Homeowners : This stuff is getting serious now!!!

Homeowners : This stuff is getting serious now!!!

Being a homeowner in today’s economy is a serious undertaking. Bill, bills, bills & more bills. Pulling out for everything it seems is the new way of life. It affects us as well. Many people think because you’re working for yourself that you’re worth or earning a fortune. The reality is that we are no different to you, we might run a heating company, but at the end of the day, we simply earn a wage, pay our own taxes, insurances etc.

Life for many people is  becoming really difficult and to be honest the cost of living is hurting us too. We are not exempt or oblivious to this. Gas and electricity bills hurt us doubly so, a lot of us running a business have both homes and a workplace to cater for. We also have vehicles that cost a fortune to run, fuel prices are rocketing out of control, overheads are simply rising right across the board for us. What is the answer? Well, it’s the same for both you & I.

Value for money is a must….

Quite simply, you need to be canny with your usage. It’s time to make savings everywhere you can. I’m not going to bore you with how to switch lights off etc, plenty of websites about doing that presently, government ones in particular. My mission is to try and advise you on the best way of saving gas. Let’s face it, it isn’t coming down in price anytime soon. There are far too many people in high places, including government raking it in presently.

So, use your heating sparingly, easy at this time of year I know. Turning the thermostat down a couple of degrees saves a great deal. Put a jumper on, use a throw over, it really does work. Use a shower instead of a bath if you can, this is making you a huge saving on your bill.

All of you with a combi boiler, well, you need to believe me when I tell you that the moment you turn a hot tap on, your boiler is using gas to heat this water at the highest possible rate and continues to do so until you close the tap. Every single time, think about that when you’re always rinsing something for quickness. Frightening I know. The heating with a combi boiler modulates and regulates itself to run at the boiler’s optimum performance levels, less frightening but still expensive to run.

Those of you who still have a cylinder or hot water tank, go, and look at it. It should have a thermostat attached to it. This you will find roughly about one third from the bottom. If so, it will have a dial on it. These are usually set somewhere between 55* and 60*, simply turn it down. You don’t need your water to be that hot, it’s better all round if it’s at a hand bearable temperature. This will make a huge saving. If you don’t have this type of control, then look into getting it asap, or  change your system if you can. The savings you make year on year will be so worthwhile.

Prices are going up constantly…

I went to Wolseley the plumbing merchants the other day & purchased three parts I needed for a plumbing repair job, just as I had done for the exact same type of repair four weeks prior. I was gob smacked. These parts in May cost me £16. This month June, the exact same parts cost me £31. Upon investigation, this was across the board. Screwfix, plumb base, city plumbing and basically all the other merchants available to us were all charging these prices now. Almost a hundred per cent increase in a month….again, these prices are only going one way, up. They are not coming down again anytime soon.

What does this mean to You? It’s simple, maintenance and repair costs are being passed on to you. It can’t be any other way. I know people moan, I do too, about having your eyes taken out whenever you have a repair done, whether its heating, white goods, electrics, joinery etc, but really, our profit margins are shrinking because we are not passing all the increases in materials on. We know times are hard, and most lads out there are trying to be realistic with regards to costs etc. So please, just give a thought to how much stuff is costing when you do receive repair bills.

Winter will be coming soon….

Presently your boiler is broken, needs repair or you just need it replacing. Great you think, the sun is shining, we don’t need the heating on anyway, we have an electric shower, and we can boil the kettle to wash up if we aren’t fortunate enough to own a dishwasher. Your thinking is that it can wait. Fully understandable….you just don’t need the expense, and in a lot of cases you don’t have the money. Hmmm….

Boilers like everything else are going up in price. Four times in the last six months. Not little price increases either. It’s forecast they’ll go up again in July…we just don’t know. Not only boilers, everything. Radiators, valves, fittings, sundries, copper pipe (daily in this case), everything associated with plumbing and heating.

Well, to make things even more difficult, there is currently a world shortage on micro chips and a nationwide shortage on pumps and other parts integral to the manufacture of boilers. In short, they are exceedingly difficult to get hold of. Even more so for the market leading ones, Baxi’s, Worcester, Vaillants in particular, Ideal’s increasingly so. People are feeling forced to go cheap and also buy foreign less well known brands. Well, my advice is don’t. Boilers are like cars; you get what you pay for. These four brands have been the leading manufacturers in the UK since forever, and there’s a reason for that. They’re the best.

Still thinking of waiting until winter…. if you are able too, do it now, seriously.