An 8% annual growth in the sales of commercial boilers above 44kW has taken the manufacturers reported annual total to above 20,000 units in the last 12 months. The increase continues the trend of the previous year and reflects the additional workload during 2008 within the construction industry.
Condensing Boiler sales continue to increase their share of the commercial market and are just short of 70% of total sales.  The wall hung proportion now commands a 49% share. This percentage increase is set to increase further, though unit figures may suffer from the current contraction of commercial building.
"The penetration of condensing boilers in the commercial sector continues the rising trend however we consider it likely that the percentage will level off at 80% due to the fact that not all existing buildings are suitable for condensing boilers.”, said Ken Percival who is Chairman of the UK Commercial Boiler Group, a sector of ICOM Energy Association.
The cast iron boiler sector now represents just 28% of the commercial market. The dominant sector within cast iron sales is atmospheric gas boilers, which are down a further 15% in the last year. However, the smaller sector of gas pressure jet, cast iron boilers, has stabilised. Correspondingly the cast iron pressure jet oil sector which was down by 11% last year has dropped a further 17% reflecting market concerns in the massive peak experienced in the price of oil.
Biomass boiler sales have now started to register on the sales charts however, though they currently only account for 0.5% of boiler sales.
These manufacturers reported figures are compiled by an independent source on behalf of the UK Commercial Boiler Group, a sector of ICOM Energy Association, which represents more than 90% of commercial boiler sales within the UK.