Worcester Greenstar Ri Boiler REVIEW (Regular 9kW-30kW)
Confused about whether the Greenstar Ri is for you? Our review of the Worcester Greenstar Ri regular boiler range below will shed some light.
We’ll also tell you where to get the cheapest installation price. Read on to learn more!
Do You Need a Regular Boiler?
First up — do you need a regular boiler like the Worcester Ri?
If you have a hot water storage cylinder and a cold water tank in the loft, you have a regular boiler.
Now, you don’t HAVE to keep the hot water cylinder and feeder tank. Most boiler installers will be able to upgrade your regular boiler to a combi. That said, if you’d rather keep the existing central heating setup as is, you can definitely get a replacement regular boiler, such as the Worcester Bosch Greenstar Ri.
The Worcester Bosch RI Range
In the Worcester Bosch Greenstar Ri range, there are 7 different boilers to suit a range of different property sizes. We’ve listed them below, ranked by power output:
- 9kW — Greenstar 9Ri
- 12kW — Greenstar 12R
- 15kW — Greenstar 15Ri
- 18kW — Greenstar 18Ri
- 24kW — Greenstar 24Ri
- 27kW — Greenstar 27Ri
- 30kW — Greenstar 30Ri
The core differences between the Worcester Ri range don’t just lie in the central heating output, but the flow rate, too. For example, you’ll get 4.9l @ 35°c on the 9Ri, but up to 12.2 @ 35°c on the 30Ri.
While you’re reading, you can jump over to HEATABLE (an online boiler company) and get boiler prices on-screen within a minute or so.
Which Size Greenstar Ri Boiler Do You Need?
We could make guesses and estimates, but there’s an easy way to work out which size Greenstar Ri boiler you need. Essentially, the bigger your property, the longer your pipework run and the more radiators/showers you have, the bigger the boiler needs to be!
Jump over to HEATABLE which has this free boiler size calculator.
After filling out a few details about your property and central heating system (via a simple, clickable multiple choice form), you’ll see the boiler they recommend, as well as some alternatives. (Editor’s note: You’ll need to click “standard” for boiler type.)
Worcester Bosch Greenstar Ri Range Dimensions
All 7 boilers in the Worcester Ri boiler range are the same size: 600 x 390 x 270. That’s REALLY small; any of these can fit in an average sized kitchen cupboard, so you won’t have to hang your boiler on the wall.
As a quick comparison, the Worcester Bosch Greenstar CDi Compact combi boiler is also designed to fit into small spaces. It measures 690 x 390 x 280, so a full 80mm taller and 10mm deeper than the smaller Greenstar Ri.
Worcester Greenstar Ri Energy Efficiency
Like all A-rated boilers, Worcester’s Ri range is incredibly efficient. Taking the Worcester Bosch Greenstar 24Ri as an example, you’ll get seasonal space heating efficiency of 92%.
Alongside that, you’ll get 86.7% efficiency when it’s working at full-tilt (24kW), and this increases massively to 97.2% when you drop the boiler control knob to 30% capacity (8kW).
Will You Save on Energy Bills With a Greenstar Ri?
Wondering how all these efficiency calculations equate to cost savings on heating bills? Well, that’ll depend on:
- Which kW size Ri boiler you need
- The efficiency rating of your existing boiler
For example, the Energy Saving Trust estimate that an average mid-terraced house using a G-rated, non-condensing boiler, could save up to £420 per year on their gas bill simply by fitting an A-rated appliance like the Worcester Ri.
And these are just savings on your energy bills, which don’t take into accound all the expensive repairs and maintenance old boilers need to stay on life support. If you get your boiler on finance, you could even cover the monthly cost of your new boiler with the money you shave off your energy bills!
If you’re looking to go a step further saving on energy and reducing your carbon footprint, know that Worcester’s Ri range is compatible with the Greenskies solar panels.
Worcester Ri Winter Protection
Worcester have their own way of protecting your boiler from frost risk during winter — a special feature called the Condensesure Siphon.
The aim of the Condensesure Siphon is to stop your boiler locking out in temperatures below freezing. Typically, these lockouts happen due to the condensate freezing as it slowly drips out. When this happens, you have to thaw out the frozen condensate pipe manually, and hope the condensate doesn’t refreeze shortly after.
That’s the type of scenario Worcester tries to avert with the Condensesure Siphon. The feature accumulates condensate and releases it in batches, so there’s less chance of it freezing and blocking the pipe. In fact, Worcester assure buyers the boiler can sustain 48 hours at -15°C.
Note that for this feature to work, your installer needs to route the pipework as close to vertical as possible, and use the wider-diameter, 32mm pipe instead of the standard 21.5mm.
Worcester Bosch Greenstar Ri Prices
So now we come to prices. As with sizing a boiler, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer when it comes to installation costs; there are too many variable involved. For example:
- Do you need new TRVs?
- Will you want the boiler moved to a new location?
- Would you prefer to convert to a Worcester combi boiler, rather than the heat-only Ri?
The list of questions goes on…
For one property, boiler prices might start from £1,900. For others, that could span to £2,500 and beyond. You can read our full guide on boiler installation costs here.
Where to Get Boiler Installation Quotes
To take the guesswork out of this process, we’d suggest using the same calculator we mentioned above. Not only will you get a list of the most suitable boilers for your property, you’ll also get fixed price quotes for all of the models that you see.
Price-wise, Heatable tend to be the most competitive, and for good reason. It’s likely you’ll get a better price here than you would from a local installer, and a few extras, including:
- 10 year warranty
- Full system cleanse
- Free filter (RRP £130, VAT inc.) to protect your new boiler!
You can use the form to determine which size boiler you need, or prices for Worcester Ri boilers here.
Worcester Greenstar Ri Warranty
We like boilers with a minimum warranty of 5 years. At the end of the day, if a manufacturer thought their boilers would last longer than 2, 5 or 7 years, they’d offer a warranty to suit; so, the length of warranty says a lot about the product your buying.
The Worcester Ri boiler range gets a huge 10-year warranty when installed by Heatable.
Should You Buy A Worcester Ri boiler?
When using local installers, there are alternatives at roughly the same prices from the likes of Baxi, Vaillant, and Ideal.
However, when you account for the fact that Heatable are getting Worcester boilers so cheap, the overall installation prices comes in much less expensive than it would from a local installer. And in most cases, cheaper than the Baxi or Vaillant equivalent. You can check prices in less than 90 seconds using Heatable’s clickable form.
What’s Next?
Thanks for reading our review of Worcester’s Greenstar Ri range.
Still got questions about whether this is the right boiler for you? Drop us an email via our contact form, and we’ll do our best to help you out.