10 tips to keep your Bolton home warm this winter from BHE

1. Have your boiler serviced once every year.
2. Make sure all your pipes and tanks are insulated.
3. Close doors and keep them closed where possible. Staying in one room as much as possible will help to conserve heat and minimise chilly draughts.
4. Stop draughts. Save money and stay warm by stopping draughts in their tracks with curtains and draught excluders. Take a look at our advice on how to save energy this winter for more information.
5. Turn down the heat. Turn down radiators in rooms which are only used occasionally.
6. Help heat to circulate. Move furniture (including radiator covers) away from your radiators and heaters to allow heat to circulate.
7. Bleed your radiators. This releases any trapped air, allowing hot water to fill every part of your radiator and warm your home more efficiently.
8. One of the most common reasons for a condensing boiler breaking down in winter is that “condensate pipes” – the pipes that carry away condensation – which run outside the house can freeze and become blocked when temperatures drop. Preventing this is really simple though: all you need to do is insulate your pipes using a type of material called water proof lagging which you can pick up from most DIY stores.
9. If you’ve had problems with your condensate pipe freezing before, you might want to relocate the pipe internally or have it replaced with a wider pipe. This is admittedly a bigger job than just insulating your pipe but should help prevent it from freezing or blocking again.
10. If it’s below freezing and your condensing boiler isn’t working, or is displaying an error message or flashing light, your condensate pipe will have probably frozen over, meaning you’ll need to thaw it out. The best way to do this is to put a hot water bottle on the pipe, or pour hot water over it, give it a blow with a hair dryer or wrap a towel soaked in warm water around it and then reset your boiler.

Hope these help you to keep your house warm this winter.

This article was published in November 2013. Please see our website for our latest work, pricing & to search for your service.