Over the last several years we have seen a major drive towards upgrading old boilers to new high efficiency boilers to save energy and reduce carbon emissions. Still, there was notably little focus put on the importance of regular boiler maintenance and central heating system servicing.



There are good reasons for ensuring that your boiler and your central heating system are regularly serviced:

* Ensure that performance is kept stable and reliable even at peak demand levels. This way, the boiler is efficient and economical throughout the year (both at low and high load times).

* Ensure that you meet the legal requirements which call for the owner of the property to make sure that the boiler and the central heating system are kept in good condition.

Gas Regulation 36 (part of Gas Safety, Installation and Use) 1994 states:

* The owner of the gas appliance has a duty to ensure that the appliance is kept in a safe condition which prevents the risk of injury to anybody using the property. The owner has to ensure the appliances are checked regularly every twelve months.

* Every landlord must make sure that all gas fittings are maintained at a safe condition so as to prevent the risk of injury to any person in lawful occupation of the relevant premises.

* Without predisposition to the above points, a landlord must make sure that all gas appliances (including the flues) are checked within twelve months from the point of installation and at periodic intervals of no more than twelve months apart (whether such check was done subject to these Regulations or not).

Evidence from the marketplace indicates that it is difficult to enforce these Regulations in the case of private households. It is estimated that there are around 25 million households in the UK and many of them are either unaware of their legal obligation or they are simply delaying the checks due to financial difficulties. There are talks of imposing penalties in cases of accidents that involve damage or injury due to neglect on the side of the home owner.

There are automatic solutions that offer a reminder mechanism that flags when it is time for a periodic check or service. Some manufacturers offer a flag up reminder, while other manufacturers actually turn off the system if the service date has passed without the system being serviced. In such case the system flashes up a phone number for the local engineer.

Service Interval controls normally provide a period of warning before actually shutting down the system. During the warning period the tenants should arrange for a service call to be made for the boiler to be serviced.

Calls for servicing seem to grow substantially as we get closer to the winter, and more households restart their central heating system after the summer break. Using an automatic reminder system would spread the work load more evenly reducing scheduling difficulties and keep the costs down.