Getting ready for spring
From cleaning and decorating, to gardening and DIY, spring brings with it an irresistible incentive to blow away the cobwebs and get your home spruced for the warmer months ahead.
Yet while we’re prepping our homes for the new season, it’s easy to forget about the parts of the house that have looked after us and kept us warm when we most needed it.
npower hometeam, which supplies boiler and central heating care, experienced a record number of calls over the winter months due to the icy temperatures, and is now advising homeowners on how to give their homes some TLC and make sure they’re prepared all year round.
Emily Stagg, npower hometeam 50 manager, comments: “Spring cleaning should be about giving your home a full once over, which includes checking things like your boiler and central heating and looking at how energy efficient your home is. Although you might be turning your thermostats down, the boiler is still responsible for hot water every day, and the heating should be ready to fire up should the weather take a turn for the worst. So it’s important to make sure your system is in good condition and hasn’t developed any problems during winter.
“To ensure your home is up to the job, follow our ten essential spring cleaning tips.”
1. Annual boiler check and service
Make sure your heating system is working as efficiently as possible all year round – not just during the winter months.
After a hard winter, it makes sense to get your system checked to make sure it’s working properly. Older systems work at reduced efficiency and are at a higher risk of breaking down, which means for every pound you pay on your energy bill, you may only be getting 70p’s worth of gas. An annual service will ensure your boiler is operating both efficiently and safely.
For homeowners who want to protect their boiler all year round, boiler care and central heating care offer added peace of mind for if anything should go wrong with your system. npower offers a pioneering new boiler and central heating care service called npower hometeam 50. If you sign up and don’t need to call out npower hometeam during your 12 month contract, npower will refund 50% of your annual fee on your one year anniversary.
2. Adjust the thermostats
As the weather gets warmer, don’t forget to turn your thermostat down to heat the house to an appropriate level. Thermostatic radiators are also a useful way of moderating the temperature while the weather is unpredictable.
3. Improve efficiency
Adding roof insulation will keep your home cooler during the summer months as well as warmer in the winter. A study by npower hometeam found that 43 percent of homes have less than half the recommended amount of insulation in their roof spaces. Insulating your loft with up to 270mm of insulation will help your home retain heat, and in turn help you to save money.
4. Get switched on
Energy efficient light bulbs use up to 80% less electricity! By making your home more energy efficient, you will not only be doing your bit for the environment, but can also save money in the process.
5. Go solar
With the days getting longer and warmer, now is the perfect time to be thinking about installing solar photovoltaic (PV) panels on your home. Not only will you benefit from making your own electricity, but you will also earn money from Feed-in-Tariffs, which pay per unit of energy generated, regardless of whether you use it or sell it back to the grid.
6. Fill in the gaps
Adding draught excluders to your doors and windows will also make regulating the heat in your home easier, bringing down your bills and saving you money.
7. Go green
If you really want to ‘go green’ you can sign up to npower’s green energy tariff, npower Juice, which measures how much energy you use and then feeds the same amount, generated from renewable sources, into the electricity network.
8. Bleed your radiators
Don’t leave this two minute job until the autumn. Clear your radiators of any air bubbles that have sprung up during the winter to make sure you’re prepared for cooler summer evenings.
9. Going away? – Keep your boiler running
British springtime often has cold spells, so if you are planning on going on holiday, it would be worthwhile programming your heating to come on low for a few hours each day. This reduces the chance of blockages, particularly if you have a condensing boiler.
10. Insulate condensing boilers
If you’re one of many homeowners who had problems with their condensing boilers this winter, use the warmer spring weather as a chance to install lagging around your condensate pipe to insulate it and prevent it from freezing. A professional can fit this for you or you can purchase yourself from a DIY or home improvement store. Alternatively you might want to look into having a wider diameter condensate pipe installed, or having it relocated internally to further minimise chances of freezing.
For more details of npower hometeam’s new boiler installations or hometeam 50, visit npower.com/hometeam.