My previous home is currently up for sale and I am concerned about the cost of running a gas boiler to maintain anti freeze conditions during the winter. I have the recommended concentration of FERNOX anti freeze in the central heating water system, will this protect my central heating system adequately if my boiler is switched off. I am also intending to drain off the main water system with the water supply turned off at the mains. I dont want to drain off the central heating system as I intend making frequent short visits to the property to see everythibng okay and would like the heating system to be readily available. Also FERNOX is expensive if had to re-treat on each occasion.
Empty home during winter months
- Thread starter friendlypup
- Start date
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get it drained!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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do not leave the heating off if at all possible, the only way you can do this is if you drain the heating and all water from the property and as mentioend this may lead to damp and other problems. set the heating to be on 24hours a day with the room stat turned all the way down. i would also elist someone to check on the property every few days. also you must infor your home insurance company to ensure you are correctly covered.
example.
we had a customer of ours, lived in london and had a second home outside of london. the second home was about 10 bedrooms, massive, and unoccupied
.
i went out to carry out the annual safety checks in august and found the gas valve to be letting by when the ffd was checked. the boiler was duly capped and an appointment was made to return a few days later to fit a new valve. when i contacted the customer on the day of the job, they were still in london and couldnt make the appointment as agreed. so i booked another one with them. this time they didnt even answer the phone and there was no one at the property. i left a card and left it at that. over the next couple of weeks they booked a couple more appointments, but failed to show at the property . we then sent a couple of letters asking them to contact us to complete the work. still no word.
cut to january and i was called out to the property for a water leak. when i arrived i found every ceiling in the property, upstairs and own collapses, a waterfall down both sets of stairs and the carpets sodden throughout. i discovered that the mains supply to the cold water storage had frozen, split and then thawed. sometime in the last 4 weeks as that was when the customer had last been there .
i made safe the leak and thought that was it for us. that is untill the customer set her insurance company on us for leaving her property with no source of heat which she said led to the current situation (****ed 10 bed house), and for which we were liable as we had provided no alternative heat source.
of course once we were able to show our evidence of the attempts to make access for repair in augustsome 4-5 months before, plus the copies of the letters we had sent, they were happy to no longer pursue us as we had made reasonable efforts to repair the boiler. they were also quite happy because this also meant that the person they were insuring had not upheld their end of the insurance contract by not keeping the house heated not informing them of the untenanted status of the building.
result, the owner had to pay for the entire replastering, rewiring, replumbing, recarpetting, repainting.. everything. of course, had they just kept thier mouth shut and not tried to look for someone else to blame, thier home insurer would have been none the wiser.
what did that guy say...oh yeah , instant karmas gonna get ya
example.
we had a customer of ours, lived in london and had a second home outside of london. the second home was about 10 bedrooms, massive, and unoccupied
. i went out to carry out the annual safety checks in august and found the gas valve to be letting by when the ffd was checked. the boiler was duly capped and an appointment was made to return a few days later to fit a new valve. when i contacted the customer on the day of the job, they were still in london and couldnt make the appointment as agreed. so i booked another one with them. this time they didnt even answer the phone and there was no one at the property. i left a card and left it at that. over the next couple of weeks they booked a couple more appointments, but failed to show at the property . we then sent a couple of letters asking them to contact us to complete the work. still no word.
cut to january and i was called out to the property for a water leak. when i arrived i found every ceiling in the property, upstairs and own collapses, a waterfall down both sets of stairs and the carpets sodden throughout. i discovered that the mains supply to the cold water storage had frozen, split and then thawed. sometime in the last 4 weeks as that was when the customer had last been there
.i made safe the leak and thought that was it for us. that is untill the customer set her insurance company on us for leaving her property with no source of heat which she said led to the current situation (****ed 10 bed house), and for which we were liable as we had provided no alternative heat source.
of course once we were able to show our evidence of the attempts to make access for repair in augustsome 4-5 months before, plus the copies of the letters we had sent, they were happy to no longer pursue us as we had made reasonable efforts to repair the boiler. they were also quite happy because this also meant that the person they were insuring had not upheld their end of the insurance contract by not keeping the house heated not informing them of the untenanted status of the building.
result, the owner had to pay for the entire replastering, rewiring, replumbing, recarpetting, repainting.. everything. of course, had they just kept thier mouth shut and not tried to look for someone else to blame, thier home insurer would have been none the wiser.
what did that guy say...oh yeah , instant karmas gonna get ya
The trouble is my insurer calls for the central heating, if on, to be on continuously with the room thermastat at 15 degrees C. This seems high and would work out very expensive on fuel. Would be interested to know what temperature is considered satisfactory and if other insurers state lower temperatures. My original question was aimed at establishing if the use of FERNOX anti freeze provides sufficient protection for the CH system with the boiler turned off.
if your insurer says 15 deg C then anything else would invalidate your
insurance.
but, your insurers are wrong.
you were better fun as charliechaplinspants
D
dextrous
Happy birthday on your 100th post
congratulations gavinda on your 1000 th post.
mod 11 you have cut my last 2 posts, why?
i have a screengrab of both, and i am pretty sure its within forum rules.
yours in anticipation
glasgowgas
WATP
i have a screengrab of both, and i am pretty sure its within forum rules.
yours in anticipation
glasgowgas
WATP
mod 11
screengrabbed the last post as well.....
you are having a Steffi Graff!!
screengrabbed the last post as well.....
you are having a Steffi Graff!!
mod 11
no, fair play, i did mention i was not drunk but on heroin,
no, fair play, i did mention i was not drunk but on heroin,
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