Melboy Posted December 16, 2022 Report Share Posted December 16, 2022 It never pays to be too much of a smug Git but I have to say that I do send out a friendly letter to my tenants about their responsibility to ensure the property is kept warm to prevent any chances of frozen pipes etc. especially if they are going away for Christmas. My Son who is primarily a very experienced 30 year gas heating engineer rather than the title of "Plumber" warned me a couple of weeks ago about the outside water taps in my own property I have 3 which is necessary for me. I set about renewing the protective covers to ensure no frost or Icey winds could get through to cause damage. I then thought about the rental properties and to my best memory I had at least 3 which had outside taps installed so off I went and renewed or replaced the frost protection covers. It was also a good opportunity to check the properties over and deliver Christmas cards and a bottle of wine and chocolates When this cold snap hit us last week I was sitting quite smug in the knowledge that I had taken the responsible approach to avoid any burst pipes. It has been -7 degrees here most nights more than enough to cause pipes to freeze and pipes to split open. My Son does a lot of work regarding rental properties boilers etc etc and is currently over worked on boiler breakdowns. It was yesterday that he attended a property to carry a boiler servicing on behalf of an LA and Landlord to be greeted by a very distraught tenant who said that water was pouring in under the kitchen laminate flooring. He quickly shut-off the water to stop the flow which had been going most of the night apparently. The floor was absolutely ruined and would need replacement at some point in the future. The cause of the problem was a burst water pipe frozen up and of course and when the heating came on in the morning it thawed everything out. The outside tap and associated copper pipe had not been protected from frost or icing up. My Son sent me a photo of the damage (which I won't share with you for obvious reasons) but it does show extensive water flooding damage to the flooring. Hefty bill for the landlord coming his way to replace the damaged floor etc. even if it's an insurance claim. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carryon Regardless Posted December 16, 2022 Report Share Posted December 16, 2022 On the MT (agreed sale) property I attended Tuesday, a bit late really as the cold had already hit. Anyway stop tap off, all taps open, central heating drained down. I can't trust the ex tenant installed pay as you go gas supply to rely on frost stat protection. At home I've a large radiator that won't heat, I can't see it being a freeze issue as the house stats are set at 17 C. So it looks like a drain down and flush. Why do these things never show up in warmer weather? Then there is the windscreen washers, on both cars. I filled with 10% isopropanol alcohol a couple of days ago, and there is still a problem, with both. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richlist Posted December 16, 2022 Report Share Posted December 16, 2022 Your radiator problem might be the valve/ thermostatic valve. They often stick shut .....I had one in a bedroom. My fix was to operate the valve a few times (turn fully shut to fully open), leave open and gently tap side of valve. I'm my case it freed up the valve and water began flowing again. Make sure your CH pump is running on max. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carryon Regardless Posted December 16, 2022 Report Share Posted December 16, 2022 When I installed the system i zoned the house to 6 areas. So room stats operate various motorized valves (via a control centre). The radiators are simple valves / lockshields that haven't been touched for years. The lounge has 2 radiators off the same motorized valve, 1 heats, t'other (the larger) doesn't. I might try shutting all other rads down to give that rad max pressure, and see what happens. My thinking is that the micro bore is sludged up some, but if honest I would rather tackle it when we warm up next week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melboy Posted December 17, 2022 Author Report Share Posted December 17, 2022 More on this topic. My Son got a panic phone call from one of his regular customers yesterday. They had just returned from a 2 week holiday in Thailand to find their house water system AND their boiler pipework frozen up. He always makes a point of making his existing customers a priority so he attended to their problem straight away as it was on his journey for the days work ahead. An hour later everything was defrosted checked over and boiler and central heating and hot water back to normal operation and a grateful customer who has booked him in next January for a boiler service. At this time of year your boiler heating engineer is your best friend especially if you are a landlord. Try getting that service from HomeServe and another major gas boiler heating repair service which, like the Scottish play, we never mention them by name. 😀 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richlist Posted December 17, 2022 Report Share Posted December 17, 2022 My plan was to eliminate the need for a boiler service man forever......by installing air sourced heat pumps......probably two as we have a large house. All electric, powered in part by my solar panel array. This week I've encountered a small snag that I hadn't previously considered. For the whole of this week my roof (& the solar panels) have been covered in snow and have produced zero solar energy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melboy Posted December 18, 2022 Author Report Share Posted December 18, 2022 Not only you RL............Not far from my location are many acres of solar energy panels that have been covered in ice and snow for the past week and I would imagine not one unit of solar energy could have been produced and as I type this it is snowing again but it will turn to rain later. My Son got a telephone call at 5 pm Saturday evening from an elderly lady who lives in his location who was in floods of tears that her boiler had stopped working. As she was a previous customer of his he went along with Daughter in law to help the lady out and this was after a very busy Saturday dealing with floods in property ( ceiling's all down from a frozen loft water tank thawing out after yet another couple returning off holiday) and broken down boilers. Just as well he went because he managed to get the boiler working again but something was not right with the hot and cold pipework and then he sussed the problem and went into the garage where hot and cold supply pipes to outside taps had burst. More repair work carried out and one 85 year old lady very grateful for what he did. He doesn't normally work Saturdays but he says it has been a nightmare scenario in these parts (Gloucestershire) for frozen everything in properties and boiler breakdowns. The big thaw will set in today and I suspect he will be very busy tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carryon Regardless Posted December 18, 2022 Report Share Posted December 18, 2022 Mine wasn't so bad, although that's just the diagnosis. I have loads of drawings on a Keycad programme, but since the demise of Win XP I can't read them. I would have seen that I had run pipework in anticipation of a conservatory to the far corner of the lounge. What I had done was to pick up that pipework for the addition a smaller lounge radiator. That's ok, but the motorized valve that is designated for the larger rad is now u/s. I can manually cheat the valve and that allows hot water to the rad. So a new motorized valve and all should be good again. I think it's time I picked up an old laptop that can run XP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kerbut Posted December 19, 2022 Report Share Posted December 19, 2022 On 12/17/2022 at 8:15 AM, Richlist said: My plan was to eliminate the need for a boiler service man forever......by installing air sourced heat pumps......probably two as we have a large house. All electric, powered in part by my solar panel array. This week I've encountered a small snag that I hadn't previously considered. For the whole of this week my roof (& the solar panels) have been covered in snow and have produced zero solar energy. We are now running our house on 3 heat source heat pumps , at present impressed, instant heat etc, we now only use the gas boiler for hot water Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richlist Posted December 20, 2022 Report Share Posted December 20, 2022 Do you have a wet system that heats radiators or hot air blowers that also double up as air conditioners ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kerbut Posted December 20, 2022 Report Share Posted December 20, 2022 Hot air , we still heater water with Gas at night, yes they are inverter ones that double up as air con. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richlist Posted December 20, 2022 Report Share Posted December 20, 2022 We have two inverter units at our property in Spain. This time of year the outside temp is often only just above zero. We think they are absolute magic and also great in the summer when running as air conditioners. Heat pumps are the most efficient domestic method of converting electrical energy into heat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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