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Keeping an eye on your boiler’s performance will help you reduce heating bills and certainly save you a lot of money in the long run. Small things such as regular servicing, cleaning, and boiler pressure top-ups go a long way in improving your boiler's performance and preserving its lifespan. Here are some important tips to help you improve your boiler's performance.
Arranging Annual Boiler Servicing
There is nothing better and more important than having your boiler serviced and looked at regularly by a Gas Safe registered engineer. Regular maintenance lowers your heating costs and extends the lifespan of your system. This also ensures safety from unexpected boiler accidents and breakdowns. Regular servicing will save you valuable money in the long run, even after taking overall charges into account.
When you have your boiler serviced, the engineers make sure to look for issues like boiler pressure too high, and inspect boiler structure, seals and gaskets, as well as check for debris in condensate traps and drains, disturbed gas connection, and gas safety defects if any. These inspections will ensure your boiler works efficiently. Also, the simple tips and safety advice they provide are pretty handy.
Ensuring Optimal Boiler Pressure
Keeping an eye on the pressure gauge is important because a drop in pressure reduces efficiency. Always make sure the boiler gauge remains in the green zone. It is most efficient when it is around the 1.5 bar mark. As the boiler gauge nears the red zone, you would want to re-pressurize it. Thankfully, this is something an adult can handle by themselves.
You can do this by switching the boiler off and letting it cool down. Attach the filling loop – check the manual if you are not sure which to use, as filling loops are different for different boilers. Next, fill the boiler with cold water till the pressure levels appear normal. After re-pressurizing your boiler, give it a quick reset and you are done.
Keeping Your Boiler Clean and Releasing Trapped Air
Although very simple, cleaning the boiler regularly keeps dust from entering it and leading to clogged pipes over time. This will keep your system efficient and working fine and reduces power consumption and heating bills. You can do this every once in a while or when you clean the house. However, the boiler's interior will need to be cleaned when getting it serviced.
If your radiator makes funny noises when warming up, it could mean that trapped air is obstructing warm water from circulating. This also causes the radiator to become cold at the top, but warm at the bottom. You can resolve this by allowing the radiator to cool off completely and simply opening up each valve thereby releasing any trapped air inside it.
Insulating Boiler Piping
Insulating pipes ensures that your boiler does not spend extra energy heating up, thereby reducing overall costs.
Insulated pipes reduce heat loss from the surface of your boiler pipes, keeping your water hot for longer periods. They are foam tubes that are simple and easy to fit. The technical term is called ‘lagging' and it is available in all DIY stores.
