The Monster in My Garage!!!

There is a monster in my garage.  It is a big, fire breathing thing, that lets off a noxious smell and chews on huge, big, massive wodges of my cash for breakfast, lunch and dinner.   You guessed it.....it is my central heating system, and it ain't happy! 

I have been tinkering about with the settings, trying to get the thing to behave for ages, but to be honest I have known for about two years that something is seriously wrong with it and I have been attempting to get to the bottom of it in fits and bursts since.  The system is leaking water somewhere, but as it is an underfloor system, it is really tricky to see where the leak is. 

First came the official Engineer for the boiler type I have, to service the boiler and fix a leak in the hot water tank (£550).  That seemed to work; for a while.  Then came a Heating Engineer I found via an ad in a local magazine, who again serviced the boiler and told me it was working perfectly (£50). That didn't fix it.  So, next came a consultant for Air Source Heat Pumps, as the boiler's outside flue often leaves a lingering smell in the upstairs office, I really want to get off of the gas network altogether and be Greener. He said he thought he could tell where the leak was, but wasn't sure how much extra it would add to the cost of the installation to get it fixed.  It turned out that the Heat Pump itself was also beyond our current budget; so that was really disappointing.

Finally, as winter approached, I couldn't ignore the problem any more.  Our Gas Bills were getting bigger and bigger; even though the heating wasn't on!  And I really needed to get to the bottom of that leak!  So, I got in touch with HomeForce, a fab service which hooks you up with reliable tradesmen in Edinburgh.  They sent me a Heating Engineer who has put leak sealer into the system to fix the leak, (my fingers, toes and everything else is crossed in the hope that this works).  While he was fixing the leak, he also found that my hot water tank's thermostat is bust, so that my hot water has been heating up constantly for months; no wonder my bills were huge!  So, an electrician is being organised for a new thermostat and hopefully that will be that.  Total cost so far is £130 for the sealer.  Not sure what the rest will be, but it has got to be better than the £500 bill for the last three months gas supply!

Oh my, I feel like such an idiot, you have no idea how much I wish I had got to the bottom of this earlier.  My lessons learnt are:

1. Use a reputable recommendation service to get a decent, quick and honest workman/woman to fix problems with your heating as soon as they occur. HomeForce are fab if you live in Edinburgh.

2. If you live in a well insulated house, then running your heating all the time is the most economical.  Sounds strange, but it is true.  You use the room thermostats (on radiators, or on walls in my case) to set when the heating comes on, rather than the timer.  This means the air in the house doesn't get cold, which actually is when you use most energy. By switching off your heating, say while you are out at work, the air in your house gets really cold and the heating system has to use a lot of energy to warm all that air up again. 

However, if you keep your heating on all the time, it simply tops up the air as it dips below the set temperature, which uses a whole lot less energy overall.  If you speak to any decent Heating Engineer, most will tell you this is how they run their own system.  The Green Heating guy let me in on the secret and my current Engineer confirmed it.  Although if you live in an old building, you would need to get your insulation sorted first.

3. Finally: If your hot water heater is switched off, and you still have hot water; you have a problem!!!!!  Get it fixed before it costs you £500 :(