Proving that it’s not just householders that are coming up short when servicing their gas boilers is news that a hospital in northern Devon has had a boiler fire due to lack of servicing.

The revelations that the gas boiler, which powers the hospital’s heating system, had not been properly maintained came from a former maintenance worker at a tribunal at Exeter. As well as the hospital boiler, he also claimed a number of health and safety issues which he had brought to light were ignored.

He stated that the boiler’s logbook had been falsified, raising doubts as to whether the boiler had indeed been annually serviced as was required.

The tribunal heard that gas boilers should be serviced once a year by approved gas engineers. And that all gas engineers needed to be on the Gas Safe Register. This had taken over from The Corgi registration process which used to oversee gas engineers.

The register should make it easier to find a serviced engineer. More details are available at www.gassaferegister.co.uk, or telephone 0800 408 5500.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

Landlords are continuing to find themselves in hot water when it comes to trying to service their own gas boilers.

Another landlord, this one living in Colchester, has fallen foul of The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) and has been fined a total of £11,300 by Colchester Magistrates Court for five breaches of the Gas Safety (Installation & Use) Regulations 1998. He was also ordered to pay costs of £8,700.

The charges were brought after the landlord fiddled around with gas boilers in his own rented properties. Two of the charges concerned carrying out work on a gas boiler whilst not competent to do so. In other words, the landlord was not a qualified gas engineer who was not, legally, able to service, or repair a gas device.

This has been the law for years and the Gas Safety Register, run by The Health and Safety Executive HSE, is now the official body which controls a list of qualified engineers and their status, and training. It took over from the CORGI gas registration process on 1st April 2009. The register should make it easier to find a qualified service engineer and more details are available at www.gassaferegister.co.uk, or telephone 0800 408 5500.

The landlord was also found guilty over not making sure a boiler was kept in a safe condition, for not keeping records of any safety checks and not providing for a tenant a safety check record.

An HSE Inspector, Mr Matthew Tackling, said: “The HSE will not hesitate to prosecute landlords who fail to take their responsibilities for safety to their tenants seriously and to follow up on those who fail to co-operate with any investigation or fail to appear in court.”

The HSE has once again issued a reminder to landlords and property developers to bear in mind that although there is currently an economic recession, they should not forget their commitments and responsibilities as regards gas devices.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

All central heating systems that are pressurised systems will need to be repressurised at some point so that they continue to work as efficiently as possible. This generally requires manually topping up the amount of water within the system and although this sounds like a daunting task, anyone can do it as long as they have a good set of instructions and the handbook to their boiler.

Why does this have to be done?
Everyone knows that heating water over and over makes some of it evaporate and this is exactly what happens in your central heating system. Every time you turn your boiler on and heat the water in the system, a small amount of it evaporates and eventually the water pressure begins to fall. If left, the pressure can fall so far that your boiler will stop working and so you need to repressurise the system as soon as you notice a fall. There are other reasons for a fall in pressure, such as leaks in the system, but these will require the help of a professional and shouldn’t be tackled alone.

How do you know your system needs repressurising?
All boilers that are part of a pressurised system will have a very obvious and easy to read pressure gauge which monitors the water pressure within the heating system. This gauge needs to be checked on a monthly basis to see that the pressure is within the recommended levels – these will be noted in the boiler’s handbook. If the pressure has dropped then it’s time to repressurise.

How do you repressurise a boiler system?
Firstly you need to locate your filling loop. This will be located close to the boiler and looks like a stop tap with one end attached to the cold water mains pipe and the other end attached to the central heating system pipe work. Occasionally, the filling loop may not be permanently attached to the heating system and so you will need to attach it first before turning the tap! In some cases the filling loop may be integrated within the boiler itself and you will need the boiler handbook for further instructions.

Once the filling loop is attached to the system you can open the tap but it is best to do this slowly as you don’t want to flood the system. When the tap is opened, cold water is injected into the central heating system and the pressure gauge on the boiler should begin to rise. Make sure you or someone else can see the gauge as you don’t want to over pressurise. If you do slightly over pressurise the system the safety valve will kick in an release the excess pressure but this only works to a certain degree so keep a close eye on the gauge.

When this is done you simply disconnect from the system if need be and check the gauge over the next couple of days to see there are no problems. Most systems only need repressurising every three or four months and then it isn’t by much however it might be worth checking a bit more frequently over the winter months when the boiler is on much more often.

Guest Article by Clare Lynock

Everybody knows that the more efficient your boiler is the lower your energy usage and subsequently the more money you save on your gas bills. But how do you increase the efficiency of your boiler in the first place? Below are the top five ways to make your boiler as energy conscious as possible.

1. Replace it with a new SEDBUK ‘A’ rated condensing boiler! Obviously this isn’t the kind of thing you can do on the spur of the moment and it is a big expense but some new combi boilers have an efficiency rating of over 95%. This means that you can probably recoup your investment within a few years simply by lowering your gas bills.
2. Have an annual service. Some companies, such as British Gas, have monthly plans that protect your boiler against breakdowns and as part of the plan you get a free annual service. This service checks the main parts of your boiler and makes sure it is working at an optimum level of efficiency.
3. Arrange to have your entire system power flushed. Power flushing is a great way to remove all of the debris and limescale from your radiators and pipe work so that hot water can flow freely around the system to warm the house. The freer the water movement, the more effective the heating system is and the less your boiler has to work. In simple terms, you get the same level of heating but using a lot less energy. Unfortunately power flushing is a little on the expensive side however it does increase your boiler’s efficiency quite dramatically and it will save you money in the long run – especially if you have an older boiler and heating system.
4. Fit a magnetic filter and a limescale filter to your heating system. The magnetic filters available today are great for removing iron oxide from the system and this alone can improve your boiler’s efficiency and lower your energy consumption. If you then add to that a limescale filter you can improve the quality of the water entering the system and remove the majority of the limescale before it reaches the boiler and starts to effect its performance. Both of these additions are relatively cheap and can increase your boiler’s efficiency by quite a considerable amount.
5. Fit thermostatic radiator valves to all suitable radiators. These fantastic little pieces of equipment allow you to vary the radiator temperature in each of the rooms in your house so you can turn those you don’t use down and those you do use up. By turning little-used radiators down you use less energy and increase boiler efficiency – another easy way to save money.

There are plenty of other ways to increase your boiler’s efficiency so you end up saving money however the five above are easy to do and relatively inexpensive – with the exception of number 1! If you did all of the things mentioned above then you would have one of the cleanest and most energy efficient heating systems on the planet and it wouldn’t take that long to recover your investment.

Guest Article by Clare Lynock

Right, this sort of question is one of those tricky little conundrums that really depends on various factors and your personal situation.

And like most insurance situations, you have to weigh up what suits you in terms of the risks involved.

Let’s take the boiler. Nowadays they are quite complicated pieces of kit and whereas one might last 15 years without a hitch, another one might break down on regular intervals. And who’s to stay why. Take cars for example. We’ve all known cars that go on for mile after mile without so much as a kind word. Yet we’ve known others that breakdown if it’s raining.

So, if you own a modern, latest specification boiler with a nice guarantee, then maybe you are safe at least for the first year. But do read the small print on the guarantee as, let’s be honest, a number of companies have a way of getting out of any commitment if they can.

But once out of the guarantee period, you are then starting to run the risk of what happens if a major failure occurs? Modern new boilers can cost anywhere from £250 to £3,000, depending on the size of your property. So, if you have an expensive boiler, then you might want it covered. Mind you, even if you don’t have an expensive boiler, the cost of replacement could still be, in relevant terms, a fortune, given your own personal budget. What effectively an insurance plan does, is to spread the cost of a new boiler over a number of months, if you assume the worse and think that your boiler will inevitably breakdown. And, that’s assuming it requires a complete replacement, rather than just parts.

So lets say you take out a monthly policy of between £10 and £15 a month, which will cost you between £120 and £180 a year; it’s cheap if you’re boiler breaks down. But let’s say it doesn’t break down for five years, then the total cost would have been £600 to £900, maybe twice as much as a new boiler for an average house. But, who can say? It’s your judgement and your risk.

But, if there’s one strong argument for getting insurance, it’s that you have someone else paying your boiler attention. Boilers should be serviced once a year, otherwise you not only run the risk of having an inefficient boiler which is costing you more money than it should, but you are risking your own and your families’ lives. A faulty boiler can kill; it’s that simple. Carbon monoxide poisoning from faulty boilers kills around 30 people in the U.K. every year.

Now, to get your boiler serviced, you have to remember to book and arrange a Corgi-registered engineer to do the job. Boiler servicing is, by law, a job for a professional. DIY servicing certainly is not allowed and should not be tried, nor can some odd-job man do it for you.

So, a boiler service can set you back at least £95, so if you think that an insurance plan can start from £120 (and includes a yearly service), then it would make sense to pay that bit extra, spread over monthly payments anyway. And apart from the economic argument, you also have someone who will remind you about your service and arrange to do it. Which saves the hassle of you remembering your annual service and having to negotiate a service price.

Right, you pays your money and takes your choice, but on balance, a good boiler insurance seems sensible not only for your wallet, but also for your health.

Guest Article by Neil Camp