Back in my British Gas days energy efficiency wasn’t very high on my agenda. If a customer’s boiler was inefficient but working fine I’d tell them so. This was much to the annoyance of my manager – I routinely failed to meet sales targets and was occasionally threatened with disciplinary action.

Going back 2 years ago, gas was very cheap, Greta the outlay needed to upgrade to a more efficient boiler would take decades to make back.

My energy deal is due to expire at the end of April and after seeing how much I’m going to be paying got me thinking again about replacing inefficient yet working fine boilers.

I’d welcome anyone to correct the following non-scientific fag packet sums:

A constantly burning pilot light runs at around 170 watts of gas.

Over a 24h period that’s just over 4Kwh. At my new tariff of 10.087p that’s 41p a day or £150 a year. That gas isn’t all wasted as when the boiler is running it’s useful heat.

6 months of the year the boiler may be on for an hour a day for hot water, over the winter potentially 12 hours a day.

For the fag packet maths let’s say that over the year the boiler is running for 25% of the time. That is £110 a year wasted. Over the 20 year life of a boiler that’s £2250 saved before even looking at the efficiency gains of a modern condensing boiler with weather compensated controls. We’ve reached a point with gas prices that replacing old, inefficient boilers will usually pay for themselves.

If you have a warm air unit with integrated water heater that usually means 2 pilot lights so unfortunately twice as bad.

To book a free, no obligation quote and you’re close to Camberley, Bracknell, Wokingham or Farnborough please call 01344 508076 or 07739 447798

Warm air heating was in its simplest form invented by the Romans with the earliest example from around 350BC. In the UK market it started becoming popular from the late 60s.

The market was then and still is dominated by Johnson and Starley. Most popular models were the J25-32, Hi-Spec and higher efficiency Economaire and Warmcair.

It is an effective way of heating and will warm a house up quickly as there isn’t water in radiators to be heated up first. As the air is circulated by a fan this can lead to some people complaining of discomfort, so a lot of units have been removed and radiator central heating fitted; however there is still a lot of warm air heating in existence.

Many heating engineers are not qualified to touch warm air or just refuse to touch them. I’m more than happy to and have a huge amount of experience. 

What I cannot stress enough is servicing. These must be serviced annually to maintain safety and efficiency. Most are open flued and have permanent pilot lights. A restricted pilot light can very quickly lead to poor combustion and soot building up within the unit. This will cause damage to your heater and ultimately lead to emissions and carbon monoxide blowing around the house.

That being said, Johnson and Starley make incredibly reliable units. I often see 50-year-old heaters still going strong with most spares still supported.

If your Johnson and Starley in and around Bracknell needs a service or repair please get in touch on 01344 508076

My go to manufacturer for some time now has been Viessmann. Founded in Germany over 100 years ago they have quietly been taking the UK boiler industry by storm. Their product offering is technologically advanced and amongst the most efficient without being over complicated for the end user.

The UK’s gas boiler market is the third largest in the world. Although tens of thousands of jobs are supported, mine included, far too many boilers aren’t lasting as long as they should. Alongside the massive environmental cost this isn’t much to be proud of. A lot of the blame lies with manufacturers churning out poor quality products, a lot is down to poorly educated installers making a quick buck slinging in boilers.

The Viessmann way is a little different. A lot of the competition – Worcester Bosch, Ideal and to a certain extent Glow worm and Vaillant manufacturer boilers with aluminium heat exchangers. Viessmann, alongside most of the Baxi range use stainless steel. Stainless steel due to its corrosion resistance is the best heat exchanger material in a condensing boiler.

Viessmann boilers in the past have contained rubber hoses which have been known to occasionally burst. These have now been replaced with copper pipes in new models.

When wanting to maximise efficiency on boilers with a separate hot water cylinder the boiler needs to run at different temperatures when heating hot water or heating – also known as priority hot water, or PDHW. Your boiler needs to run at a high temperature for heating the hot water cylinder but does not for heating the radiators. If the boiler can run at lower temperatures this is the difference between 90%+ efficiencies and around 80%.

The best way to do this is with weather compensating controls which thankfully Viessmann excel at across their entire range. Although technologically advanced, once correctly set up it is no different to a programable thermostat.

Baxi and Worcester’s heat only boilers are not compatible with any kind of modulating control so whilst advertising 92%+ efficiencies they are sadly often in the low 80s.

If you are in Camberley and would like a quote for a Viessmann boiler, please call 01344 508076 or 07739 447798.

Most of us now have condensing gas boilers in our homes. What this means is that when running at lower temperatures condensation form within the heat exchangers. This leads to a significant increase in efficiency with less heat being wasted out through the flue.

Sounds great but unfortunately most of us do not have thermostats which can take advantage of this. Most common are dial thermostats which are based on bi-metalic strips, Victorian technology, or digital and app-controlled versions of said Victorian technology. This includes Hive and depending on the setup Tado and Nest.

These simply send power to the boiler telling it to come on full blast. When the boiler comes on it will condense, but only briefly, then be running too hot for condensation to form. The 95% efficient boiler you’ve got is unfortunately now running in the low 80s. After running for a while, the thermostat will tell the boiler the room is at a comfortable temperature and to turn off.

Even though the thermostat has told the boiler to stop, your radiators are still holding a lot of heat which will cause the air in your house to carry on heating, leading to an often uncomfortable and too hot overshoot. Depending on how well your house retains heat there is then a wait before the house cools down and the thermostat says it needs heat again and restarting the on/off cycle.

I need you to forget everything you know about controlling heating as we can do so much better than the Victorian technology. This is where weather and load compensation comes in. 

Weather compensation relies on an outdoor sensor and following a pre-set curve the boiler and radiators then only get as hot as they need to in order to keep the house warm and comfortable. If it’s cold out the radiators will be hot, likewise if it is mild, they will only be tepid. 

The list of benefits is extensive: the boiler is running much more efficiently, therefore lower gas bills and CO2 emissions, the house maintains a much more even temperature without the swings an on/off thermostat will give, less wear and tear on the boiler and pump as they aren’t running as hot, cooler radiators means lower risk of burns to young children and elderly residents. 

Load compensation when applied correctly is similar but uses a more 21^st Century appropriate thermostat which tells the boiler how hot it needs to be in order to maintain the room temperature rather than the old fashioned on/off.

My preference has always been to fit Viessmann boilers. I’ll explain in more detail why in another article but for now want to talk about the built-in advanced weather compensation.

Originally weather compensation was included as the primary control in top end Viessmann Vitodens 200-w but is now included in the more budget friendly 100 and the cheap and cheerful 050 boilers too. Rather than using expensive app controlled thermostats which are often inefficient and ineffective as already mentioned they often only need a £20 sensor to unlock the benefits weather compensation brings.

When I ask my customers how they are getting on with their new controls they have often complement how they have become used to the heating being there in the background rather than the constant fight with their old thermostat. 

Hello and welcome to my rambling collection of articles, thoughts and opinions of mine.

Growing up I was always fascinated by how things worked, and more importantly ways things could be done better. 

Being a heating engineer was never part of my plan growing up- I joined the industry almost by accident. My girlfriend (now wife) and I had a broken boiler. We called upon a local firm who unfortunately made the issue significantly worse! Someone from another firm had to replace the boiler in the end, upon seeing his craftmanship and passion for his trade I was hooked.

I was lucky enough to get a British Gas service and repair apprenticeship and have never looked back. Thanks to the training and experience gained I was the first in my class to progress to a full engineer. My role involved a huge variety of work all revolving around repairing and servicing boilers and heating systems from combi boilers in flats to large systems in 10 bedroom mansions.

I always loved the work, meeting all different kinds of people and my amazing colleagues but after several years tired of the company’s senior management. From obsessive cost cutting, sales targets, reconditioned parts, job time limits I was realising it was no longer the job for me, nor were my customers getting the service they quite rightly should be getting.

The contract dispute and later strike of 2020-21 was the final straw for me and in November 2020 with the support of my wife and nearly 2 year old twin boys I took the brave decision to leave and start my own company. 

Although stressful at times I have thoroughly enjoyed building a business to be proud of. A business run how it should be run – with customers first and not distant shareholders. Without happy and warm customers I don’t have a business.

If you’re after a friendly, reliable and trustworthy Bracknell heating and gas engineer please get in touch