Find a Heating Engineer you can trust in Llanfyllin.

The A-G scale refers to the energy efficiency of your boiler. G-rated boilers are the least efficient, and give you less heat and hot water for your money. Installing an A-rated boiler will reduce your energy bills and carbon emissions. Don't compromise on cheaper, lower rated boilers, you will save yourself more money longer term with an A-rated model.

Can You Replace Storage Heaters With Electric Radiators?

The short answer to this question is yes. If your outdated storage heater is not heating your home the way it should, you’ll find a better replacement in electric radiators.

Being more modern and efficient, electric radiators offer a wide range of benefits which storage heaters can only dream of. Let’s have a look.

• Unlike storage heaters, electric radiators do not need to be charged up the night before which makes it totally controllable as you do not have to guess what your heating needs will turn out to be the next day.

• The above benefit leads to an even better one as the controllability quality of electric radiators makes them a lot more efficient than storage heaters. Electric radiators usually comes with programmable timers and thermostats which allows you to set various heating schedules for each of your rooms, meaning you’re only heating when and where its needed.

• Unlike some storage heaters, electric radiators do not cause wall blackening and also happen to more elegant and stylish.

• Electric radiators are not tough on allergies like storage heaters as they do not depend mainly on convection to heat

• Electric radiators also have an easy installation process with all you need to do to switch from storage heater to one being the removal of the former and inserting the radiators into the sockets.

However, if you want to make a switch to electric radiators, there’s the need to change to a standard electricity tariff from your economy tariff. And while the standard electricity tariff rates may be more expensive than the night time rate provided by Economy 7, the standard tariff rates are a bit cheaper than the daytime Economy rate. You’ll also get to use much less of electricity while also saving money on your heating bills and more.

Smart controls such as Hive are the next generation technology with more and more people now converting their houses into smart homes to control multiple devices in the homes remotely. Smart technology can be incorporated with several household devices such as security, lighting, entertainment and more. But what if there’s an oil boiler installed in your home, can you still connect your Hive with the your heating? Well, simply read on to find out.

The answer to this question is yes, most oil boilers are compatible with Hive and can substitute for either an existing conventional programmer or thermostat. The smart technology works to help derive more benefits from your heating system and they usually come with apps which can be used to control your home’s heating from anywhere with just your mobile device. Hive, however, cannot work to replace the functions of smart oil boiler heating controls to modulate your heating as they only work on an on or off basis. To make use of the modulating technology in an oil boiler, the cost of manufacture would be considerably higher while offering little advantage in efficiency for the home or property owner. Ultimately, this implies that you can’t incorporate smart technology to control the output in a similar way as a gas boiler, but there are still some ways to utilize smart technology with your oil boiler in such a way to boost your efficiency and lessen the energy bills.

Do you want to use your Hive with your home’s oil boiler? We’d advise you get in touch with an OFTEC qualified engineer if you wish to install Hive Active Heating on your oil boiler, as British Gas engineer do not offer this service.

How To Install An Oil Boiler Heating System

Just like several other skills, the installation of an oil boiler heating system can be a challenge. It requires enough persistence to actually get right, so if you’re the type with little patience, we’d recommend you hire the services of a professional oil boiler heating system fitter who can guarantee the best results and save you time and extra money due to potential damages.

To install your boiler system yourself, it’s always advisable to start by getting the information on the best installation processes from the supplying company which will go a long way to save you from future headaches. However, we’ve put together this guide to give you a basic knowledge on how its done. Let’s have a look!

lRead Instruction Manual

• Carefully read and digest the instruction manual thoroughly.

• Make sure you understand the installation diagrams

• Spread out the materials and get familiar with them.

lFigure Out What Goes Where

• Take your time to determine where everything goes in relation to the others.

• Identify the new radiator’s position.

• Get sufficient sealants to prevent possible leakages inside the walls.

lIdentify The Pipe Routes

• Determine the pipe routes while fitting the new radiators

lInstall The Boiler

• Turn off water and all electrics

• Fit the boiler into the wall

• Make sure the fittings are secured.

lInstall The Radiator

• The effectiveness of your home’s heating system is as good as the radiators you incorporate and how good they’re installed.

• You may have to utilize extra radiators in large open plan kitchens and living rooms (for effective heating).

lOffer Ventilation

• Once you’ve successfully installed the new radiator, a small dose of air ventilation would be needed.

• Turn the key of each valve located at the bottom, do not stop until a little amount of water spills over the top of the unit.

Modern oil boilers do not require a lot of maintenance. OFTEC recommends that oil boilers are serviced and inspected every year. This keeps them running as efficiently as possible and will ensure any issues with your boiler are identified before they cause bigger problems. This servicing is also vital because of the increased risk of carbon monoxide leaking from a poorly maintained boiler.

How To Make Oil Boiler More Efficient?

During the winter months when the nights get darker and colder, it’s more likely your oil gets used up a lot more quickly. This can be very worrisome as it implies having to spend more money to refill. So what exactly can be done to make your oil boiler more efficient and save you some money?

• Regular Servicing Of Your Oil Boiler

Getting your boiler serviced by a manufacturer approved engineer on an annual basis is one of the easiest and quickest ways to ensure that your oil boiler is operating at its maximum efficiency level. When a full servicing is provided for your oil boiler, checks are made to ensure that all components are functioning the way they should while also identifying the bad or worn parts that may be hindering your oil boiler from functioning in an effective manner. As a result, it helps you see to the fact that your boiler is not consuming more than necessary to make sure your oil boiler lasts longer.

• Set Your Thermostats Correctly

When you set your room thermostats and thermostatic radiator valves (TRVs) the right way, you’ll be sure to get a comfortable home without having to make use of much fuel.

• Consider Smart Technology

If you decide to make use of smart technology like Nest or Hive, you can save more money when compared to their more conventional counterparts. These smart technologies incorporate highly advance intelligent systems to get more familiar with your lifestyle, habits as well as heating operations in order to ensure optimum efficiency at all times.

• Put Your Radiators To Good Use

Try as much as possible to avoid some oversights that can make your radiators consume more energy than required. Consequently, you have to keep them clean, give them space and also take care with curtains.

The short answer to this is no! Smart thermostats can still be used without WiFi, however, they’ll be deprived of some certain capabilities and innovative features that comes mainly due to their ability to connect to the internet. As a result, the smart thermostat will only be functional for basic task such as heating and cooling control. In other words, making use of a WiFi connection will be in your best bet to enjoy the multiple juicy benefits that comes with a smart thermostats such as remote monitoring, ability to connect to other devices and display local weather conditions and much more. And what’s the use of purchasing a smart thermostat if you’d not be able to enjoy these remarkable features?

However, even when you have a WiFi, it’s expected for the connection to fail at times. When this happens, what will be the impact on your smart thermostat? Let’s have a closer look!

• As you would have expected, when your smart thermostat is disconnected from WiFi, features that are controlled with the mobile app would all be impacted. And this might be a big headache when you wish to access these features and control remotely when far away from home.

• When your smart thermostat connection to WiFi fails, all live updates and alerts would be affected. This implies that you’d stop seeing updates, reports and notifications on your mobile device. As a result, you’ll not be notified in case of an emergency like electricity cut-outs, water leaks, humidity and temperatures exceeding the set levels as well as thermostat’s low battery.

• The lack of a WiFi connection might have taken away all the juicy advantages of having a smart thermostat, but one function that remains unaffected is the basic one - the control of your home’s heating and cooling system. In other words, if your smart thermostat is offline, your home will still be heated and cooled to the thermostat’s set temperature.

Biomass boilers can be designed to work with other kinds of heating. The most common of these is solar thermal. This is a popular renewable energy pairing. Solar thermal heating will meet your hot water needs during the summer while a biomass boiler can operate as a backup during the winter when solar thermal panels do not perform as well.