Free advice to Landlords with Heating Problems.

More expert advice on a landlord heating problems from Alan our resident heating expert:

I am a Landlord and a retired Heating and Electrical Engineer. I always noticed a sharp increase in customer calls at this time of year. People began to turn on their heating systems and sometimes they didn't work.The customers with the problems were always the same. They had turned their heating off in the spring and heated their hot water with their immersion heater during the summer.

There is a widely held misconception that heating hot water with an immersion heater is the most cost effective way of doing it. We are lucky now because our gas and electricity bills tell us how many Kilowatts of energy we have used. In the past, when gas use was measured in Therms, it was very difficult to compare different energy prices. Now on our bill we can see that gas and electricity are priced in Kilowatts and typically gas is around 5 pence and electricity is around 13 pence. This shows us that electricity is over two and a half times more expensive than gas for the same energy amount. Even if we had massive losses on the piping between the boiler and the hot water cylinder it would always be cheaper to heat the hot water with gas.

It is also not fully understood that the heating coil in the hot water cylinder can heat at a typical rate of 10 Kilowatts per hour whereas the immersion heater will only heat at 3 Kilowatts per hour. This means that the gas will only need to be heating the water for a third of the time required by the immersion heater.

Alan's recommendation
So my recommendation here is firstly to make sure that your heating systems have separate controls over the heating and hot water timings. Also a well insulated hot water cylinder is essential. Then set the hot water timer to come on early in the morning for just an hour. You can always increase the time if need. Then have the timer set for another period an hour before the hot water is needed in the evening.

So, to come back to my first point about heating systems failing around November. Because the heating has been off during the summer, often the heating pump hasn't been used since the spring and rust or heating residue may well have caused the pump to be seized. A typical call-out and repair of a pump would cost around £310 which is another important reason to heat the hot water with gas and use the pump all year.

You can take further advantage of my experience as a heating engineer and to find out how to free off a seized pump by going to my site www.fixtheheating.com. Here you will find a new service, Free Advice to Landlords with heating problems.

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