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Loft insulation - are you entitled to a free upgrade?

Sat, 24 Oct 2026 13:07:04 GMT

Free grants - loft insulation

We all know that heat rises. Therefore, having a poorly insulated loft is literally like pouring money down the drain when it comes to trying to keep your home nice and cozy.

The current recommended depth for effective insulation is 270mm. Years ago, the accepted depth was just 100mm.

Millions of households have loft insulation that just doesn’t meet today’s standards.

You may well be entitled to a free grant to bring your loft insulation up to scratch. Many folks assume that they’d need to be in receipt of benefits to qualify. This isn’t true.

Whilst being on benefits means you’d almost certainly qualify for a free upgrade, households not on benefits but with an income under £31,000 per year also qualify.

You can also qualify for a free upgrade depending on certain factors that are not income-related. These factors include:

Your post code, Property type, Your current EPC rating, Your council tax band.

Schemes that are worth your while looking into in your area are:

ECO4 – The Energy Companies Obligation. This ends 31/12/2026, so don’t leave it too late.

LAFlex – Local Authority Flexibility. Check your local council’s website to see if they offer the Flex scheme or regional efficiency grants.

Useful links are:

https://www.gov.uk/energy-company-obligation

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/free-cavity-loft-insulation/

Please do remember that with all grant schemes there is always an end date. So it’s worth spending an hour to look into what you could be entitled to.

Also, spare a thought to an elderly relative. Have a look online to see if a family ember might be able to get upgraded insulation.

Stop throwing money down the drain.

As always, I hope the above info is useful.

Fixing a frozen condensate pipe

Sun, 18 Oct 2026 11:10:52 GMT

Fixing a frozen condensate pipe

If your boiler was fitted after 2004, the chances are it is a condensing boiler. High efficiency boilers are generally called “condensing” boilers because condensation forms inside the flue. This condensate is drained from the boiler by a small pipe that usually connects into your waste water pipework, such as the kitchen sink waste pipe.

If your condensate pipe connects to your waste water inside the house, (under the kitchen sink, for example) it is much less likely to freeze.

However, for millions of people, the condensate pipe passes through the wall to then be routed to an outside drain. Usually, in these instances, it wasn’t possible for the boiler installer to find a better way to run the condensate drain to a suitable point.

The problem is that in winter, this drain can freeze where it passes through the wall.

The condensate drain system in the boiler cannot then function, waste condensate material backs up, and the boiler shuts down. If you try to re start the boiler, you’ll often hear a gurgling sound and the boiler will shut down again.

On a cold, frosty morning, tens of thousands of people, if not hundreds of thousands, will wake up to a boiler that has shut down.

Local plumbers and heating engineers will be inundated with phone calls, and people will potentially pay a small fortune to get the problem fixed. Usually, they’ll have to wait in all day in a freezing cold house, until the emergency plumber can get to them.

However, unfreezing a blocked condensate pipe if very often something you can do yourself, and all you need is a kettle full of hot water.

Boil your kettle and leave it for a few minutes so the water falls a little below boiling point. The slowly pour the kettle water onto the elbow, where the pipe comes through the wall. After you’ve emptied about a third of the kettle water, slowly move down the condensate pipe towards the grate, or wherever the pipe leads to.

If your boiler is sited downstairs, this is all quite easy, as the condensate pipe will come through your wall at a fairly accessible height. If your boiler is upstairs, you’ll need a set of ladders.

If you’re not confident with ladders, hopefully there’s a family member of neighbour who can help.

On a particularly freezing cold day you might need to re boil the kettle and repeat.

Then re start your boiler. Possibly you’ll probably hear a gurgling sound again, but the boiler will fire up.

Cut your fuel bills - make sure your boiler is set correctly

Fri, 16 Oct 2026 16:22:43 GMT

Make sure your boiler is on the most efficient setting

This tip is a very simple one. Make sure your boiler is at the right setting!

If you have a combi boiler you will have two temperature controls on the front panel. One is for regulating the temperature of the hot water coming through your taps and the other is to control the temperature that the central heating runs at.

Usually, these controls are such that the minimum setting is at the 8am position on a clock face, while the maximum setting is at 4pm.

The control for the heating normally has a little radiator symbol, so you know which is which.

Set your heating control to around the 1pm position and leave it there.

If your boiler was installed since 2004, the chances are it is a condensing boiler. By setting your heating flow temperature to the 1pm position your boiler will run in High Efficiency or Super Efficiency mode most of the time.

Obviously you’ll set your timer and thermostat to whatever suits your needs, but having the boiler flow set to the position I described, means you’ll use less gas.

If you don’t have a combi, your boiler will most likely only have one temperature control. Same principle, set it to the 1pm position and leave it there.

Follow our Facebook page for regular tips and hacks about how you can cut your energy bills.

The importance of having your boiler properly serviced

Wed, 14 Oct 2026 11:28:37 GMT

Cut your fuel bills - look after your boiler

It can be very tempting to skip having a boiler serviced, in the mistaken belief that you’re saving money by avoiding the expense.

In reality, proper boiler servicing actually saves you money, rather than costing you money.

We service boilers, and I don’t want this post to look like we’re touting for business, so later I am going to advise you about how to find a good, reliable service engineer in your area.

First, let’s look at why you should give your boiler the proper maintenance it deserves.

A gas boiler is, in some ways, similar to a motor car. It is a mechanical device that consumes fuel.

We’re all aware that if a car isn’t serviced when needed, the fuel economy will drop off and running costs will increase.

Your boiler is exactly the same.

All boiler and gas appliance manufacturers publish what are called Manufacturer’s Instructions (MIs for short). These instructions describe exactly how that particular make and model of boiler should be installed, serviced and maintained in order to operate at its intended level of high efficiency.

A thorough, robust boiler service typically costs from £80 to around £120. During a professional service your engineer will carry out work to keep your boiler running as efficiently as possible and also do things that will help prevent avoidable breakdowns.

Before I continue, let’s just look at service cost. About £2 a week, on average throughout the year. That’s less than 30p a day.

It isn’t hard to understand that a neglected boiler will soon be consuming more than an extra 30p a day in gas, compared to if it was better looked after.

One of the jobs your service engineer should do is to clean out the condensate trap in your boiler.

Modern boilers (pretty much any boiler installed since 2004) produces condensation in the flue while it is running. This condensation is collected in a little container within the boiler. Over time, the products of condensation will thicken, and not always drain away through the condensate pipe to outside.

Once the condensate trap is blocked, your boiler will shut down.

Imagine a cold winter’s day. Your boiler has shut itself down. You’re going to pay way more than the cost of a regular service to get someone out in an emergency to get you up and running again.

There are a few other little tweaks your engineer will make to help avoid costly winter time problems, such as ensuring gaps on electrodes are correct, and make adjustments where necessary.

So, in summary, the cost of a service will always be more than saved by you achieving better fuel economy throughout the year, and you’ll help yourself to avoid expensive and unnecessary breakdowns at the coldest time of year.

Here’s a couple of ways of how you can find a decent, reliable heating engineer near you:

One way is by a personal recommendation. If you have a neighbour, or a nearby friend, relative, work colleague who has the same person service their boiler each year and they don’t have any bother with their boiler, it is a fair assumption that their service engineer is doing a proper job. Get the engineer’s number and give them a try.

Another method is finding someone from a boiler manufacturer’s website. Pretty much all boiler companies have an approved / recommended installer scheme. Normally, the names on these websites are engineers who have been on various training course given by those manufacturers, and are considered to be specialists in that make of appliance.

So, no matter what make of boiler you have, the maker’s website should throw up some of their approved engineers in your area.

Cleaning and flushing your heating system

Wed, 14 Oct 2026 09:31:53 GMT

Cut your heating bills - Cleansing your system

Many of the tips we’ll be offering are things that many householders / bill payers can do themselves, or get a family member to do, without needing to call out a plumber. Any tips we offer that do involve calling in a professional will be modest cost ideas that will easily and quickly pay for themselves.

The black sludge that forms inside your pipework and radiators can cause a considerable amount of extra gas to be used.

Quite apart from hindering the flow of water from your boiler to your radiators, thereby making the system work harder, this sludge can also cause blockages and increase the possibility of an expensive breakdown.

Many heating engineers can offer a service known as power flushing to clean your system, and although power flushing is pretty thorough, it can also be quite expensive.

The good news is that there is something you can do yourself to help combat the sludge issue.

(Before starting this procedure, make a note of which pipe to each radiator is the Flow and which is the Return. You can do this by switching on your heating from cold, and noting which pipe heats up soonest on each radiator. The pipe that gets hot the quickest is the Flow, the other pipe is the Return.)

Most DIY stores and plumber’s merchants sell heating system cleaner. Well known brands might cost around £15 to £20 for a 1 litre bottle, while store own brands are generally around half that price. One bottle is usually enough for a heating system of up to 8 to 10 radiators.

It is worth asking the retailer before you buy, that you’re choosing a cleaner that can be left in the system for a few weeks, not just a few hours.

To dose your system, make sure the boiler is switched off. Turn off the power supply to the boiler. This is normally a switch on the wall, either near your boiler or it may be on the kitchen wall if you live in a newer house.

Attach a hosepipe to the drain point on your system and drain down until water stops running freely. At this point, using a vent key (bleed key) open a couple of bleed pips on upstairs radiators to let air in. This will allow more water to leave the system.

Once you have drained the upstairs heating circuit, its time to add the cleaning fluid.

If you have a towel rail type of radiator in the bathroom, this makes life easier.

IF YOU DON’T HAVE A TOWEL RAIL, SEND US A MESSAGE AND WE’LL SEND YOU THE METHOD.

Close the drain off valve downstairs.

Remove a core plug from the top of the towel rail (you’ll need an adjustable spanner)

Carefully pour the cleaning fluid into the towel rail.

Replace the core plug and tighten up.

Check and re tighten any vent (bleed) pips in the radiators you have worked on.

Refill the system (assuming you have a combi boiler or a system boiler, use the same method as you’d use to top up pressure)

IF YOU HAVE A TRADITIONAL SYSTEM WITH A HEADER TANK, MESSAGE US AND WE’LL SEND YOU APPROPRIATE GUIDANCE NOTES

Once pressure is at 1 bar to 1.5 bar, close the filling link and leave the system to stand.

This is called a Standing Pressure Test.

Go and have a cuppa. If, after your cuppa, the pressure is exactly where you left it, it means you fully tightened the drain point and the core plug. If the pressure has dropped, check tightness, top the boiler back up to the previous level and repeat the standing pressure test.

Once you’re happy that everything is watertight, start bleeding (venting) your radiators. Start downstairs and work your way upstairs.

After venting each radiator, top up the system pressure as it will have fallen.

Once all radiators have been vented, set the pressure to anywhere between 1bar and 1.5 bar.

Now switch on your heating and run it for an hour or two to push the cleaning fluid right around the system.

Over the next couple of weeks or so, use your heating as normal.

After a few weeks, choose a fairly mild, dry day to flush your system. You’ll have the heating switched off for a couple of hours or so, and the door will be open with a hosepipe running to outside. Obviously it makes sense to pick your day for this part of the job.

Open all radiator valves (both sides of each radiator) so they are full open.

Attach a hosepipe to the drain point on your system but don’t open it yet.

Run your heating at full tilt. Turn up the temperature on the boiler control, and turn up your room thermostat. This is to cause your heating to stay on as much as possible.

Gently tap along the bottom of each radiator. The shaft of a hammer that has a rubber grip is ideal for this. Tapping will cause some vibration, that in turn will dislodge some of the oxide sludge that has stuck to the bottom of the radiators.

Once you have gone around and tapped all radiators, go round again.

Now turn off the boiler.

Open the drain valve to allow water to flush out. Stay near to the drain point to make sure the hose doesn’t pop off.

Once water stops flowing through the hose, close the drain point.

Now refill the system, following the steps from above.

Once the system is full and vented, turn on the boiler.

Let the system heat up and run for a few minutes.

Once again, go around the radiators tapping along the bottom.

Again, switch off the boiler, open the drain point and empty the system.

Repeat this process of refilling, venting, running the system, tapping, and then emptying as many times as your day allows. Each time, you’ll remove a bit more crud from the system. So, if you can, repeat the process at least 3 or 4 times.

Now you’re ready to refill the system.

Close off the drain point, but leave the hosepipe in place (just in case)

Add a bottle of corrosion inhibitor to the system. (Again, a few pounds from a DIY store or plumber’s merchant) Adding inhibitor will help reduce the formation of more sludge in the future.

To add the inhibitor, follow the same steps as you followed to add the cleaning fluid.

To refill and vent the system, follow the same steps you followed when adding the cleaning fluid.

Switch the boiler back on and run for an hour or so to distribute the inhibitor all around the system.

Now you need to reset the radiator valves to their correct position.

With all radiators, adjust the radiator valve on the Return end so that is open around a half turn to three-quarters of a turn. Do this by closing it down fully, then slowly opening it back up to the desired setting.

The valves on the Flow end of each radiator should be set as follows:

Downstairs radiators closed down and then reopened two and a half turns, upstairs radiators open one and a half turns.

Leave to run for an hour.

Check that all radiators are hot and rooms are sufficiently warm.

Make small adjustments to radiator valves if any are needed.

If there are any rooms that are not in regular use, such as a spare bedroom, you can nip the Flow side radiator valve down a little more to reduce flow to that radiator and thereby save fuel costs.