Blog
INTRODUCTION
This is the second of two posts designed to help you save money running your home heating system.
To understand fully read Part I first - Homeowner's Guide to Home Heating in 2022 - Gas Boiler or Heat Pump?
This is deliberately non-technical. If you feel it’s sometimes a little too simplistic, please remember that not everyone is quite as informed as you may be.
REDUCING EXISTING ENERGY BILLS (& EMISSIONS)
I suspect the majority of UK home owners will need to save up to change to a new home heating energy system like a heat pump. So, to help reduce the impact of that process, and at the same time make an immediate positive impact on your existing heating bills, the following are tried and tested 'hacks' to do NOW to reduce your energy consumption.
Real heating industry experts (people that have been in it for 30-50 years) are certain that around 95% of UK home owners can save money and emissions NOW - most by 20% plus - with almost ZERO impact on your home's comfort. It’s little wonder the energy companies are so profitable!
HOW?
The answer largely depend on your boiler. Being astute enough to read this you will understand what is shared here are 'headlines', things you can immediately do either yourself or with the help of a friendly plumber. Yes, we friendly plumbers do exist!
There are many additional ways of reducing consumption for certain, but individual circumstances and your heating system will dictate what those are and how/if they apply.
As a rule of thumb, gas boilers installed since 2005 will be a condensing boiler. Similarly, oil boilers since 2007. Condensing boilers can be highly efficient because they are designed to recover heat from the combustion gases – the exhaust gases going outside via the flue. Fact is, these boilers are most efficient when the water flowing around your radiators is not as hot as we are used to. See below.
COMBINATION (COMBI) BOILERS
You will need to check whether you have a condensing boiler or not. Simply Google your make & model number to find out. This section's advice applies only to condensing boilers.
- Heating - Most boilers in the UK are set so the water flowing around the radiators (the flow temperature) is between 70 & 80° Centigrade (C). Check what yours is set to. If that high, turn it down to 60°C.
At a flow temp of between 70 to 80°C, the temperature the water returns to th eboiler having been through your radiators is too high for it to condense properly; so too high for the boiler to recover the heat from the exhaust gases and to operate at its advertised and best effeciency. What that means is that the energy it should be recovering is literally being thrown away and YOU are paying to waste that energy as your boiler is performing way below its advertised efficiency.
With a condensing boiler, the lower the temperature of teh water flowing through the radiators, the more efficient the boiler becomes - saving you both money and CO2 emissions. Just how low you can take your flow temp depends on issues such as radiator sizing and your homes levels of insulation.
There is a lot of misinformation out there. Mostly its put out by, well, idiots. There is a myth that if the water isn't hot then the house never become warm. It's utter shi tosh. The absolute truth is that the lower the temperature of teh water the bigger radiators have to be to in order to provide the surface area to transfer the heat.
Our experience says initially dropping to 60°C, and living with it for a few days, will show that although your home may take like 15 minutes longer to heat up, you will notice you have a much more even, comfortable, heat overall and you can reast assured your boiler will be operating MUCH more efficiently.
Now another myth busted here. Your system may need to run longer. That extra time will SAVE you money. Boilers waste gas everytime they start. By running for longer and lower, they throttle back (bit like coasting in a car down hill) thereby saving energy.
If you've not really noticed a difference after a few days, drop it one more degree. Repeat till you find it lacking - not quite warm enough. At that point raise it but just a couple of degrees.
As the average outside temp in the UK is something like 15°C, you may find on those rare really cold days you have to raise the flow temp say 5 degrees. That's fine but just remember to set it back down once the cold snap is over. - Hot Water - On a combi boiler hot water is typically set to 65°C. This is wasteful. Most people pay to put this 65°C hot water into a basin first. They then pay even more by buying cold water to cool it down to a usable temperature. Surely a definition of madness!
If you use the bath, you can turn the water down to 55°C. When you run a bath, mix the water so the temp is a like Goldilocks temp - just right. That way you waste neither water nor energy.
If you only shower then you can turn it down to 50°C (perhaps even lower) as the average shower temp is 42°C but often women like their showers hotter than men.
The very best thing about all of this is that its just a simple turn of a dial. NOTHING can go wrong. If you love it you can go further and if you hate it you can simply turn it back to where it was originally and sit back as the planet burns ;-(
CONDENSING - NON-COMBI BOILERS
- Heating - Because non-combi boilers use stored hot water, that stored water needs to be pasteurised regularly in order that, during periods of little or no use, bugs do not grow - specifically Legionella.
Pasteurisation is a process which raises the water's temp so bugs are killed - above 60°C for a time. What this means for non-combi boilers, is that the boiler flow temp should not be dropped below 63°C as to do so runs the risk of not being able to pasteurise your stored hot water. - Hot Water - Set the thermostat mounted on the cylinder to exactly 60°C. As it is low on the cylinder, the temperature towards the top of the cylinder will be more like 62 or 63°C.
OLDER, NON-CONDENSING, BOILERS
- Heating - Older boilers (non-condensing boilers) can be destroyed when their flow (so return too) temperature is too low. If they start to condense the acid condensate can corrode the boilers internals quite quickly.
My original boiler was from 1997 and I reduced my flow temp to around 68°C so my return temp was around 56°C. The heating felt a much more even temp we burned less gas.
I swapped it to a condensing boiler in early 2023 but to one with what is know as PDHW (Priority Domestic Hot Water). What that means is that when how water is called for (after all have showered) the boiler heats the hot water up super quickly focussing all its energy to do it quickly. When that done, it goes back to pushing water around our house at 50°C so were back to super efficient.
From old boiler to new I'm using 40% less gas. Daughter has gone to Uni mind!
As with the non-combi advice above, you can reduce your flow tem but you must have it high enough to allow pasteurisation.
- Hot Water - Same as non-combi advice.
GENERAL
The following advice covers all boilers and should be applied as required.
- Thermostatic Radiator Valves (TRVs) - most TRVs I encounter are wildly incorrectly set. Therefore they are wasting both money and energy.
A TRVs job is to control the heat from a single radiator. So, if a TRV is covered or enclosed, for example by curtains or blocked in by a sofa, it simply cannot work; it must be able to sense the air around it.
A TRV works by closing off the flow to its radiator when it senses the room has reached the temperature you've set it to. When the temperature drops lower then the TRV opens and the radiator heats up.
We have log burner in our sitting room. When the heating is on, as my daughter often studies upstairs, the TRVs on the radiators in the sitting room sense the warmth from the fire and close. Heat is still pumped upstairs but we don’t waste any by adding to the heat from the fire.
Typically, our TRVs are set to 3 in the sitting room (approx. 21°C), 2 in a bedroom (approx. 18°C) & 1 (approx. 15°) in unused bedrooms. Turning any TRV full on (5) is utterly pointless because it can never control. Similarly, do not turn it full on (or off) if you’re cold (or hot). Using them like an on/off switch does not heat (cool) the room any quicker and, worse, you will ruin the overall room control thereby wasting energy.
If the temp its controlling at isn’t quite right, then turn it 2 mins on the clock warmer or cooler and give it time to settle. Only change again the next day - no sooner. - Balancing - Radiators need a precise flow through them to deliver their best performance. Too much through some, means not enough through others and waste and poor performance all round.
Having your system ‘balanced’ so that just the correct amount flow through each radiator means a much nicer environment and lower bills through wastage. - Flushing - Sludge in a heating system means wasted energy through inefficient transfer of heat from boiler to the water and from the water to the radiator.
You can check to see if your system needs flushing urgently yourself. When the system is first turned on, a radiator warms up nicely. If you can feel a difference in temp between the bottom centre and top centre (bottom is cooler) then it indicates a build up of sludge which needs removing to enable your radiators to perform efficiently again. - Controls - Your system's controls are vital. The biggest saving you can make is turning your system off when you leave home but many systems now sense when you leave and automatically turn your system down to minimise waste.
There are a number of other, more subtle but nontheless effective, controls which help minimise your running costs. An experienced controls engineer will advise on the best investment choices for you because they need to work seamlessly with both your boiler and you as a person so will always depend upon you and your particular circumstances.
Please be aware that tproducts labelled ‘smart’ are often very far from that and that, lastly, the two most important considerations about potential controls for your home is that you are both confident to and comfortable with using them. If you're not, then they will be an utter waste and you could end up worst off than before...
CONCLUSION
Existing gas or oil boilers are increasingly portrayed as dinosaurs. The truth is they are, they have had their time and done a great job. That does not mean however that they are beyond improving, beyond contributing to the reduction in CO2 emissions the world so desperately and immediately needs.
Regardless of whether you can or cannot afford to install new technology in your home today, it is my opinion that homeowners would be utterly remiss not to tweak what is already installed first, before changing. To do so means we minimise what we spend but crucially reduce CO2 emissions quickly too. To simply chuck out what we have overnight would be an ironic enviromental disaster as it would create spike in emissions so large it would take many many decades to counter through lower emissions in homes.
We as users, the country's infrastructure, global manufacturers and local installers all require time to ramp up to meet demand. This means, in my opinion we are far better off working sensibly today with what we have, harnessing what we can and making a genuine difference right now.
David
If you have any comments, please leave them below. If I can help in any way just email me here
INTRODUCTION
This series of posts has been put together with a single objective - to help you, a UK home owner, make an informed decision regarding what heating you use in your home going into the future.
I made a conscious decision to remain non-technical. However, if you feel it’s sometimes a little too simplistic, please remember not everyone is quite as clever as you are...
BACKGROUND
Let’s start by clearing up what the UK Government (Govt) have said thus far - especially what is to become law - because there’s an awful lot of confusing, misleading nonsense written and talked around it.
This is what the Govt website says:
“A Future Homes Standard, to be introduced by 2025, will require new build homes to be future proofed with low carbon heating and world leading levels of energy efficiency. We propose homes built to this standard should have 75% to 80% fewer CO2 emissions than those built to current building regulations.”
This came about because on 27 June 2019, the Govt set a legally binding target to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions from across the UK economy by 2050. So, as an integral part of that process, as of 2025 essentially no gas boilers will be installed into a new UK home as they cannot be made to perform with 75-80% less CO2 emissions. Developers will instead need to provide a much more energy efficient alternative.
Due to alarmist reporting, partially ignorance of the subject and partially deliberately mis-reporting, many home owners have been left utterly confused and thinking they are somehow obligated to immediately remove existing boilers. As the story broke, as is the way of today’s world, the sharks emerged from the shaows and began capitalising on the confusion by convincing (more vulnerable, less informed) homeowners that they had no choice but to immediately rip out their perfectly good gas boilers and replace them!
Let me make something clear, and please spread this among friends and family, that is utter, utter nonsense. No one, I repeat, no one has to rip anything out - either now or anytime soon. As explained, the announced legislation only affects heating & hot water systems going into new homes from 2025.
If you have a current problem with your boiler, you can get it fixed - just like today. If you need a replacement then it can be replaced like for like - just like today. Once again, this Govt action only affects you if you move into a new home in 2025 or beyond.
ALTERNATIVES
As you will have probably seen and heard, Hydrogen was initially suggested as an alternative fuel for our boilers. For a number of reasons, technical & environmental mainly (e.g. it’s very difficult to transport and keep safe & the carbon footprint for its production can actually be even worse than the gas its replacing), until these issues with hydrogen are overcome, it is safe to assume hydrogen is no longer a realistic alternative except in very special & specific circumstances.
The current favourite technoloigy to heat our homes in future is heat pumps. In fact Govt are so convinced they are currently offering a potential £5k towards the cost of using one to replace an existing gas boiler.
OPINIONS
There are as many questions, perspectives and opinions around heat pumps as there are models of them. For example; can they do the job required? Are all homes suitable?
I’m going to keep to simple facts and frame this from the point of view of Mr & Mrs Average Homeowner.
WHAT IS A HEAT PUMP?
Heat pumps are far from new. The technology was invented in the 1800s but since the 1940s they have been an established, reliable & dependable technology which has been busy keeping homes, offices and factories warm. Some countries use them exclusively and every country in the world has millions beavering away doing a fantastic job. In truth, every UK home already has one - your fridge! As a fridge though it works ‘backwards’ but they are incredibly reliable and efficient.
HORROR STORIES
Social and traditional media seems somewhat overrun with regurgitated horror stories about heat pumps. Like everything else nowadays it seems one is only able to be fore or against. Many of these stories will have some truth buried in them which needs accounting for but, like most things in life, the millions working away perfectly happily doing a great job never ever get mentioned; are ignored. The few installed by charlatans and imbeciles are instead held up as proof positive of their unsuitability simply to promote some reporter’s bias or to please an editor who loves sensationalism to drive failing circulation figures.
Make no mistake, as with every mechanical device, they can indeed fail to work. They can indeed be horrendously expensive to run. They can indeed utterly fail to meet a homeowner’s expectations or an installer’s promises. That though is actually good news because research demonstrates these failures are consistently caused by one of three things: poor design, poor installation or poor day to day management. From my experience most often it’s a combination of all three!
EFFICIENCY
You may well have heard of how a heat pump has a COP? COP stands for Coefficient of Performance - an industry phrase/measure for how efficiently a heat pump works. Well designed, well installed & well run systems typically have a COP of three - sometimes higher. That means for every kilowatt of electricity put into it, you get three kilowatts of work! It’s like paying for one worker but getting the work of three! Too good to be true we know, but genuinely it’s simply a matter of how the physics works. On the other hand, a poorly designed, poorly installed or poorly managed system can have a COP of 1 or less. In that instance you pay a good salary for an industrious person but instead you get the laziest lead swinger in town...
All heat pumps run on electricity. As currently the cost of electricity is 8 times the cost of gas, despite their efficiency, heat pumps are far less likely to save you money to run as they are to save emissions. On the emissions front, it's vital they run on a 'green' tarif to realise the best emissions reduction. By embracing this new way of heating your home, the very fact you become more aware often contributes to financial savings too. Social media is awash with (let's call them 'enthusiastic') home owners who have reduced their energy bills with heat pumps. As mentioned already though, currently most people install them because by using green electricity the subsequent emissions from heating your home are massively reduced giving us a fighting chance of having a planet to pass on to our children.
SUITABILITY
Make no mistake, all homes can be heated with heat pumps. However, the current financial cost of installation, ongoing running costs, space requirements (externally for the outside unit & internally for the hot water cylinder) and electrical supply requirements definitely means some home owners will really struggle to make it work.
Instead of criticising those who would struggle, I believe it’s vital to be pragmatic. Some 'ardent' environmentalists find it hard to accept what they see as excuses. My own experience is that many who are rightly evangelical about emissions reduction quite often fail to 'walk a mile' in the shoes of those they criticise. That’s not only sad, but unhelpful and divisive when we all want the same thing overall but cannot all achieve our ultimate goal at the same pace.
It’s a fact that the better insulated your home is the better your chance of a successful and rewarding heat pump (or any other heat source) journey. The leakier your home, the bigger system you need & the more energy you will consume. You don’t have to be Einstein to see that trying to fill a bucket with loads of holes is wasteful!
For a heat pump, poorer insulation in your home means a bigger system. Bigger systems require: more outside space dedicated to the outdoor unit and a larger electric supply to your house too - sometimes even a ‘three phase’ supply. Better insulated homes mean a physically smaller unit typically running off a normal home’s power supply. All heat pumps, require a hot water cylinder in your home so you need to factor in where that may be located.
CHOOSING
Unfortunately, the heat pump vultures are circling. If you receive a shiny brochure with promises of: cheap systems, speedy installation, energy savings or time limited offers to drive you into a quick decision - run away, far far away after having blocked their number on all your phones…
As with all things in this world, the more thorough a design the better your outcome. It’s an unfortunate fact that most, definitely not all, gas installers simply throw in boilers. As home owners until now we have singularly failed to value how important our heating and hot water systems are so largely choose the cheapest quote. Because gas boilers are an incredible flexible heat source, and gas was so cheap, this has been largely ‘gotten away with’. Gas systems are rarely designed properly & even more rarely have energy consumption even mentioned.
‘Throwing in’ a heat pump 100% guarantees you a wasteful, horrendously expensive, cold unmitigated disaster of a heating system. Currently, any even half decent prospective heat pump installer will take half a day minimum to survey your property. They’ll crawl all over and ask endless questions about how it was built, what materials were used and how much insulation you have and where, how you use the hot water etc etc. They'll then talk extensively to you about how you use your home: how many people occupy it normally, how many when it’s full, how often etc etc. Your usage profile. They will then discuss where the outdoor unit & hot water cylinder may be located.
Much of the above helps them produce a formal calculation called a Heat Loss Calculation. This tells them exactly how much heat each room will require to reach them temperatures you need on the coldest of days which, in turn, allows them to exactly specify what size and type of system you need. This is all done because good installers take responsibility for your system’s performance.
During this time, they will also talk to you about what controls you’ll have and how they interact with the system to minimise your energy consumption whilst maximising your comfort. They will explain how the temperature of the water in your radiators with a heat pump is lower than a gas boiler's so you then don’t think it’s broken when it’s actually fine.
Truth is, a professional installer invests an awful lot of time and effort in understanding you and your home to design your system. So, you must be prepared to pay for that time - even if you do not go ahead. If you’re a person who gathers quotes, then you need to prepare yourself to pay for each & every one. All surveys are unique and, vitally, non-transferable. The reason for this is that everyone will use different kit. Most installers however are happy to refund the survey cost if you go ahead with them.
Currently, the single biggest problem with having a heat pump is the lack of properly experienced installers. All good ones are snowed under. Due to the fact they can pick and choose who & when they work, because demand exceeds supply by over a hundred times, installation is not yet as competitive as boiler installation. In my opinion, I don’t feel it ever can be if we genuinely want to avoid waste (of both money and emissions) and to keep our homes warm and secure. Truth is, the gas boiler industry has historically done itself no favours by selling itself to the devil and letting price become the be all and end all. With this 21st century new world order, it is vital we install any and all systems in a way that minimises energy use, minimises what it costs us to run and thereby minimises our personal home emissions. To not do so consigns our kids to an awful future.
Part two (HERE) explains how, if you don't feel a heat pump is for you at present, you can minimise both your energy consumption and emissions by tweaking your existing gas boiler setup.
If you've any comments leave them below. If you've a question send me an email here
David
I've noticed a massive increase in discussions around the recent paper released by the UK Govt. seemingly banning gas boilers from 2030. People are left feeling that we all need to install a heap pump asap or run the risk of being left without heating…
Rest assured, that is NOT TRUE. Factually incorrect reporting by some media, allied with much of the rest sensationalising it, was dishonest at best and down right exploitative at worst.
Fact is, Govt have set a NEW BUILDS ONLY target of having alternatives to gas boilers installed after 2030. The original date was 2025 but within a few weeks of announcing it, it was changed.
So, if your boiler breaks down at home & you need a replacement, or you need to install one where there was none before, YOU CAN STILL DO SO. Work in NON new build situations remains UNCHANGED.
This decision was taken to drive greener technologies in new homes to reduce emissions so that Govt commitments (on emissions) might be met. Please don't mention flying to the climate summit in Cornwall!
Truth is, everyone of us has a responsibility to reduce our emissions; the world is up a creek and the paddle is rapidly floating away. If we ALL start to reduce our home’s emissions, the UK can achieve those targets more speedily plus we can save ourselves some cash doing it. I know I’d rather spend money on my children & grandchildren than give it to EON or Scottish Power & Co…
Did you know that only approx. 12% of heating systems are set up correctly? That means a massive 88% of homeowners are spending far more than needed as well as costing the planet dearly too. Frankly it’s a shameful number, so I've compiled some things YOU can do RIGHT NOW to make your home cheaper to run, reduce your home's emissions all while being more comfortable:
- ask your boiler person to set your boiler for hot water priority.
- set your heating water circulating temperature to 55 degrees C.
It will feel like your system is less warm at first because most UK homes are set to 70-80 degrees C. It will take your home a few minutes more to reach temperature because the water in the radiators is a little bit cooler BUT, your system will (finally) be running at its MOST EFFICIENT, ALL of the time. Energy consumption can be reduced by approx. 15% - Set your hot water temperature to no more than 50 degrees C if you have a combi. It will not affect bathing ONE JOT. It will however stop you adding cold water to a basin of hot! What you do there is pay for the water and energy to heat it up, then pay again to cool it down. In my mind a genuine definition of madness! Ensure your hot water cylinder thermostat is set to 55 degrees C NO MORE
- Ask your plumber / gas engineer to install heating controls that do ‘Weather Compensation’ and optimised start and stop.
What optimisation does is save you money by making sure you are comfortable at the beginning and end of every day but turning your system on/off a little earlier or later. Essentially, invisibly saving you money and emissions.
As you saw earlier, reducing the flow temp of your heating water saves you lots. Weather Compensation saves you more by altering the water temp a little more depending on the temperature outside. If it’s just chilly, but still needs the heating, the temp in the rads does not need to be as high to be effective. When it’s really cold you get the hottest flow. Yet more money & emissions saved. - Fit thermostatic radiator valves to your radiators. If you have them already, set them properly. For rooms which are genuinely unused set them to the snowflake (frost protection setting) or number 1.
For bedrooms they are normally set at number 2 which is around 18 degrees.
For sitting rooms etc they normally set at 3 which is around 21 degrees.
DO NOT cover them with curtains. To do so makes them useless. If the room is too cold or too hot them turn then up or down a TINY BIT at a time over a few days till they work to keep the room at a temp you like.
Turning them full on WILL NOT heat the room up faster – ever. However, it WILL waste energy & cost you more to run.
Ensure your loft is properly insulated. We have 500mm in ours and I have lifted the floor and put Kingspan under where we store things. You’d not fetch water in a colander so why would you put energy into one!
Few people realise when putting laminate flooring down, so long as its over 8mm thick you can put underlay underneath it to save energy!
Currently there is a dearth of properly qualified & sufficiently experienced heat pump engineers. Design is crucial as is installation and setting up. Always ask a contractor for a complete list of the last 50 customers.
Talk to customers who have had one for OVER 12 months. If you cannot – WALK AWAY.
If someone offers to get a system up and running in a few days – RUN AWAY.
It’s all very well having a heat pump system but if you cannot get it properly serviced it becomes an expensive mistake…
My advice? Get your existing system working properly. This will save you money and emissions in the short term as well as allowing time for engineers and standards to raise to an acceptable level in all areas as well as allowing prices to stabilise before going anywhere near.
Sorry for the long post :-)
Solar Thermal (ST) hot water systems were installed in their thousands by house builders around 2010. They were the accessory of the moment because the Govt offered financial incentives to include the systems and home builders made even more money offering buyers the dream of continuous hot water for free.
Unfortunately, house builders chose the cheapest of systems, but worse, they never explained to buyers how to use them or how vital it is to maintain them to realise all that continuous free energy.
The panels work just like little green houses. Solar energy is trapped and then used to heat up a fluid. This fluid is pumped to your hot water cylinder and preheats your hot water - all for free.
So how can you tell if your system is working? The following are quick visual tests that require NO technical knowledge. If just ONE is not as it should be then you need to get someone in - quickly - as your system need is unlikely to be giving you savings.
Having two or more means, unfortunately, it is actually costing you money! Time to put it right and get back to saving both you money and helping save our little blue planet. These are the tests:
- Inside your airing cupboard or loft you will have a controller with wires and pipes going to it. Most have two temperature dials - often with a red & a blue rings around them. The dials will be marked C° for degrees Centigrade.
Look at the temperatures are shown. When working correctly, the 'flow' (generally left-hand side / red) will read anywhere from over 100 C° down to 40 C°. When working correctly, the 'return' (generally right-hand side / blue) will read between 5 & 60 C° less (lower) than the flow.
If both gauges are very close in temperature and that temperature is the same as the room they are in, then there is a problem. - On many systems on the same controller there is a pressure gauge. In a working system it should read approx. 1.5 bar or 20PSI (on the dial it will say Bar or PSI). If the gauge reads 0 (zero) then your system needs looking at.
- On the same controller there is a ‘flow gauge’. Generally, it sits on the right-hand side under the return (blue) temperature gauge. It’s a small glass window with lines and numbers on it.
If your pump is running look at it. There should be a small float gently bouncing around in it with its bottom edge somewhere around the 3-5 mark. If you quickly turn the whole system off at the fused spur, the float should immediately drop to zero. If you cannot see it or it stays in place when turned off then there is a problem. - All systems have an ‘expansion vessel’ (shaped like a metal baloon) but colours will vary.
To check it, simply give it a tap with something metallic at the opposite end to the pipe going into it. If the sound it makes is ‘dead’ (more a thud than a ring) then there is a problem. - Lastly, look at your semi clear plastic tank. Most systems do not have fluid in the tank. If yours has, or if there is evidence of having had some, then there is likely a problem.
None of the above require any technical skill or expertise. However, they do give you a great inling of what a free energy 'normal' should look like. If you have any of the negative signs, give me a call as the system needs looking at to begin reducing your bills again.
Most manufacturers require their systems to be serviced annually. We can now do it tri-annually (every three years) this further helps you save money and reduce costs. When a system is properly set up that time is perfectly safe and reliable and of course also means you can maximise savings.
Hope that helps, but if you’ve any questions just call and ask.
Prior to the Industrial Revolution there was no standardisation of the mechanisms used to turn on/off water supplies. Pumps were manual so when you stopped pumping, the water stopped flowing.
As steam power's prescence grew, it powered pumps that supplied big houses and then the water distribution system became pressurised. At this point the high pressure tap (a 'traditional' (multi turn) tap) was patented by Guest & Chrimes in Rotherham, Yorkshire. The design worked so well, and was so cheap and effective, that they are today found in every corner of every nation on Planet Earth.
Traditionally, these taps used leather washers. When the washers wore out, the two brass surfaces (jumper & seat) invariably ground together and got damaged. So, the taps were made with plenty of 'meat' on their seats so they could be reground flat each time a washer was changed.
Eventually vulcanisation of rubber was invented and rubber washers replaced leather. These were much more reliable and durable and would fail more slowly doing far less damage. These washers are the basis of the (largely inaccurate) phrase we continue to use today to describe when taps fail – "I need a new washer."
In the 1950s in the USA, a 'leak free' version of the tap washer was invented – it used ceramic discs. The basis of all taps today, it consists of two discs made of Alumina. The discs have the surfaces that touch ground so flat that water molecules literally cannot get between them (their flatness is measured in individual photons of light!).
Unlike previous (traditional) taps, today's generally turn just 90 degrees to go from fully closed to fully open. In addition, the physical effort to open & close them is less than half what it was, which means that people with conditions like arthritis can easily open and shut them rather than be subject to an undignified and worrying struggle.
In the UK, approx. 15% of all taps sold are traditional, multi-turn, with 'rubber washers', and the rest rely on the new ceramic cartridges. Back in the day, a plumber would carry a box of 20 different washers and virtually guarantee to fix a dripping tap. Today there are well over 5000 different types of ceramic cartridges in use in taps. Unfortunately, no one can know with 100% certainty which version is in your tap until it's literally stripped down and measured.
Manufacturers are renowned for swapping tap internals during a product's life. Occasionally even they don't know what's been fitted! This is why most plumbers, when they hear you have a 1/4 turn tap, say, "You'll need a new one". Simply put, the time and trouble to find spares means it’s simply uneconomic to repair them. Yes, that's an unmitigated environmental disaster too.
Most people think, "Why no standardisation?". We now know that manufacturers don't actually want you to repair. They want you to throwaway, to replace, because selling new taps is their business – not repairing.
We break that mould. We can, and do, repair over 90% of taps we come across. My understanding means I know how to source spares...