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[feeutfo]

M.I.L recently had a new boiler (not a bad install, it I'm honest) but the fitter was adamant that it didn't make any difference to her gas bill if she turned off the radiators in the spare bedroom when not in use as the "boiler is on anyway".

basically kevin im afraid he is sort of right, if the radiators in the house have not got their own thermostats then turning off 'unused' radiators will cause a cold spot in the house which will then cause the heating system to work harder trying to compensate

Shift over and pass me some!

[OOMV6]

Have to agree with the general sense of opinion here, unfortunately.
My own experience is the boiler. This winter had numerous problems, some of which were my own fault in not keeping the tanks insulated properly.
Nevertheless, finally I had a new pump fitted, which I am ok with. Lived in the house 11 years and never had anything except routine maintenance. But now although the boiler runs fine, I can hear it's not perfect. Ya know, like a car engine - it fires up, runs, does the job, but I can hear that it is not running perfectly. Yet to pay the last bill, so will need to get them back. Wait and see....

On a positive note - the garage that does my car repairs when I cannot be bothered are great. 15 years, no problems at all. Never do anything before telling me the price, never do things that can wait another few thousand km. Great service. 

[Bionic]

Please do not talk to me about British Gas.....
Monthly plan paid for full cover BUT 
The boiler went wrong and they sent a specialist engineer ( )
Then another different one with the same 'fully qualified specialist' ( ) qualifications
THEN another 6 different ones exactly the same, all with apprentices trailing behind them....
Until finally the tiny problem of a blocked pressure relief pipe was solved by the lst APPRENTICE to accompany the engineer........
British Gas took 8 visits in all before after losing my loaf the final one was an area supervisor and it was his apprentice that did the job.....
That about says it all..
British Gas now does not even get any consideration in oir recommendations to our friends for any of their services. Obviously they cannot be trusted and rely on their past history of being the one to be trusted due them being named British Gas.
If you stood on stage and read this the audience would fall about laughing - except that it took place in mid winter with no other form of heating water or heating/cooking exept a microwave.
Did they aplogise? Not on your nelly, they sent me another request to renew my 'service contract'! Did I sign it? Guess that one 

[martin42]

umm british gas,i remember a few years ago i went to service 1 of our customers back boilers and got commented on why i was taking the fire off from the boiler,i said i have to clean heat exchanger,check flue etc,she replied back british gas never did that,not the 1st time i have had bad comments from customers who used them.

[Kevin Wood]

M.I.L recently had a new boiler (not a bad install, it I'm honest) but the fitter was adamant that it didn't make any difference to her gas bill if she turned off the radiators in the spare bedroom when not in use as the "boiler is on anyway".

basically kevin im afraid he is sort of right, if the radiators in the house have not got their own thermostats then turning off 'unused' radiators will cause a cold spot in the house which will then cause the heating system to work harder trying to compensate

I know what a rudimentary knowledge of Physics tells me but that's not really the point. 

This guy's argument was that a boiler uses the same amount of gas when it's on, regardless of the number of radiators attached. It doesn't take a Ph.D in thermodynamics to pinpoint the origin of that statement (the rear of a male bovine).

[Olympia5776]

Yep same over here too.
The Government are introducing a requirement that all septic tanks have to be inspected , certified fit for purpose ,serviced and emptied probably on an annual basis . Sounds funny but this is going to create an enormous industry overnight with alll costs comming down to the owner of the tank.
One of the ( large ) houses we manage is 5 years old and the owner asked me to look into having the system serviced.
I called the company on the label found on the tank system and was quoted a selection of prices but basically it came to €900 + parts  (£850 +) to service the aerator ,transfer pump and empty the tank.
The aerator serviceable parts are £68 inc. delivery from UK .The manufacturer also kindly has a step by step video on their site how to do it which takes 10 minutes in real time .
The clean waste transfer pump is submerged and therefore IP 67 or 8 which makes it hermetically sealed and therefore highly unlikely to be opened up by the " shit engineer " ! and the current contractor price to empy tanks is €150 inc disposal at local authority treatment plant.
I'm going to go back to the contractor tomorrow and ask for a step by step breakdown of the service schedule .
So I can do it for a fraction but when the new regulation comes in I will be prevented from doing so and forced to pay a certified ( by and paid to the government ) contractor to rob me and all the hundreds of thousands of people, like me , who also use such a system. 

[paul.lovejoy]

The economics are all wrong. Technicians no longer exist. Fat cats, board members, excesses layers of management have all thier wages. It's not a long term career any more.

More broadly, every company we(in our household)deal with is the same, no matter the field, jobsworths on the front line, with management behind them who seem to be paid on thier ability to BS thier way out of any given situation. And needles to say they are shit at that as well.

More specifically, house hold tradesman, plumbers and sparks in particular, there seems to be an awfull lot of people have re trained and changed career to fill a void in these sectors, usually following redundancy or thier own jobs ending for what ever reason. The experience just isn't there.

Ultimately though, seems to me it comes down to economics. Partly greed, partly ignorance at senior level, partly due to a diminishing bottom line.

Let's hope we're near the end of our downwood economic spiral, and we can start to build again having learnt from the borrowing fiasco.



There might be another angle though. All things being relative and all that. There are some very clever members here, with the ability to understand a system just by looking at it for instance, and as "we" get older and learn more we are able to notice then, that we've more experience and can pick out that lack of experience very quickly.

Could we say the same 20 years ago? (40 or 60 year ago I'm some cases )

Shorter answer, yeah your right it's all breaked up!

well put that man with the pop corn 

[Rods2]

Yep same over here too.
The Government are introducing a requirement that all septic tanks have to be inspected , certified fit for purpose ,serviced and emptied probably on an annual basis . Sounds funny but this is going to create an enormous industry overnight with alll costs comming down to the owner of the tank.
One of the ( large ) houses we manage is 5 years old and the owner asked me to look into having the system serviced.
I called the company on the label found on the tank system and was quoted a selection of prices but basically it came to €900 + parts  (£850 +) to service the aerator ,transfer pump and empty the tank.
The aerator serviceable parts are £68 inc. delivery from UK .The manufacturer also kindly has a step by step video on their site how to do it which takes 10 minutes in real time .
The clean waste transfer pump is submerged and therefore IP 67 or 8 which makes it hermetically sealed and therefore highly unlikely to be opened up by the " shit engineer " ! and the current contractor price to empy tanks is €150 inc disposal at local authority treatment plant.
I'm going to go back to the contractor tomorrow and ask for a step by step breakdown of the service schedule .
So I can do it for a fraction but when the new regulation comes in I will be prevented from doing so and forced to pay a certified ( by and paid to the government ) contractor to rob me and all the hundreds of thousands of people, like me , who also use such a system. 

I think you will find this is the result of an EU jobs for the boys environment directive. 

[tigers_gonads]

British Gas are to boiler maintenence what Halfords are to car serviceing