Oil fired boiler/rayburn setup in potential new house

[perrinelli]

So we're taking the plunge & moving out of London. We've found a lovely semi rural property In the area I grew up and it's all going through slowly. We've had info from the vendors about the hot water & heating system. I'm a bit confused. I'd love to hear what anyone else thinks about how well this should all work & whether costs will be astronomical.

Apparently;
There are 2 oil fired boilers that run in tandem & can be used together or in isolation.
Aga rayburn was converted from solid fuel to oil in the 90s. I think it's originally 60s.
Because they had some electricity outages in the 90s (now sorted) they configured the rayburn to run one rad and hot water by gravity circulation without electric. They say the heat output could be dramatically increased by switching on the 100watt fan in the burner. (Not too sure what that means as have no experience of Rayburn's)

They say the grant boiler is 'slaved' into the rayburn which in effect becomes a kitchen rad if its not fired up. Still with me? I'm lost!

In terms of hot water, there is a 'primary system' which apparently has both an indirect coil (running off CH system) and electric immersion heater which serves 1 bathroom upstairs. They say hot water tank only has capacity of 1 bath fill and can take up to an hour to reheat so they've got a secondary system of electric immersion only which supplies the other bathroom and 1 shower. Another shower is electric.

Gosh sorry this is so boring, if anyone knows about these things please do comment! Does it sound ok? Will we need to spend money sorting it out?

[lljkk]

Our hot water works like that, sorry not familiar enough with the rest. Best thing is to ask them to turn the rads on and go around making sure they all feel hot! Also, run the hot water. Do not feel embarrassed to do this. You should open every drawer & door, too (don't care if they think you're nosy). Don't forget garage, too. And even if tap water is hot for 20 seconds and rads all hot, you can ask surveyor to look closely at the heating set up & give an opinion.

Friends got stung last year when the GFCH packed up between exchange and completion. Don't let it happen to you.