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How Much Does It Cost To Move A Gas Meter?

When your gas meter is not in the right location while completing your renovation works or extending your property, it can be a worrying experience.

As a homeowner, you’re not allowed by the law to move your gas meter by yourself - it’s a very dangerous task that’s too risky to undertake just by watching a Youtube video or reading a blog post. Moving of a gas meter can and should only be carried out by a qualified and licensed gas supplier. And this, ultimately, gives rise to the question - how much does it cost to move a gas meter? Before we provide an answer for that, let’s look at what moving of a gas meter entails.

First and foremost, moving of a gas meter typically involves switching off the gas source to your home or property. The pipeline about 2 metres away from your property would be cut into for safety reasons and diverted into another position. Furthermore, you can as well apply that your meter should be re-fitted and re-linked to the inner copper pipeline, but that’s if the inner copper pipeline happens to be within two metres of the new location of your gas meter.

The time involved in the completion of a gas meter re-location project depends largely on the complexity of the job as each project is unique. Typically, the standard timescale from preparation to the final stage of moving a gas meter will take between 4 to 8 weeks. Finally, how much will it cost to relocate your gas meter?

As there are no government funds to subsidize gas meter relocation costs, this can be a very expensive work to carry out. Generally, the price to move a gas meter of about 5m will start within the range of £640 to £670.

What Size Of Electric Boiler Do I Need?

If you’re thinking about installing central heating in your home or property, you’ll be shocked by the plethora of options that’s currently available in the market as regards the boiler type that can be installed. Being a very good alternative to gas boilers or an oil or LPG boiler, electric boilers are here to stay. They usually feature different power outputs which tends to lead to one of the most frequently asked questions about electric heaters - what size of electric boiler do I need? Here, we’ll give you a good insight into sizes of electric boilers available to help you make the right decision.

The importance of getting the perfect size of electric boiler for your home can not be over-emphasized. If your electric boiler size is too small, it won’t be able to provide the level of heat and hot water required. And on the other hand, if it’s too big, it’ll definitely consume more electricity which would be a total waste of money.

To determine the correct size, if you have a wet central heating or water radiators in your home, you’ll need to calculate the boiler’s capacity required to operate them and allow 1.5kw per radiator. To be more accurate, it’s advisable to talk to a professional installer to avoid making a costly mistake. Every professional installer should have an idea of the appropriate size of electric boiler that’ll be needed given your special requirements and home size.

Generally, with a 12k kilowatt boiler, you should be able to operate up to 7 to 8 radiators which is good for smaller properties. For apartments and flats, getting a smaller electric boiler would be the best option.

In the UK, more than 50 percent of the money paid for utility bills is aimed at heating and hot water costs as stated by the Energy Saving Trust. This also means that when you settle for an old or ageing boiler, you’ll have to unnecessarily incur high utility bill in order to heat your home and have hot water on demand. In this kind of situation, the most effective and practical solution is to fit a new gas boiler in your home. This will provide you several benefits such as improved efficiency and reliability as well as reduced operating costs.

However, the only drawback here is the fact that removing your old gas boiler and replacing it with a new gas boiler isn’t a 5 minute task. And as you would have expected, like many other home improvement project there’s always an element of disruption that you’ll have to put into consideration when fitting a new gas boiler system. Good news is, with a qualified and experienced heating companies, these disruptions can be kept at a minimum. So now let’s take a look at how long it’ll take to replace a gas boiler depending on the type.

✓ An existing combi boiler upgrade - Installation times may vary, but typically the removal of an existing combi boiler and installation of a new one will usually be completed in a day - about four to six hours.

✓ Converting a regular to a combi boiler - Due to the fact that these type of project is usually labour intensive, it’ll take longer to complete - about 2 days.

✓ First time installation of new boiler to a home. This will usually take about 3 or more days because new pipes and other tasks need to the installation will be carried out.

During the cold months ( winter), there’s a high chance for a more frequent occurrence of faults and breakdowns of your boiler as this is the time in which more strain is being placed on the device. Unfortunately, this is exactly the time in which you’d wish to derive maximum benefits from your boiler to keep you warm all through the winter. As a result, home owners are given no other option than to pay the mega boiler repair bills to keep themselves warm and cosy all winter long. There is, however, an option which can greatly soften the blow and that’s having a boiler breakdown cover.

Boiler breakdown cover provides coverage for cost of hiring an engineer to get your boiler back to a top condition while also paying for the parts as well as labour needed to resolve the boiler’s fault. To select a boiler breakdown cover, you should take into account factors like whether or not the policy provides coverage for limited or unlimited call-outs within the coverage period. You should also ensure to go through the terms and conditions of the cover if you can stake a claim if your boiler were to be damaged by a different thing in your central heating configuration or a persistent fault.

There are an array of boiler breakdown package types with little differences which relates to one or more of the following:

• The package monthly cost

• The call outs excess to be paid

• The nature of the helpline. It may be a 24/7 service or just a few selected hours of the day.

Therefore, to answer the question of which boiler breakdown cover, you’d have to compare the different packages to determine the most suitable one for both your needs as well as pocket.

If you’re looking to have your boiler insured, there are a number of boiler cover providers you should probably check out with British Gas Homecare being right up there as one of the best in the business. In this post, we’re going to consider the British Gas Homecare prices to help you make the best-informed decisions possible moving forward. Let’s take a look!

Firstly, British Gas offers a wide variety of packages to provide coverage for repairs as well as breakdowns on heating systems. They also offer plans which includes cover for your central heating, plumbing, drains as well as electrics. With this provider, you can choose to pay your cover either in monthly instalments or annually. Simply have it at the back of your mind that the cost of your package will depend mainly on the things you want to cover – the more the risk you wish to protect against, the more expensive your package is likely to be.

In general, HomeCare starts from £13 a month (£60 excess). Conditions and exclusions is applicable, prices may also vary based on your property’s postcode. With British Gas, there are a number of products to select from within their range some of which features an annual service and repair of your boiler and controls. Their products include British Gas Home Care One, British Gas Home Care Two, British Gas HomeCare Three and British Gas HomeCare Four. There are also some exclusions, which means that irrespective of the HomeCare product you opt for, there are certain things that British Gas do not cover. For instance, sludge or scale removal and the repair of the damage arising as a result. Showers and their parts, shared drains, faults caused by a non-British Gas engineer and more.

Overall, the amount you pay per month or year will be based on your location in the UK and the British Gas will confirm the price once they’ve been able to take a couple of details from you.

Does Home Insurance Cover Boiler Repairs?

When winter comes, your boiler is most likely to be one of the most used appliances in your home. It keeps operating for several hours to ensure your house remains warm and conducive and then during those cold evenings, it supplies the much needed hot water to guarantee a restive night. But with so much usage and many moving parts, you’d naturally expect your boiler to breakdown at some point especially if it’s 7 years old or above. So what’s the next line of action when it happens, leaving your radiators off and water cold? With the likely high boiler repair cost, it’s only logical to consider whether your boiler repairs is covered by your home insurance.

In almost all situations, the standard home insurance will not provide coverage for the cost of repairing or replacing a broken boiler. Being fully aware that boiler breakdowns are mostly caused by a lack or not so regular maintenance practices or servicing, most home insurance providers will exclude it from this from their offerings. In fact, a home insurance is more likely to provide coverage for the damage that has happened as a result of a broken appliance. For instance, the damage caused as a result of gas, oil or water leaking from a boiler are more likely to be paid for by the home insurance providers, but they’ll not pay for the repair or replacement of the broken boiler itself.

If you need our home insurance to cover your boiler repair, then you might just be able to get an extra insurance cover from your provider that includes a broken boiler repair. You can consult them to determine if this is possible as well as the cost to be paid per month. This will normally cost about £5 to £10 per month, but it gives you a peace of mind knowing you’re covered if your boiler happens to breakdown.

How Long Does A Boiler Service Take?

Servicing of your boiler is a very crucial activity which does not only help in keeping your heating system in a top condition, but also assists in ensuring the safety of both you and your loved ones. If you carry out a regular boiler service you’ll be able to identify any possible fault your boiler may have on time before it leads to a more serious issue or even a boiler breakdown. As a result, you’ll be able to save yourself some time and money, but more importantly will save you from any dangerous risk that may result from gas leak in a boiler. The best time for a boiler service is in the summer when you’d probably would not really need the system, so you can take advantage of that as well as the possible lower boiler servicing cost during this period.

Before we look into the amount of time a boiler service should take, let’s first consider what should be done during a boiler service.

✓ Visual inspection. This is a check carried out by the heating engineer to ensure your boiler still meet the existing standards and requirements while also looking for any faults.

✓ Removal of boiler casing. There’s the need to ensure everything is working just fine and also to clean the boiler’s interior. These inspections should include the burner, heat exchanger, main injector and spark probe.

✓ Flue check. This involves making sure that there’s no form of obstructions in the flue terminals as also to ensure that the flue is well installed.

✓ Gas pressure check. This involves making sure that the boiler working with the appropriate pressure.

✓ Boiler fired up. This involves checking for any operating issues.

Generally, a boiler service should be completed within 30 minutes, however this time may vary largely depending on the brand and model.

Do British Gas Service Oil Boilers?

Are you interested in finding out whether or not the British Gas service oil boilers? Well, you’ll find the answer in this article! The British Gas engineers are able to repair several types of boilers such as home based combi, conventional as well as system boilers. Unfortunately, they do not fix oil boilers, electric boilers or solid fuel boilers, but if you possess a gas boiler that’s more than 70kW which is mostly present in commercial premises or large buildings you can give them a call.

For a yearly boiler service British Gas engineers will provide the following solutions to ensure central heating and boiler are both in proper working condition and also absolutely safe.

• Inspection of your boiler for possible leaks and corrosion.

• Detach your boiler casing to ascertain the proper functioning of it’s main components.

• Clean up all parts as necessary

• Attach the casing back to the system and make sure its well sealed

• Inspect the level of the gas pressure to ensure that it’s at the right level.

• Perform a flue check to determine that the are no toxic gas emissions like carbon monoxide being discharged by your heating system.

Upon completion of the annual boiler service, the British Gas qualified engineers will then drop a checklist with you which is going to include all the relevant information you may want to know about your boiler system.

In some cases, British Gas engineers may be able to complete the entire boiler service in one visit. However, it all depends on the problem that’s discovered (if any). They may not possess the required part to fix the problem with them, so they’ll have to order it from the British Gas national distribution centre. Most times, this part will get to them the next day so they can finish their tasks as soon as possible.