Find a Heating Engineer you can trust in Dumfriesshire.

How Often Should You Service An Oil Boiler?

If you have an oil boiler, you probably know the importance of having it serviced to ensure its proper functioning, prolong its useful life as well as ensuring the safety of your home. However, the question that most frequently arises is how often would one need to service the prized hating system? If you’re also looking for the answer to this same question, then you’ve come to the right place. To make sure your oil boiler is running smoothly, safely and efficiently, it should be serviced as often as once in a year. You certainly do want to know the numerous disadvantages of failing to service your boiler. Not only will neglecting your oil boiler service result in possible faults as well as higher energy bill caused by its inefficiency, but can also lead to your warranty ending early.

Therefore, you should ensure your oil boiler is serviced by a qualified heating engineer on an annual basis to make sure it’s running just as it should. This will give you peace of mind knowing you wouldn’t be spending huge bucks on possible repairs and in some cases, replacements.

As a landlord in the UK, it’s a legal requirement to make sure that your oil boiler and flue system is services on a yearly basis in your rental property.

Unlike a gas and oil boiler, an electric boiler do not require the same level of maintenance or servicing. However, it’ll be a nice move to ensure that it’s also checked once in a while.

Overall, it’s important to note that failure to service your oil boiler on a yearly basis can give rise to multiple risks. These includes a rise in energy bills, carbon monoxide leak, fault that can cause boiler breakdown as well as an expensive repair or replacement bill.

How Do Electric Boilers Work?

Electric boiler are installed in residential, commercial and industrial properties to serve as a reliable source of heat. Unlike other types of boilers that depends on fossil fuel burning to be able to operate, electric boilers are fuelled by electrical energy which ultimately makes it more reliable and powerful compared to its counterparts. This heating option was basically provided for home or property owners who don’t have an access to the main gas supply.

So how does an electric boiler work? Basically, an electric boiler work by heating water. Once heated, the hot water supply is then distributed to various areas across the house or property. In order to achieve the best possible efficiency at the lowest possible costs, new model electric boilers are installed by licensed and professional boiler fitters with the help of a microchip control system. Meanwhile, the microchip control system functions to oversee the management of both temperature level as well as output.

Unlike other types of boilers such as a gas boiler, electric boilers only require minimal service. If you own a gas boiler, it’s crucial to ensure that it’s serviced every single year by a licensed and reliable professional that’s into boiler repair services. During the checks and maintenance services, the gas boilers would need to be checked for possible gas leaks, as well as ventilation poisoning and other problems.

Overall, electric boilers are considered to be one of the most environment-friendly heating system which is more affordable to install in your property than a gas boiler. It represents the most ideal option for homes with gas boiler issues as well as those that are not connected to the main gas supply. What’s more? Electric boilers are also one of the best options for wet central heating and under floor heating.

If you get the right size boiler for your business and you get it serviced regularly, your boiler could last up to 15 years. It may even last longer than this, but you’ll find that your boiler begins to become less efficient as it gets older. Also, as technology improves, a boiler older than 15 years may not be the most efficient one on the market.

Can You Get Oiled Fired Combi Boilers?

Absolutely! Oil fired combi boilers are not only a super cool alternative to gas heating, but also offer a cost-efficient means of heating your home. And this is best enjoyed especially if you’re one of the estimated 4 million houses that are not connected to the gas network.

Oil fired combi boiler enables you store fuel close to your property and fill it as required. There many A rated model options available in the market with the modern oil fired combi boilers confirmed to be up to 95% efficient. As a result of their multiple advantages over alternative heating systems, the oil fired combi boiler is expected to increase significantly in the UK. Here are some of the advantages of adding the system to your property.

• Oil fired combi boiler heats up water on demand while also saving a lot of fuel and being super energy efficient.

• Since oil needs more fuel than gas, a great return would be derived from every unit of energy.

• When compared with the other types of boilers, oil fired combi boilers have a considerably lower operating cost.

• A new oil fired boiler typically has a 92% to 95 % efficiency, which is significantly better than the 60% to 70% in older systems.

If you have an idea of how to operate the gas-powered alternative, then operating an oil fired combi boiler shouldn’t be an issue. In a similar way to the alternative, the boiler simply delivers the central heating through the radiators and hot water via your household’s taps.

However, the major difference between the two is the fact that the oil fired boiler needs a regular supply of oil, which is stored in a tank. The hot water supplied by the system is instant as it is connected to the water mains supply.

How Much Does It Cost To Move A Gas Meter?

When your gas meter is not in the right location while completing your renovation works or extending your property, it can be a worrying experience.

As a homeowner, you’re not allowed by the law to move your gas meter by yourself - it’s a very dangerous task that’s too risky to undertake just by watching a Youtube video or reading a blog post. Moving of a gas meter can and should only be carried out by a qualified and licensed gas supplier. And this, ultimately, gives rise to the question - how much does it cost to move a gas meter? Before we provide an answer for that, let’s look at what moving of a gas meter entails.

First and foremost, moving of a gas meter typically involves switching off the gas source to your home or property. The pipeline about 2 metres away from your property would be cut into for safety reasons and diverted into another position. Furthermore, you can as well apply that your meter should be re-fitted and re-linked to the inner copper pipeline, but that’s if the inner copper pipeline happens to be within two metres of the new location of your gas meter.

The time involved in the completion of a gas meter re-location project depends largely on the complexity of the job as each project is unique. Typically, the standard timescale from preparation to the final stage of moving a gas meter will take between 4 to 8 weeks. Finally, how much will it cost to relocate your gas meter?

As there are no government funds to subsidize gas meter relocation costs, this can be a very expensive work to carry out. Generally, the price to move a gas meter of about 5m will start within the range of £640 to £670.

During the cold months ( winter), there’s a high chance for a more frequent occurrence of faults and breakdowns of your boiler as this is the time in which more strain is being placed on the device. Unfortunately, this is exactly the time in which you’d wish to derive maximum benefits from your boiler to keep you warm all through the winter. As a result, home owners are given no other option than to pay the mega boiler repair bills to keep themselves warm and cosy all winter long. There is, however, an option which can greatly soften the blow and that’s having a boiler breakdown cover.

Boiler breakdown cover provides coverage for cost of hiring an engineer to get your boiler back to a top condition while also paying for the parts as well as labour needed to resolve the boiler’s fault. To select a boiler breakdown cover, you should take into account factors like whether or not the policy provides coverage for limited or unlimited call-outs within the coverage period. You should also ensure to go through the terms and conditions of the cover if you can stake a claim if your boiler were to be damaged by a different thing in your central heating configuration or a persistent fault.

There are an array of boiler breakdown package types with little differences which relates to one or more of the following:

• The package monthly cost

• The call outs excess to be paid

• The nature of the helpline. It may be a 24/7 service or just a few selected hours of the day.

Therefore, to answer the question of which boiler breakdown cover, you’d have to compare the different packages to determine the most suitable one for both your needs as well as pocket.

How Much Does It Cost To Service An Oil Boiler?

With several homes in the UK using gas central heating, about 6 percent of households in the United Kingdom makes use of oil for their heating needs. If you’re one of those homeowners with an oil boiler, then you should know that servicing your oil boiler is a compulsory activity which should be done regularly in order to ensure the safety of your home, boost the efficiency of the boiler while also help you save money as it ensures you do not incur the potentially expensive repairs or even having to purchase a replacement boiler. If you service your oil boiler every year, you can be rest assured that you’ll continue to derive maximum benefits from your prized heating system for a long period of time. So exactly how much will you have to pay to service your oil boiler?

The service cost of an oil boiler is influenced by a wide range of factors which includes the location. However, the average cost of servicing an oil boiler in the UK is between £65 to £90, but depending on the location as well as other influencing factors, this price might be higher or lower.

Due to the higher cost of living and high demands at places such as London and the south east of the UK, you can discover that the cost of servicing your oil boiler can jump to as high as £160 to £190. In other regions, you can also find the oil boiler service cost to be as low as £50 to £60. What’s more? In the same locations, you can also discover varying prices which depends on the available services. Furthermore, in areas where there’s a lower competition from several engineers, the prices may also be higher.

To ensure your boiler is functioning efficiently and to keep your home warm, it’s important to see that your boiler is serviced on a regular basis by a licensed boiler engineer. Failure to do this can result in sudden boiler breakdown which can be a hard hitting blow to one’s financial power especially when there’s no boiler cover to cushion the blow or totally avoid it all together.

When your boiler is covered, it implies that you’re protected in the event whereby your boiler or it’s controls malfunctions or break. Several boiler cover will include the servicing cost, while some may not so it’s advisable to always go through the details, no matter how small, before entering into a boiler cover agreement. Typically, a boiler cover will cost between £60 to £100 per year and the payment is made on a monthly basis. Various boiler insurance companies have varying cover cost, however, here are the common boiler cover policies:

• Homeserve charges from £13 per month

• EDF Energy costs from £13.29 per month

• British Gas from £12 per month

• Scottish Power from £13.13 every month

• CETRI UK charges from £13.50 every month

• 24/7 home rescue costs from £9.60 every month

• Gorgi Home Plan costs from £6 per month plus 3 months free

• Your repair charges from £9.60 per month

• NPower Boiler Cover costs from £10.92 every month

• SSE Boiler Breakdown Cover charges from £4.95 every month

It’s important to note that sometimes you have the option of adding your boiler cover to your existing home insurance, if you do not want a standalone policy for your boiler cover. In many scenarios, this is referred to as an extra or add on service referred to as “Home Emergency Cover. When compared to the standalone boiler policies, this is usually a lot cheaper as it comes in around £5 per month.