Essentially, domestic boilers and commercial boilers are not too different and have many of the same parts, although commercial boilers are usually larger in size and give out a greater output. Determining which kind of boiler you need can be difficult if you have a large home requiring multiple radiators to be heated, or if you have a small business premises that may be sufficiently heated with a regular domestic boiler.
Commercial boilers are basically scaled up versions of domestic boilers, and because they have such a large heat output there are many noticeable differences. For example, a domestic boiler will have all of the connecting gas pipework at 20-30mm, but commercial boilers which need a greater supply of gas have to be fitted with pipes exceeding 35mm.
Costs can be slightly higher for servicing a commercial boiler, but usually only around 10-20% more than it would cost to have a regular boiler servicing in your home.
One of the main ways to differentiate a home boiler from a commercial boiler is the output produced in terms of kilowatt energy. Let’s take a look at how the two different types of boiler perform.
Output Differences
The overall output performance of a boiler is the key difference between commercial boilers and domestic boilers intend for use in homes. A residential boiler may only need to heat 5-7 rooms within a home, so most customers only require a boiler with an output of anywhere from 24kW to 40kW. This will give adequate hot water for multiple radiators as well as the hot taps and showers too. It can be a gas, electric, oil or LPG style but gas and combi boilers for this use are the most common.
A larger home which has many rooms to heat probably won’t benefit from just a 42kW boiler, and an engineer may recommend installing a boiler which has an output of up to 70kW, giving 8-12 rooms in the home hot water on demand, warm central heating, as well as running multiple showers at the same time. All the heating that needs to be transferred through the pipework will be taken care of with such a large boiler.
Commercial boilers are typically anything that has an output greater than 70kW. It can be used to heat large shops and stores, schools and doctor’s surgeries which have large open spaces. It’s unlikely you’ll be running showers in your establishment unless it is a leisure centre or a gym, so you can choose a boiler which can give out around 200kW all the way up to 1500kW and higher – especially if you are running a hospital, warehouse or factory.
With such a huge output, you’ll never be left short when you need hot water, and sometimes businesses will choose to install two or three smaller commercial boilers as opposed to one large one. This is a good idea as if one breaks down then the other two will still keep the heating and hot water running, as opposed to everything stopping should one boiler suffer from a breakdown.
A smaller boiler may also be used in some circumstances, such as to heat a large garage space that is properly insulated, a small-to-medium sized shop, or on a building site to help screeding dry faster.
Can’t Decide Which Boiler You Need?
Wondering if you need a domestic boiler or a commercial boiler? Unsure if the square footage of your establishment warrants a boiler with an output of 70kW or higher? Here at Rowlen we often provide this kind of advice to business owners looking for a brand new boiler installation, or upgrading their old boiler.
Larger, commercial style boilers also need an engineer who is qualified to work on boilers over a certain output, so it makes sense to hire a local company like Rowlen for your boiler servicing and installation as we will have a range of boiler engineers who can fit and fix both residential and commercial boilers.
We can pay a visit to your premises and make an accurate assessment of your requirements, or even do it over the phone if you provide us with some basic information such as how big your property is, you intend to use the boiler, how many radiators there are, and how many hot taps and showers are in the property.
Having the right size of boiler for your needs is essential, as you don’t want higher energy bills when a smaller boiler would have sufficed. Get in touch with the knowledgeable team here at Rowlen by calling today or fill out our online form and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
