Your house will soon feel the full force of the British weather again with winter’s wind, rain and snow inevitably on the way.
Here are five jobs for your home that you need to do as soon as possible, to get ready for winter.
1.Service your boiler
Now is the time to check your boiler is in efficient working order so that it doesn’t let you down when you most need it.
Gas Safe Register recommends you get your boiler checked annually by a registered engineer – mainly to protect you and your family from Carbon Monoxide poisoning.
This may be a good time to replace an old boiler for a newer model. Paul Coupe from Northern Gas Heating, nationwide installers of condensing and heating boilers says: “If your boiler is over 10 years old, you could be wasting up to half the gas you buy!
Replacing an old boiler with a new condensing model, can save around a third on your heating bills and it dramatically reduces CO2 emissions too, making it much better for the environment.â€
2. Clean out your gutters
With autumn on the way your gutters are liable to be filled with debris such as falling leaves, twigs etc. As they’re designed to direct rainwater away from your house, a faulty gutter can cause water damage, which is expensive to fix.
Gutters should be cleaned out twice a year, once in spring and once in autumn, but if they are directly below trees, this may need to happen more often.
3. Seal draughts to windows and doors
It’s no good having a boiler in tip-top order, if the heat it’s pumping out is leaking through cracks and gaps in your windows and doors.
Around a fifth of heat lost from the home is due to draughts, but this can be fixed simply by locating draughts and sealing them and is a much cheaper solution than replacing old, draughty windows or doors.
Installing draught proofing will save you around £25 and reduce your CO 2 emissions by around 130kg a year. (Depending on the age of your property.)
One important thing to remember, however, is to ensure your property is adequately ventilated; e.g. trickle vents for windows can be closed and opened according to need.
4. Insulate your loft
The Energy Saving Trust reports houses with un-insulated lofts, lose around a quarter of their heat via the roof and this is especially important in winter as your heating bills may literally go through the roof!
There is of course an associated cost, but as your loft insulation will be effective for around 40 years, you will make back the money over time and start reducing CO2 emissions straight away.
5. Inspect your roof and chimney
Your roof is the first point of contact between your house and rainfall or snow, so if your roof is collecting snow for days on end and has weak points, you could end up with some costly leaks.
Now is the time to check that your roof… is weatherproof.
Web: http://www.northerngasheating.com
http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/