so much cheaper or more expensive than others? While a few factors are at play, one biggie is the hot water flow rate, measured in litres per minute. In other words, how much hot water the boiler can output each minute.

The data in the chart below shows how prices for natural gas combi boilers tend to rise with the hot water flow rate. You can see from the trend line that there is a strong correlation between the hot water flow rate and the retail price of the boiler.

There are a few stand-out boilers to mention here. Firstly, the Worcester Bosch Greenstar Highflow 550CDi Classic, due to a noticeably higher hot water flow rate of 25 litres/min (and corresponding price of > £3,000). Secondly, Navien has two boilers that stand out for value for money—the NCB 300 37kW and 41kW combi boilers, as these have a relatively low price for the hot water flow rate they deliver (you can see how their data points fall far below the trend line).

And the type of fuel used also has a big impact on the cost of a boiler. Note: natural gas is the most popular fuel for boilers—this is the gas flowing into most homes around the UK.

As you can see in the chart below, electric boiler costs are on par with the cheapest segment of natural gas boilers. However, please note that running an electric boiler is much more expensive than running a gas boiler. So while upfront purchase costs might look cheap for an electric boiler, this type of system would cost A LOT more to run year after year. The cost of electricity is around 4X more than the cost of gas, per unit of energy.

And oil boilers tend to be the most expensive (rivaled in price by high-end, high-flow gas boilers).

LPG boilers are similar in price to a typical gas boiler.

Gas boiler cost

Most gas boilers cost between £500 and £3,000 to buy, plus another £2,000 to install.

LPG boiler cost

LPG boilers cost on the order of £1,590 to buy, plus another couple of thousand pounds to install.

Electric boiler cost

Electric boilers cost roughly £750 to buy, plus potentially £1,000 - £2,000 to install.

Boiler Installation Cost

Boiler fitting costs are roughly £2,200 for a gas installation. The NimbleFins team gathered dozens of installation quotes and found the fitting costs ranged from £1,800 to £4,000, with an average of £2,200.

Different boilers and fuel types can impact the installation costs, as can other factors. For instance, if an old boiler is being replaced and the new one needs to go in a different location, there will be added costs associated with moving the boiler.

Boiler Replacement Cost

Boiler replacement costs are similar to new boiler installations, with £3,500 being quite a common price for supply and installation of the replacement boiler.

Replacing a boiler with a different type of system will cost a bit more, as will moving the boiler. Expect costs to convert or move a boiler to start from around £4,000 for supply and installation. This type of work costs more because it takes longer (e.g. two days) and may involve laying new pipework as well as removing and discarding the old boiler and other equipment (e.g. water cylinder).

Boiler Service Cost

The cost of a boiler service in the UK is around £87 but boiler maintenance costs can easily exceed £100, especially in London or when using a large, national company.

Oil boilers typically cost more to service than gas boilers, because oil storage tanks and oil supply pipes need to be checked as well—plus, oil is 'dirtier' than gas, making an oil boiler more time consuming to clean.

An annual boiler service plan typically includes an annual service plus repairs up to a certain value (e.g. £1,500) if an issue is found during the annual service or your boiler stops working. Boiler service plans usually cost more than just a one-off service, since they provide some protection against repair or even replacement costs if something goes wrong with your boiler.

How much does a new boiler cost?

A new boiler costs around £1,200 to buy, with a range of £500 up to £3,000 or more. Installing a new boiler will cost an additional £2,200, give or take.

Methodology

Here are the boilers we analysed, as well as their market price at time of publication.