Most people know the importance of servicing your boiler to maintain a healthy central heating system. One way of ensuring the user sticks to the schedule of periodic servicing is to use the service interval time controls as a reminder, to ensure they keep to the recommended servicing schedule.
In recent years a lot of focus was placed on upgrading old inefficient boilers that are polluting and uneconomical. New boilers were introduced that offer more efficient operations and less pollution output. However, little emphasis was put on the importance of maintaining and servicing the boilers throughout their lifetime.
There are good reasons for ensuring that your boiler and your central heating system are regularly serviced:
* Ensure that performance is kept stable and reliable even at peak demand levels. This way, the boiler is efficient and economical throughout the year (both at low and high load times).
* 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 (part of Gas Safety, Installation and Use) 1994 states:
*Owners of gas appliances must make sure that the appliances are kept in safe operating order that eliminates the risk of injury to people using the property. The owner has to make sure that the appliances are checked periodically every twelve months.
* Landlords must ensure that all gas fittings within the property are kept in safe condition which prevents the risk of injury to anybody using the property.
* 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 automatic reminding mechanisms that help homeowners or tenants to keep up to the periodic maintenance schedule. Some use a flag up mechanism that raises the flag when it is time to check the system. Other systems take a more drastic route and physically turn the system off if the scheduled service was not done on time, displaying a local engineer's phone number for an emergency service.
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.
Evidence shows that servicing calls numbers increase substantially as winter approaches and more households are firing up their central heating systems after a break of several months. A Service Interval reminder will flag up the servicing requirement at a more controlled rate, spreading out the work load and minimizing spikes. - 15431
In recent years a lot of focus was placed on upgrading old inefficient boilers that are polluting and uneconomical. New boilers were introduced that offer more efficient operations and less pollution output. However, little emphasis was put on the importance of maintaining and servicing the boilers throughout their lifetime.
There are good reasons for ensuring that your boiler and your central heating system are regularly serviced:
* Ensure that performance is kept stable and reliable even at peak demand levels. This way, the boiler is efficient and economical throughout the year (both at low and high load times).
* 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 (part of Gas Safety, Installation and Use) 1994 states:
*Owners of gas appliances must make sure that the appliances are kept in safe operating order that eliminates the risk of injury to people using the property. The owner has to make sure that the appliances are checked periodically every twelve months.
* Landlords must ensure that all gas fittings within the property are kept in safe condition which prevents the risk of injury to anybody using the property.
* 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 automatic reminding mechanisms that help homeowners or tenants to keep up to the periodic maintenance schedule. Some use a flag up mechanism that raises the flag when it is time to check the system. Other systems take a more drastic route and physically turn the system off if the scheduled service was not done on time, displaying a local engineer's phone number for an emergency service.
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.
Evidence shows that servicing calls numbers increase substantially as winter approaches and more households are firing up their central heating systems after a break of several months. A Service Interval reminder will flag up the servicing requirement at a more controlled rate, spreading out the work load and minimizing spikes. - 15431
About the Author:
Tal Potishman, member of Heating Central, writes content about plumbers, central heating, London boilers, underfloor heating and solar water heating. He specializes in helping save money by advising on efficient heating.
