Never mind flow temperature, what about weather compensation?

Reading this month’s Registered Gas Engineer, it fills me with a deep sense of sadness at the lost opportunity the industry has had in educating homeowners about weather compensation.

I read that a great deal of back-slapping is under way for succeeding in educating homeowners about flow temperatures and for persuading them to lower their flow temperatures in order to save fuel. Apparently, on average, £112 has been saved by lowering one’s flow temperatures, which equates to about a 10 per cent improvement, I would have said.

That’s great. However, the part that has been totally missed is to educate the homeowner as to the next stage and tell them about an automatic system that will lower the flow temperature even further, as low as 35°C in some cases, giving even more saving and preparing people for the way that heat pumps work so that their introduction can be as smooth as possible.

I’m talking about weather compensation: a system that should be fitted to all new combi boilers from 2018 but which is sadly not due to the ignorance of customers and fitters alike.

It would be magnificent to see a follow-on [consumer] campaign where the benefits of having an automatic system to vary your flow temperatures in line with the outside temperature is the next step towards saving fuel, CO2 and money for the customer.

Richard Weir, Boiler Bee

manufacturer still not thought of a USB plug-and-play connection? Let eBus, OpenTherm and EasyControl sort themselves out behind the scenes.

Why is the government not creating a deposit service for tradespeople and customers, akin to the tenancy deposit scheme – which has proved its worth? The money for building work would be held in escrow until the job is complete. In one strike, that would get rid of cowboy builders who disappear with the deposit money and customers who don’t want to pay after a job is completed.

Henry G

Don’t risk your reputation

I just would like to add my thoughts to the article in April’s magazine, Don’t compromise on safety.

I have used refurbished fans a few times as bearings can wear out and they can be replaced.

However, there are companies advertising refurbished parts that are nothing more than untested and unchecked used parts.

As you rightly point out, every time an engineer makes a repair, its their reputation on the line, so a new part may well be the best value for money in the long run. Thanks for such a timely article.

Nigel Moore