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

When the temperature drops, out come the cowboys.

And we’re not talking about men wearing large hats, riding horses and carrying six shooters. We’re talking about guys wearing woolly hats, carrying tool boxes and masquerading as qualified tradesmen.

When cold weather strikes and inevitably pipes bursts, boilers stop and radiators rupture, your first thought is to get the repair done as quickly, and cheaply, as possible. And that’s what the cowboys prey on; a sense of urgency and desperation.

But professional bodies are warning people to be on their guard against bogus tradesmen. Few people when stressed over a broken pipe, or faulty boiler, think to check the qualifications of the people answering the urgent call to put things right. But, say the trade organisations, its vital to ask to see if they are registered with a recognised body before they start work.

And unfortunately, these tradesmen are often the cheapest and, say the professionals, the ones more likely to offer ‘cash deals’ (which don’t involve VAT). This is usually a sign that the tradesmen does not have the proper status.

This is especially important when it comes to work on a boiler say the professionals. They point out that people are still not aware that for anyone to work on a boiler, they should be CORGI-registered. And this is not just a recommendation, it is the law of the land with stiff penalties for those that break the rules. Over 30 people are killed in the U.K. every year through carbon monoxide poisoning and this is usually caused by boilers which have not been serviced regularly, or have been serviced by a non-registered workman.

There is also a growing trend for landlords to service their own boilers and heating systems, in this time of economic austerity. This, believes the health and safety executive, will lead to more avoidable deaths as boilers go without proper checks.

But it not just boilers. Plumbers should ideally be qualified to at least full City and Guilds NVQ Level 3 Qualified Plumber Certification. And what’s more, all tradesmen, should have in place a public liability insurance which protects them should things go wrong with their work and they cause actual bodily injury.

So, recommend the trades bodies, you’d do well to ask your plumber, or heating engineer, to see copies of their relevant certification, or qualifications. And what’s more, when the weather turns cold, you can bet that the cowboys will start riding across the horizon, raring to help you. But beware, you literally could be putting your life at risk.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

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

Despite what they might claim, builders are rarely central heating experts and one Christmas period, this was brought home to me quite forcibly.

We were having an extension built to our house and the work was scheduled to run over the festive period. And the Christmas in question was a particularly cold affair.

And as always with these cases in these situations, the builders had reached a key stage the day before Christmas Eve, and the day before their fortnight’s holiday.

So, as the temperatures began to drop to the minus part of the gauge, the builders made their temporary adjustments to mothball the extension, but keep the main part of the house intact. To cut a long story short, there was lots of plastic and pieces of two by one holding up the walls. A typical building site in other words.

The trouble came when shortly before leaving the site, they had to make safe the flue from the gas boiler. This was situated in the kitchen and the flue ran from there, up on the old outside wall and upwards. As this wall was going to become an inside wall of the new extension, the flue was going to have to be moved anyway, but it had been taken off the wall to allow work to be carried out then fixed back again with duct tape. Duct tape might not last while the builders were away and snow falling, so they took it off the wall and ran it horizontally away from the house; a run of about eight metres, a little shorter than it’s previous run up to the sky.

Fine you might think and the builders answers to my worried protestations that it all looked a bit unstable, was the inevitable, don’t worry, we know what we’re doing.

As it turned out, they didn’t know what they were doing. Within hours of their leaving the fumes pouring out from underneath the boiler were unbearable. With the builders long gone, the gas company came out, took one look at the flue and closed the boiler down, and said in no uncertain terms it should not be operated again until a properly qualified engineer had fixed the flue; sometime after Christmas. They explained that the siting and type of flue is matched exactly to the type of boiler using it. You cannot simply play around with flues and expect them to operate efficiently. And if you do play around with them, you can easily gas yourself and the whole family.

So, there you have it. We spent the Christmas nearly freezing to death in a house which had no gas, and therefore no heat. And although we had an electric cooker, friends took pity on us and we stayed away quite a bit of the time.

But I had learnt a valuable lesson. Get the professionals in when it comes to the specialist jobs. And your boiler and central heating system, like nowadays the wiring in your house, should only be tackled by trained professionals who are legally entitled to do such work. And if that might mean health and safety gone mad, bear in mind that a boiler can as easily kill as a un-earthed cable.

My builders were decent blokes doing a great job, and had just done what they thought was best to get us through the fortnight when they would be away. But, I should have called in a Corgi qualified engineer to check the boiler and flue, making separate arrangements.

So, you live and learn. Don’t mess with you boiler.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

Picture yourself sitting in your home in the middle of winter. You are enjoying the comfort and warmth of your heating system and suddenly the boiler goes on the blink. You are then left to make do with blankets and the old fan heater that’s been lying down in the basement for months. Even if you’re a bit of a DIY enthusiast, there will at least be an uncomfortable and uncertain period whilst you get the faulty appliance back up and running again. For the rest of us, boiler problems can cause huge inconvenience and discomfort, not to mention the worry and expense of getting someone trustworthy in to fix it.

That’s why so many people take proactive measures to make sure their gas boiler is kept healthy and serviced regularly by professionals.

Maintenance work should always be done on your boiler at least once a year, preferably well before winter starts, to minimise the risk of boiler breakdowns and the need for emergency boiler repairs. That way you can have everything properly checked out and replace whatever is needed well before the cold weather arrives. Some boiler manufacturers recommend that you run your gas boiler at least once a month, even during summer, just to keep it working smoothly and allowing you to detect any problems well in advance.

There are a few simple things you could regularly check on your heating system to aid maintenance and it won’t need a technician to help you out. You should check the outlets, or flues as they are called, for any blockages. It is important to make sure there is no congestion or build up of exhaust gases. Also try to make sure your gas boiler is kept clean and tidy as even dust can become a problem and it should never be covered with anything.

If you are confident at DIY, there are often telephone information lines that you can call to get help. Some manufacturers even have web-based support sections that provide interactive help and they will guide you through the entire service or repair process. Once you have diagnosed what the problem is, you can locate your local ‘heating and ventilation hardware’ store to get whatever parts or spares you might need. Either way, you do need to take care to get the job done properly as gas can be extremely dangerous and if something goes wrong there can be very serious consequences indeed.

Whatever your circumstances, prevention is always better than cure and a professionally maintained boiler will give years and years of reliable service. Apart from the peace of mind and security of knowing that you won’t be left without heating and hot water, your safety and the safety of those living with you will be assured. You can find lots of useful problem-solving tips and advice on boiler safety, as well as information and reviews on boiler servicing contracts, throughout this site.

Look after your boiler now and you can look forward to warm and trouble-free winters for years to come.

Guest Article by Max Rickman