Save Money and Be Safe – Service your Boiler
It is generally known that systems such as your domestic boiler require periodic service in order to keep them in good operating condition. There are several ways to ensure the maintenance is done on a fixed schedule, such as using the service interval time controls as a reminder mechanism
Recently the talk about replacing old and inefficient boilers has grabbed many headlines. New boilers were praised as more economical and much less polluting. However, there was very little attention given to the importance of keeping these boilers in good operating order through periodic maintenance.
There are good reasons for ensuring that your boiler and your central heating system are regularly serviced:
* Ensure steady performance even at peak demand periods. This will ensure safe and reliable operation of the boiler throughout the year and especially during those long cold periods in the winter
* Ensure that as a landlord or property owner, you keep within the law which requires you to maintain the boiler and the central heating system in good operating condition.
Gas Regulation 36 from the Gas safety and Installation 1994 Set has the following requirements:
* It is the duty of the owner of the gas appliance to ensure that it is maintained in a safe condition so as to prevent risk of injury to any person and to ensure that the appliance is checked for safety at intervals of not more than twelve months.
* Every landlord must make sure that all gas fittings are maintained at a safe condition so as to prevent the risk of injury to any person in lawful occupation of the relevant premises.
* Without predisposition to the above points, a landlord must make sure that all gas appliances (including the flues) are checked within twelve months from the point of installation and at periodic intervals of no more than twelve months apart (whether such check was done subject to these Regulations or not).
So far, it has proven to be difficult to enforce these Regulations where private households are involved. There are around 25 million private households in the UK and current evidence shows that they either forget to apply these regulations or simply delay the checks due to financial pressure. There is indication that the authorities are considering imposing penalties if neglect can be proved and which leads to accidents with damages and injuries.
There are several manufacturers of programmable controls that offer an automatic reminder facility to help keep the periodic checks on schedule. Some of them use a flag up reminder while some shut the heating system altogether after the servicing date has passed, providing a phone number for the occupant to call for an engineer.
Automatic scheduling mechanisms actually provide a short grace period beyond the scheduled service if one was not carried out. It is, however, imperative that the owner of the system or the tenant arranges for a service engineer as soon as possible before the system actually shuts itself down.
According to the records by boiler servicing companies, calls for boiler servicing rise dramatically the closer it gets to the winter period, as systems are restarted after a long break for the summer. Using an automatic reminder for calling an engineer reduces scheduling crunches and un-serviced systems waiting for an engineer.
Filed under: Home Based Business