Marie Poppins July 20, 2019

Here are some home heating, plumbing and energy saving advices from Peter Brown, a proud to be a well respected, reliable and family run plumbing, boiler and central heating expert in Harrow offering fantastic levels of service.

Don’t undo your work by having an inefficient loft hatch, says Potter. “Some people might have a lovely insulated loft but the loft hatch might be an old timber one that’s not insulated,” she says. Insulating it can be done with same self-adhesive strips as for window and doors. It’s also worth checking that none of your roof tiles is loose or missing. “If you have loose tiles or a damaged roof then you’re going to get water that can get into your loft and as soon as the insulation gets wet it loses its efficiency,” she says. Although the difficulty of checking may be the biggest obstacle, if it’s safe to do so then a single tile or so can be relatively cheap to replace.

All our engineers at Peter Brown Heating & Plumbing are approved by the Gas Safe Register, the UK’s official registration body designed to protect the public against unqualified engineers and unsafe gas work. How much does a boiler repair cost? We’re much more affordable than the big national companies. We charge just £50.00 + VAT (£60) for the first 15 minutes that we’re at your home and £24.00 + VAT (£28.80) for every 15 minutes after that. If we need to buy parts in, that will cost extra. Please do remember though that we’re here to solve your problem and not create new ones for you. We’ll aim to make sure that you’re one of the 70% of our customers whose boiler repair is completed within 15 minutes. Would it be worth getting a new boiler instead of a boiler repair? Sometimes, it’s not worth getting a boiler repaired, particularly if it’s over 15 years old. Energy efficiency and product reliability has come on a long way in recent years and if your machine was manufactured in the previous decade, you’re probably no longer making savings on your gas bills that you should expect. When we’re repairing your boiler, make sure to ask your boiler repairing expert to tell head office that you’re interested in a quote for a new boiler. One of our experienced installers will visit your home on a day and at a time of your choosing to give you their expert help and advice. We don’t employ salesmen so you won’t be put under pressure to buy – all we’ll do is leave you with a quote and our recommendation. Remember, we manage to fix 70% of our customers’ boilers on our first and only visit within the first 15 minutes of our visit. We work with all types of boilers from all UK manufacturers. See extra info on https://www.peterbrown.net/boiler-repair-harrow.html.

Pipe lagging (insulating hot water pipes with foam tubes) keeps the water inside your pipes hotter for longer and protects against the cold. It also makes your heating and hot water much more efficient. You can buy pipe lagging from any DIY store and fit it in seconds, no tools required. If your home has a draught, patch it up. Filling in the gaps around windows and doors can help you save on your heating bills, so spending a few pounds on window draught excluder – an insulating tape – is a great investment. Fitting it is a breeze too, just make sure it sits snugly.

Insulate your pipes: Insulating your hot water pipes is a quick and easy way to save energy. As well as reducing heat loss from your system, pipe lagging will also prevent pipes from getting too cold in winter, and therefore prevents pipes bursting. Pipe insulation is an easy DIY install – you can buy foam insulation tubes online or from a DIY store and slip them over your pipes. In a typical 3-bed semi-detached house, materials will cost around £20, and you will save around £3 a year on your energy bills, as well as reducing the possibility of expensive repair bills from burst pipes.

When your Peter Brown engineer is performing a power flush, they’ll connect the special equipment needed to your central heating. We don’t need to take off any of your radiators to complete your power flush successfully. Special power flush cleaning fluid is pumped through your system and that begins to loosen the gunge and the rust that’s built up. If your radiator has cold spots, that’s where a build up of unwanted material has occurred and the power flush will quickly remove it. The sludge and the rust then start to come out of the radiator which your engineer will collect and dispose of it. Once your engineer is confident that they have removed everything from your system, they’ll flush it again until the water coming out of the radiators is clean and is acid- and alkali-neutral. The final touch is to flush the radiators again with a protecting fluid to impede any future build-up of sludge and rust. Discover more info at https://www.peterbrown.net/harrow-power-flushing.html.