Just when things were going well...

[silver_sun]

Just when things were going well the hot water boiler (water and central heating) has packed up.

Fortunately we qualify for the government's warm front scheme to get a free boiler (basically if your old boiler is past a certain age, was inefficient, you don't earn very much and you're either 65+ or have children under 16).

So we will get a new boiler :) but and of course there is a but the assessor to check out the old broken boiler and measure up for the new one can't get here until the 15th of October, so three weeks tomorrow. I hope it's quicker after that to get the new one fitted.

Personally I can manage with just using the emersion heater for hot water for shower and putting on an extra jumper if it gets cold. I grew up without central heating (and without hot water for showers for that matter, unless you got the fire burning for long enough to heat the water - and that relied on how much wood me and my mum had chopped up.)

Husband is 'how are we going to manage? it'll be cold' and little one doesn't like the idea of showers rather than baths for the next month. But new free boiler beats expensive temporary repair to old one.

All the same I want new boiler in before it gets really cold. Frost on the inside of the windows is not something I look back at fondly.

Comments

[katwillow.livejournal.com]

Warm thoughts and big pots of simmering water I send to you

[fiwen1010.livejournal.com]

Fingers all crossed that this warm spell holds out for you, then. There's nothing worse than having no heat

[aeron-lanart.livejournal.com]

Good job you can get a free boiler even if you do have to wait. Fingers crossed you don't get too bad weather before then. Those oil filled radiators are a useful stop gap if it gets too cold.

My old boiler conked out on the 23rd December 2011. I got through that winter with no heating, thanks to 2 radiators and my immersion heater. I eventually got a pay out on some PPI I'd paid on a credit card and got my new boiler in October last year. They sorted it in 2 days, but there was a lot of work to do. Best money I've ever spent, was so nice having a warm house again.

[psithurism.livejournal.com]

Stay warm! Good luck!

Again the American in me is jealous of the government program. Here if your heat gives out? It's just our own problem. I don't even think homeowner's insurance would cover something like that.

[silver_sun]

The government here have only just started offering it within the last year or so, and most people don't qualify - you have to be on a low income (less than £15,000 a year total household income) in receipt of certain benefits, have a boiler that is already broken, the boiler must be older than a certain age and of an inefficient model, and you must either have a child, be a pensioner. If I earned just a few more pence an hour I wouldn't be able to have got it.

I grateful they are running this scheme though, as I remember growing up in a house with just a couple of open fires, which we couldn't afford coal for most of the time, so we go and get what bits of wood we could and burn that.

The main reason they, the government, are doing running this scheme it is to meet climate emissions targets set the EU. I think's also a way they can use some of the budget they have to been seen to be using for the environment to try and boost the economy at the same time. They are trying to get lots of people to sign up for solar panels too for the same reason. A lot of companies are cashing in on it, you basically let them put the panels on your roof for 25 years, you get lower energy bills and everything that you don't use gets fed back into the grid.

[silver_sun]

What a rotten time for a boiler to pack up, 2011 was a pretty cold winter too as well. If it gets cold I might have to see about getting a radiator or two as well. The convection heaters are cheaper, but I don't like the hot, dry air of them.

I know what you mean about PPI, that's the only reason I've now got a fence between my garden and the neighbours and one less loan to pay back and a working laptop. I've still got to chase up some more of it actually.

[silver_sun]

I'm hoping so too - although I suspect by the middle of October it might be hoping for too much that we haven't had the first frost of the autumn. Might have to get a cheap radiator thing if it doesn't to warm the rooms up a bit for a little while each day - at least the house being a fairly new (only built 8.5 years ago) has decent insulation.

[silver_sun]

Thank you :) I'm just glad at the moment that the immersion heat works and I've still got hot water for showers etc.

[psithurism.livejournal.com]

That's a lot of restrictions. It would be really bad if your boiler broke in the middle of a really bad cold spell :( A lot of suburban/city homes here don't have fireplaces so if your heating system goes, you're completely screwed. During the Hurricane here, when the power was out for days it meant a lot of people also didn't have heat. They were warning people about hypothermia and frostbite.

Hope your home warms up soon!!

[silver_sun]

If it broke and you were able to use the scheme you could ask your gas supplier to repair it, but it could be a few hundred pounds for a repair, and there would still be a call out fee even if it turned out they couldn't fix it. A new boiler if you were buying it outright would be about £2500 or you could get one of the gas supplier to install a new one on one of their scheme, but you end up paying about £25 a month for 15 years if you did, which isn't good as it's doubtful the boiler would last that long without packing up.
Really unless you qualify for the scheme or you've not got a good income your choice are pretty much limited to being in debt or being cold.

I don't have a fireplace in my house as it's a new build, only eight and half years old, but the weather is actually unseasonably warm at the moment, it got up to 19C (66f or so) this afternoon and the weather is supposed to continue like this for at least a week.

Handily the person coming out to assess the old boiler who wasn't supposed to arrive until the 15th of October has just phone me to say had a cancellation and now he'd coming to look at it on Monday afternoon, so six days rather than three weeks time, so very pleased with that. Still don't know when the new boiler will arrive, but having assessed sooner, surely gives a chance of getting the new one before it gets too much later in the year.