Preparing your home for Winter
Take a look at some top tips from Hometree on how to keep your home warm and comfortable for the cold months ahead.
When wintertime rolls around, your boiler has to work twice as hard to keep your home warm and comfortable. Most people don’t realise that summer is the perfect opportunity to start preparing your boiler for those cold months ahead. All it takes is some quick checks and TLC to avoid mid-winter boiler breakdowns or unexpected faults with your central heating.
Take a look at your winter checklist below:
Check your radiators – To begin, you should switch on your heating as normal. Once your home is fully heated, you can start to check each of your radiators for cold spots, which is normally caused by trapped air. If you feel that your radiator is cold towards the bottom, you may have to bleed them to remove this trapped air with a radiator valve key. Cold spots may be just the beginning of a wider range of issues.
Service your boiler – An annual boiler service conducted by a Gas Safe engineer is crucial to ensure your boiler is in full working order. The engineer will start by checking the components of your boiler for any faults or wear. They will also look at your heating system to see if there are any obvious signs of damaged radiators and pipework.
Insulate your pipes – The last thing you want is any unwanted frost to form on your pipework! You do have the option to keep your heating on a constant low temperature but this does raise your energy costs. If you are aware of frozen water in your pipework, a short-term solution is to defrost them with a hairdryer or with hot water poured onto the pipes directly.
Fit a carbon monoxide alarm – In the winter months ahead, you’ll be using your boiler more than any other time of year so we would recommend you buy one immediately. Carbon monoxide is best known as the “silent killer” due to its tasteless and odourless nature. If carbon monoxide was to leak without an alarm, you could potentially lose consciousness.
Check your boiler pressure – If your boiler pressure drops, you could suffer from a loss of hot water in your home. Your boiler’s pressure should always stay within the green zone on its pressure gauge once your system is switched on. To avoid a pressure drop, it’s recommended that you check and use the filling link/loop, and bleed your radiators if the pressure is too high. You may experience lower efficiency levels if your pressure is too low.
Why boiler care is important
If you rely on a boiler for warmth, you should have some sort of plan in place for when you have breakdowns, or if your boiler needs to be replaced. With a boiler care plan, your boiler will be maintained by a professional engineer so that it’s working safely and efficiently.
If you’re looking to save money, the first thing to consider is the cost of an annual service. On top of that If you don’t have any kind of service plan, a repair plus call-out fee is likely to be in the region of £200-£300 (depending on the extent of the repairs). With a boiler care plan, all of this is included.
Choose Hometree
Having that extra peace of mind over the winter months can be a godsend, just take a look at Hometree’s comprehensive boiler, heating and home care plans. Hometree offer plans for both homeowners and landlords (including all gas safety certification), with an annual boiler service and a whole host of other great features including:
A “no price hike promise”, no claims, no price hikes
- 24-hour emergency helpline
- 90% of emergency call-outs within 24 hours
- Landlord Gas Safety Record (for landlords only)
Hometree is also rated “Excellent” on Trustpilot!
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