Good air conditioning isn’t cheap, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be affordable. There are several ways in which to go about finding affordable air conditioning, and by affordable we don’t necessarily mean cheap, here’s why…

Topsy Turvy Way To Think About “Cheap” Air Conditioning

The most common problem that we come across is that people go to their local DIY store and purchase an air conditioning unit, then either install it themselves, which is technically illegal, or they find a small contractor to come and install it for them.

This also applies to non-mainstream brands that are available on the internet, and sometimes the consequence of purchasing cheap air conditioning from the internet can be even more disappointing in the long term.

In the main, cheap air conditioning equipment is exactly that, it’s cheap. Cheap in all regards, cheap internal fittings, poorly manufactured, poorly designed and engineered.

Often made in far eastern factories, or just factories of low grade quality. Cheap equipment is not made for long term reliability, they are made for the single purpose of being cheap.

Of course, they achieve that goal but cheap is only a part of what you as the customer are looking for. As a customer you also want reliability, quality, ease of service and maintenance and so on. Well unfortunately you are not going to get that with cheap air conditioning equipment.

Incidentally, if you think regular air conditioning is ugly, cheap equipment is a horror show by comparison.

Don’t buy for this year, buy for the next ten years

No-name air conditioning will set you up for a life of anything but comfort, which is the reason you are intending to buy it in the first place. With cheap air conditioning equipment the phrase Long Term does not come into it.

We would always advise you to find the best air conditioning deals available from a major brand manufacturer. This can very often be affordable, which means that you get quality, reliability, sound engineering and design and all round well-made equipment.

Branded air conditioning equipment is easier for engineers to service and maintain, they know most brand systems intimately and also know which parts are malfunctioning in the unlikely event that they do break down. This makes the service and maintenance aspect significantly cheaper in the long term.

It’s not IF cheap air conditioning breaks down, it’s WHEN

As I mentioned above, nothing is impervious to breaking down. Even top quality equipment, and I am not here to say that you should buy the best air conditioning because it doesn’t breakdown, that would be dishonest and plainly untrue. But, what I can say with 100% degree of faith is that it is an exception.

Over the last five years more than 90% of calls that we received to attend malfunctioning air conditioning was for cheap no-name, unbranded air conditioning equipment. It became such a distraction to our normal business that we ultimately decided that we would no longer service or attend cheap equipment.

Most air conditioning companies think likewise, which ultimately leaves you, the customer, with a very limited range of tradesmen to choose from to come and repair your cheap unbranded equipment.

Don’t expect fault finding to be an easy task either, remember you wanted cheap, well there are no self-diagnose fault systems in cheap air conditioning. Whereas with some of the really top brands they can tell you what is wrong with the equipment, but mostly they will allow engineers to fault find quickly – quickly means less cost to you.

Spare parts and service availability

With all mainstream brands there is widely available spare parts, and even for the really exceptional instance you can always secure parts with limited stocks within a few short days.

This is rarely the case with cheap makes. When you get in touch with the people you bought from the internet, they will rarely be carrying stocks of spare parts. This is because they are only really bringing containers full of cheap equipment from abroad. Sure you will get a replacement, but the cost to you of having an engineer replace a whole unit rather than just a spare part is massive, expect that cost to be similar, if not more, than the original installation cost.

Why? Because when an engineer comes to replace your whole air conditioning unit, they first need to recover the gas that is in the system. There are strict laws, under F-Gas Regulations, now surrounding the recovery and storage/disposal of refrigerant gas. This costs a lot of money, and adds to the money you could have saved in the first place by buying decent air conditioning.

There is a good deal of work involved to “undo” an air conditioning unit before you can attempt to install the replacement unit. If you were landed with an end-of-line unit and both the indoor unit and outdoor unit need to be changed then you will almost certainly be looking at a bigger bill than the original installation.

What is the probability that this will happen? Without black and white stats to back it up I wouldn’t want to guess in percentage terms. I will however say, glibly, that it is likely and bordering on very likely.

Environmental damage

I know that everyone is beating on about environmental this-that-and-the-other almost constantly these days. I have bleeding ears from it also, but I will say this – whatever damage your car is doing to environment/ozone you can multiply that by a factor of 1,000 or more when the gas leaks out of your cheap equipment.

Refrigerant gas causes colossal damage to the ozone and the environment, depending on which gas is in your air conditioning system it can be the equivalent of anything from a thousand to tens of thousands times more damaging. This is also more likely when you use cheap air conditioning because they utilise mainly mechanical fittings rather than what is called: hermetically sealed systems.

You should read up on the F-Gas law and consequences, we wrote some information in a post recently about air conditioning maintenance law.

Affordable is the new Cheap

I actually hope that the law goes much further in future to stop low grade equipment and self-install equipment from being sold. It is probably the only time I will ever be in favour of more laws, but it is definitely a genuine case of need.

Definitely do not buy self-install equipment – it is plain rubbish. If you are the kind of person that buys something because it has a nice box with lovely pictures and testimonial type written copy on it – think why! Honestly, DIY brand and cheap commercial brand air conditioning is junk.

Find yourself a contractor that only deals in premium brand equipment, contact outlets of main brand agents/wholesalers and ask if they have any deals running currently or even if they have brand named end of lines. Brand name end of lines don’t pose the same risk as cheap rubbish because the main parts are normally carried over from model to model, but even when they are not, the parts are easily obtainable. But, the main reason is that malfunction is more unlikely in main brands, as well as a much longer service life.

Consider your energy bills

Finally, another big reason, a really big reason actually, to consider wisely is the long term cost of ownership of your air conditioning equipment. Cheap air conditioning always costs more to run, lots more. Don’t buy a penny-horse that eats you out of house and home, that would be a criminally bad decision.

Air conditioning is very efficient, but you need to buy sensibly to reap that efficiency. Buy equipment that is correctly sized and is A rated for both heating and cooling. If you buy a cooling only air conditioning system you are missing a great opportunity to save money in the summer and in the winter. Major brand equipment really doesn’t cost that much more to get a heating and cooling system, but more importantly they will deliver heating and cooling for much less than junk cheap air conditioning.

Summary

Ultimately it’s your money and you spend it how you see fit. But, we urge you to seriously consider the bigger picture. It doesn’t take a whole lot of common sense to draw the conclusion that you can easily be drawn into the Penny Wise; Pound Foolish scenario and the marketing of cheap air conditioning is always targeted at making you only look at the purchase cost, in truth this represents hardly any of the overall cost of owning your air conditioning over a five or ten year period – choose wisely.

Related posts:

1. Why Air Conditioning Doesn’t Work With The Window Open
2. Air Conditioning Servicing: Your Legal Responsibilities

In short, the reason that air conditioning doesn’t work with the window open is because you are allowing all of “conditioned air” to either escape outside, or to be pushed to other parts of the building or simply get diluted by the constant stream of new air.

Air conditioning does not like “new air”. When you let new air into an air-conditioned room, the air conditioner needs to start over and cool it down, or warm it up.

It is good to have decent ventilation in any room, including in air conditioned rooms, but this should be part of an overall “system” of ventilation and air conditioning, and this does not include windows and doors.

Using the most basic description possible: doors are for walking through, windows are for looking through, air conditioning and ventilation systems are for controlling the comfort of the work environment.

You should never have the window open when you have your air conditioning equipment on. Furthermore, you should not have the door open either.

By having the doors and windows open you are asking your air conditioning equipment to run all the time. This is the only way that the equipment will cope with the constant new intake of air.

This will result in big energy bills, it will also give the business owner a false perception that the air conditioning equipment is costing a fortune to operate. This should never be the case as top range air conditioning equipment should realise savings for most businesses in terms of cooling and particularly heating. Air conditioning is very economical at heating.

So, if you want to run your air conditioning equipment at optimum efficiency, with the smallest energy bills possible then close the windows and doors.

Normally this comes down to a lack of education or training. A good installer will explain this kind of thing to the person that either runs the office or pays the bills. Often this is the same person in small businesses.

A simple solution to this is to make a person responsible for the education of others in the office. It’s not an onerous task and takes perhaps 2 minutes to explain this to new comers. You can also further back this up with a small notice near the air conditioning controller, or on the remote control, and also near main windows and doorways.

Related posts:

1. Air Conditioning Servicing: Your Legal Responsibilities

Having air conditioning installed is not the straight-forward affair that it used to be. In days gone by it was a: Call – Install – Enjoy, affair, but not these days, here’s why…

Brief background of F-Gas Law

Whatever your view on global warming is, that is your opinion and you are entitled to it, that’s my opinion at least. But, one thing that is very clear is, whatever the end effect F-Gases are having on “global warming”; it is clear that F-Gases are horrendously damaging to the Ozone – when released into the air (atmosphere).

There are laws surrounding air conditioning and refrigeration gas, European Laws, that we in the UK must abide by when having any equipment installed that contains such Fluorinated Gas.

This gas is what gives your fridge, freezer and air conditioning the ability to chill things. In fact it is not “things” but “air” that they chill, it is the chilled air that cools your food, your milk and also you.

I explain the basics in: Why Air Conditioning Doesn’t Work With The Window Open.

It should really be no surprise to you that in this day and age there is a plethora of rules/laws for the upkeep of your air conditioning. Over the last decade there has been what I would call a Tsunami of new laws and rules introduced in England and Great Britain.

Unfortunately, many rules are there to create a “Nanny State”, because you can’t be trusted to bring up your kids or spend your money the way that Politicians insist you must. Politicians are idyllic role models, right? Did you fiddle your expenses too? Mmm, thought not.

Sorry, temporary digression, we’re back now…

Why These Laws Are Good Laws

As above, the F-Gas Laws came into effect on 4th July 2006, but the bulk of the legally enforcible aspects became law almost a year later on 4th July 2007. Since then there has been a series of updates to the laws, F-Gas II has since become law which is a revision to original law.

The reason that these laws are good laws, in my opinion, is that they accomplish several necessary aims, thus:

1. They have highlighted the enormous damage that F-Gases cause to the environment.
2. For the first time it highlighted the big gas offenders (R22 predominantly), and sought to erradicate them through a HCFC Phase Out Process.
3. F-Gas put measures in place to make the air conditioning industry become both more qualified and less “cowboy-ish”, in other words to make the industry more professional, and more professionally qualified, through regulation.
4. The law governs several types of air conditioning equipment, this report gives DEFRA’s Overview for Stationery Equipment.
5. You can read the DEFRA F-Gas Summary Document for a complete review of the requirement with regards to Fire Systems.
6. F-Gas Law For Mobile Air Conditioning is also covered and has obligations for end users.
7. The law also covers F-Gas Regulations with regards to Solvents.
8. Click this link for to see DEFRA’s Comprehensive Library of F-Gas Documents.

Expanding on the items above

1. F-Gases are extremely damaging to the Ozone – when released into the air (atmosphere). Therefore, it became incredibly important to ensure that F-Gases were no longer discharged into the air – either on purpose or by accident, i.e. via a leaking system. The F-Gas Law accomplishes this aspect quite well and is necessary. F-Gas introduced laws for end users – you - the person that owns the equipment or uses it on a daily basis. Records must be kept, see below.
2. You can no longer purchase R22 virgin gas, and you can no longer purchase equipment with this gas. A single gramme of this gas escaping into the air is the equivalent (in terms of the damage caused) of 1 Tonne of CO2 being released into the air – think about that, most small air conditioning systems have around a 1 Kilogramme or more gas in them (a thousand grammes of R22 = 1,000 tonnes of CO2).
3. Regulation with purpose is a good thing, regulation for regulation’s sake is not. In the case of the air conditioning industry, it was a bit of a loose cannon. The air-conditioning industry has the ability to cause great damage if not regulated, therefore it is absolutely necessary to control certain aspects. The neatest way to control things on mass is normally to introduce new laws and promote professional qualification. F-Gas regulation achieves this.

Your legal obligations as the owner of air conditioning equipment

1. There is a tariff, based on the weight of gas, that determines the frequency of servicing that you are legally bound to observe as an equipment end-user, as follows:
   1. Over 3 kg of gas, requires a minimum of one annual service.
   2. Over 30 kg of gas, requires a minimum of one service every six months
   3. Over 300 Kg of gas, requires a minimum of one service every three months
2. You must arrange for, and keep records of, regular servicing and maintenance. It is your legal responsibility to ensure that air conditioning equipment which is not functioning correctly is repaired and not just switched off. You must keep a record of all work that is completed on your air conditioning system/s. Most contractors will give you a report which meets the legal requirements, if not then you must ask the contractor to sign one of your own. Example Logsheet of Air Conditioning Service or Maintenance.
3. Installers/Engineers must hold a Gas Safe Handling Card which demonstrates that they hold the minimum qualification: City and Guilds 2078 or CITB refrigerant handling. Installer companies must hold a valid F-Gas Register Accreditation.

Hermetically sealed systems exception

In the first band of the tariff above, the 3 kg band can be elevated up to 6 Kg if your air conditioning system is hermetically sealed. This simply means that there are no mechanical joints, if the pipe carrying gas is secured or joined with a nut-and-bolt mechanism then this does not qualify. In hermetically sealed systems, every joint is welded or brazed i.e. it cannot be undone with a spanner or tool.

To have this kind of seal installed in the first place is more expensive but the savings are obvious over the long term. It is another reason that Koolwarm advocates quality over economy in small systems. Spending a little more upfront saves a fortune in the long term. This is furthermore a reason that we have ceased offering cheap air conditioning systems, we now only supply and install top range air conditioning equipment.

Who Polices This Regulation

The onus for policing the law with regards to F-Gas is the Environment Agency, Local Authorities also have obligations to monitor and police these laws.

What’s the worst that can happen

Well, to answer this question depends on your moral standing. In my opinion the worst that can happen is that air conditioning equipment owners allow leaks to go unchecked and repaired, and the consequent damage to the Ozone is disproportional – it’s huge. That’s technically the worst that can happen.

The worst that can happen to you personally, or more accurately as a business, is that you can have your premises closed until the situation has been resolved. Until all repairs have been carried out and you obtain clearance from the Environment Agency to re-open for business. If this situation becomes a reality you will also face monstrous fines, very very large fines.

Of course, this is going to be the rarest of scenarios.

More commonly, you can, and will be fined. Fines are steep, very steep in comparison to the cost of regular upkeep of your systems.

Summary

Remember that you need to keep records – without the records you are wide open to prosecution even if you have observed your legal obligations.

For a complete picture of all aspects of the F-Gas Law we advise you to review the DEFRA website regularly. Make it someone’s job in the company to do this on a regular basis, as though your business depended on it – because one day it might.

Reasons to call back

We plan to release a piece of software in the future which will  help you monitor all of the systems on your site, including records keeping and scheduling of service calls. It will also help you monitor and check contractors. This will be a paid piece of software but it will be very affordable, we only intend to recover the production cost.

If you take our free RSS Feed you will be notified of this when we release it.

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Air conditioning has had a pretty bad rap for many years. These days it is definitely becoming the darling of modern business people and facilities management personnel.

This is of course no accident, the benefits when you go and research it are quite compelling. You can get all year round temperature control via the cooling capabilities, and in recent years the heating aspect has been a revelation via heat pump technology.

I have been stating for years how air conditioning is the most under marketed product of our era, certainly in the context of energy savings, money savings and staff comfort in the work environment.

In more recent times the government has caught onto this in some way, but in my own opinion, air conditioning had already become popular enough to not really benefit from the latest grant schemes etc that are trying to give it due recognition now, it somehow isn’t new enough, if that makes sense. Most businesses are not aware that they can get 0% Loans for an air conditioning installation and if a business doesn’t qualify for the loan, all business qualify to use the Tax Efficient ECA scheme.

Change: Whose Responsibility is it?

We are yet to see Designers and Architects really start to consider air conditioning as an application for new build homes, offices are to a certain extent getting some attention in this regard, but not enough in my opinion. I know that some marginal projects are currently proposing this technology, but I am actually referring to a lack of ubiquity more generally, as opposed to the odd trailblazing project.

In fact, the original title I was going to give to this article was Air Conditioning Equipment: Why It’s So Unnecessarily Ugly, but after giving it some thought I had to concede to myself that there are perhaps some limiting factors with design, but that doesn’t mean I’m letting them off the hook..

Which brings me to some possible explanations of why, where air conditioning is concerned, Cinderella missed the Coach to the Ball.

Modern Design or Just Damn Ugly?

Contemporary art is a controversial topic, it stirs a lot of debate about the art world and to a certain extent, the artists in it.

I liken this to air conditioning equipment in some respects, the general public has a love-hate relationship with it. It’s that thing where you love the benefit(s) but hate the thought of having to look at it all day, and this is the reason that many people never seriously consider it at home.

Businesses on the other hand give most of their consideration to air conditioning their offices because they know that the cost savings are massive. Staff are more productive in an air conditioned building, and I suppose some business people do care about the benefits that air conditioning brings to climate change. Climate change in the form of carbon reduction, because air conditioning is just so efficient.

However, designers of air conditioning equipment have been missing boat after boat in the  design stakes.  Designers are just not giving people a choice to make between traditional central heating systems, with radiators, or underfloor heating systems. Perhaps I really mean the engineers? In reality, it’s perhaps 6 of one and half-dozen of the other.

Are we humans the problem?

Radiators are so ingrained in our psyche that we humans actually notice when they are missing, because you expect to see one in every room you walk into. They are handy, because they chuck out heat and you can dry your clothes and your towels on them. This is something that you can’t do with air conditioning, mind you, it is difficult with underfloor heating too, but you can at least have heated towel rails installed.

Let’s face it, wall mounted units at home are never going to really take off. Perhaps with the exception of home offices, and with the boom in self-employment in recent years we have noticed that more people are going this way. These people are smart, because when they work from home they are normally spending most of the day in just one room. This means that the central heating stays off, even in the winter, and they have heating and cooling in just one room, they don’t have to heat the whole house just to keep the study warm.

Unfortunately, split type air conditioning systems need to have an indoor unit and an outdoor unit to function. This is also a detractor for people at home, and also in business on many occasions, especially in conservation areas. This is an area where I think designers are not giving due consideration to people’s needs.

I wouldn’t want a big fan box (condensing unit) stuck in my back garden or alley way, let alone half way up the wall of my house. But, if my house had been constructed in such a way that a housing unit could have been built in then I think I could bear the fan being on show as long as there is no noise, and with most modern units there is virtually no noise at all, even when they are operating at full tilt.

I would certainly hope that when heat pump technology takes off in this country that it will be designed with modern homes in mind and not a vague after thought. Let’s be honest, we’ve tolerated boilers being on show for long enough, that, like radiators, we expect to see them.

This is also where I can see Ground Source Heat Pumps gaining big ground, they have designed their equipment to look like it belongs in the 21st Century, there is far less what I would call: natural opposition, to it from an aesthetics stand point.

It’s not all bad

One of the best new products I have seen in recent years is the: Lofty (we are not associated in any way). This is a system that sits in your loft, so it’s invisible to the eye, and it serves the upstairs rooms in your house. This is normally where people want air conditioning at home anyway in the UK. The Lofty is not a true air-conditioner, but it does provide conditioned air of sorts through its ventilation system along with giving you good air movement, essential to controlling temperature.

People can stand the daytime heat when at home, I mean let’s face it – rationing ended years ago, except for British sunshine, which has been on ration for an eternity.

Other systems known as mini-duct systems are also catching on, I can see these being a potential choice for some Architects in the future for new build houses. One of the better mini-duct systems around is a system called Hi-Velocity, but unless your house is designed around it, it can be difficult to install without interior changes. This system is available in the UK.

One of our favoured companies, Mitsubishi Electric, who in fairness to them are grasping the nettle. They have a system called Ecodan, which is air source heat pump technology for the home primarily, it will also work equally well in small office buildings. Koolwarm Services Ltd will start to offer this product towards the end of the summer 2010.

It’s easy to be a critic

I don’t want to sound like I’m putting the industry down, after all it is the industry where my company makes its living. But, like a lot of people, organisations and even entire industries – sometimes need a kick up the back side. A jolt, to get some fresh thinking going.

You only have to look at what the electronics industry has done with Televisions over the last decade to see what innovative thinking can lead to, and they are still not content, as they continue to radically innovate. However, I don’t dismiss that there is an imbalance in the demand of TV’s compared to air conditioning, of course there is, but there is no demand for dated, ugly-looking TV’s any more either.

What I want is innovative action. From leading designers and manufacturers, to give the market something new. I promise we will market it, promote it, love it and above all we will sell it. Sell it with vigour, and passion, because we have something new and worthy that gives a true benefit to consumers, but without any undesirable elements.

I’m sick and tired of seeing what amounts to nothing more than a “face lift” every year. The automotive industry is good at that, but they know people get sick of the same old- same old, that’s why they launch new technology and new models every five years. The air conditioning industry needs to have a big shake up, it needs to park its bum on a chair and stay there until they deliver something truly worthy of recognition as a global innovation.

Make us a new Coach, and let us take Cinderella to the Ball.

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Interviewing a contractor doesn't have to be difficult.

For probably 90% or more of the population a boiler change is going to be something that you are going to do roughly every ten years. It is a major outlay in the overall cost of running your home, and it’s one of those absolute necessities that you cannot avoid.

A big drive in the UK at the moment is the Boiler Scrappage Scheme, I have to say that the government have done an outstanding job with this scheme, and that also extends the Energy Saving Trust who are the caretakers and managers, for want of a better term, of the scheme.

The Energy Saving Trust is a revelation in my eyes, you won’t often find me going out of my way to give praise to government bodies or too many of the associated departments and partners. But just occasionally, one or two of them develop into shining stars.

This is very true of the Energy Saving Trust, in all aspects of what they do. The web site is excellent, the clarity of the information is second to none. Gone are the old legal-eagle type documents that only a lawyer could read and understand. Praise due indeed for developing an information site so varied and comprehensive, but so easy for the common men and women who run homes to understand too.

I’ll be writing a separate post in more detail about the Energy Saving Trust and also the Carbon Trust, which is another of the shining stars to develop in recent times. Look out for that article soon.

The above opening was necessary to relate to some information that is below, so lets get back on topic.

A little knowledge, a lot of power

It can be daunting getting someone you don’t know to come and give you advice about such a major outlay as a boiler. Particularly if you have a conventional heating system currently, with a hot water storage tank. This type of system takes a lot more work to replace for a modern condensing combi boiler, for instance.

Having a little knowledge can at least give you some confidence to ask questions, in some ways maybe even interrogate, your plumber. That’s a good thing, most old school plumbers will appreciate you asking them questions, and because they have been around the block more times than they care to remember, they will normally happily engage you in conversation.

Ask questions of your heating contractor

Asking questions can draw out a lot about your potential contractor’s personality, always remember that first impressions really do last. If your plumber gets a bit defensive when you ask a relevant question, then you should maybe ask yourself what it could be like if you wanted a pipe moving during the installation – will they bite at that too?

When you ask questions, relevant questions, then plumbers that are not really “in-the-know” will stumble, possibly go a little quiet. Sometimes they might even puff their chest  out and start drivelling  on about utter rubbish.

It’s normally apparent, if you can make good enough eye contact. Don’t be shy, the contractor is there to prove – to you – that they know what they are talking about. They also need to prove that they are flexible and will accommodate your wishes to get the job done the way that you want it done, not the way that makes the quickest buck for them…

Be clear about what you are asking for

…Now in saying that, you should also bear in mind that if you are asking for “extras” you should be upfront about it before the plumber gives you his price. If there is a pipe you want moving or maybe some prep work for another piece of work you have planned for later down the road, then make sure you ask all of this up front.

It pays to sit down for half an hour and write down a simple list before you even make the first call towards finding a plumber or gas engineer. You could use this Specification Letter to write down your notes, or even copy it to hand to the contractors that you ask to quote.

It also pays to keep a record of what each contractor is offering, this should be clear in their quote to you, but it’s always good to see it side-by-side, you could use this handy quote comparison form to compare each quote.

If something occurs during the job, and the plumber needs to charge you for it, which is totally natural in some cases, then don’t be afraid to barter.

Be flexible yourself, but challenging also

Above all, never be afraid to get a second opinion. Always make sure you use a qualified source for your second opinion, as there are so many armchair plumbers around who aren’t aware of building regulations and laws, not to mention the implications of them.

If your plumber tells you he can’t do something for a reason, maybe because of a building regulation, then ask him to show you. Our plumbers carry around the Watts Handbook, and will gladly show you a specific regulation if you ask for something that is technically not legal. The book costs about £25, if your plumber can’t afford that or doesn’t think it’s required – perhaps you should question it.

Whenever anybody quotes you a regulation, law or bye-law then always ask to see it – from them. Don’t let them make you go off and find it yourself, that is their job. It’s what you are paying for.

All of the questions are below – but I strongly advise you to read this whole article to give you some context in which to ask the questions.

Word of mouth goes a long way, but not as long as the internet

Use the internet to research plumbers, you can even use sites like MyBuilder who are in the UK and provide tradesmen that have certified feedback from real customers just like you. Be wary of tradesmen with very low feedback scores as they can purchase feedback for up to 3 customers – who in reality could be their sister, their auntie and their granny. That is not to say that all tradesmen fall into that description, but just be aware.

MyBuilder is a very good site though in general terms. There are of course other similar sites, you are free to choose another one but we recommend on the basis of knowing this particular site. The one good thing about MyBuilder is that you can get several quotes for your job, receive the quote through the web site and you have the opportunity to give feedback at the end, which is public information, and tends to keep most good tradesmen on their toes.

Of course, just like Ebay, you get tradesmen that open up multiple accounts and as soon as they get bad feedback just open a brand new account and start again. That’s just life. As long as you ask relevant questions to every tradesman that comes into your home you should avoid the undesirable side.

Put the player in front

If you are the unassuming type but maybe your wife isn’t shy in coming forward, then you need to choose who does the talking. By letting your pride get in the way, you’ll likely line yourself up to be steam-rolled  by the less scrupulous contractors, should you be unlucky enough to engage one.

If you are both unassuming or shy, then get that friend you know, yes,  the one whose a bit loud, to do the talking. That’s what communities and friends are for isn’t it?

It’s always good to have someone else’s point of view, but if you are the private type, then at least arm yourself with some knowledge, like the kind that you will find here.

In any instance, always be challenging and ask questions, when you are told something then ask: Why is that relevant to me. If the contractor can’t expand on his own suggestion, then something is not quite right. Further more, when the answer sounds like something it smells like, it normally is (if you know I mean).

Just to set the record straight

It may appear as though I have been a little over zealous above in describing some of the less savoury contractors, this was intentional. A five minute lapse of concentration or conceding to every whim of your contractor could land you in hot water, or not, as the case may be, and won’t make you feel great either.

However, I do want to point out that the less scrupulous types are a definite minority. You will be unlucky to get landed with one, but someone does everyday in the UK and many hundreds of times too, just don’t let it be you.

I don’t want to use the term cowboys, because this infers that the contractor is just an outright crook and doesn’t know what they are talking about. This is not always the case, many many unscrupulous contractors are excellent tradesmen in reality, but they won’t think twice about notching up your bill bit-by-bit, or worse, lots-by-lots.

These are the types that are more difficult to spot, because they genuinely DO know what they are doing, they ARE NOT cowboys, but THEY ARE devoid of morals none-the-less.

Personally speaking, there is a small difference between someone botching my job, and someone charging me double what they quoted for a decent job. Both are immoral, ok the latter is more preferable if you take the “better the devil you know” stance, but still, it’s crooked.

How to interrogate your potential contractor

Please bear in mind that this article is focussed on changing your boiler. Even though the article is a little more rounded in the advice it’s giving in a more general sense, which is because it’s the first in a series of articles.

I will write several articles in the future which focus on things such as changing your kitchen, bathroom, loft, garage conversion etc etc. Watch out for those in the coming weeks..

Ok, I don’t really mean interrogate, it’s a light-hearted take on asking your contractor relevant questions. Interviewing them, I suppose you could call it.

When you invite a contractor into your home, the process is as much about you interviewing them, as it is about the contractor interviewing you.

Don’t forget that the contractor will trying to see if you will be a good customer, you should be prepared to give signals that you are, in return for signals from your contractor that they are fair and flexible, and above all – professional.

Questions you need to ask

• Ask your contractor why they are suggesting the type of boiler that they are proposing. Ask them to expand on why, not just a two sentence answer. This is an important decision in the process, it should take a minute or two to explain it.
• If you have a water tank currently, and your plumber is suggesting a condensing combi boiler as a replacement, then ask about the Kw rating of the boiler that they are proposing. Importantly, ask about the flow rate of water on demand, e.g. 9 litres a minute, 15 litres a minute. This is important if you live in a medium to large property where there are likely to be several people in the house and possibly more than one bathroom. If you have two kids who live in the shower, and you want to fill up the sink with hot water, then you want to know that the hot water will be there when you need it. You don’t want to be waiting for one shower to finish, before the other one can be used. Ask your contractor how they calculated the hot water flow rate you would need for your home. If you live in a large property it is highly unlikely that a condensing combi boiler will be a suitable choice.
• Another consideration is your heating system. You want to ensure that there is enough power given to the combined use of the hot water that you will need and also in conjunction with any heating demand that is placed on your boiler. You should not have to choose either/or, you should have both at all times. Ask your plumber how they calculated if you would need any stored hot water, or not, as the case may be. If you have several basins, sinks, bathrooms and showers and you live in a fairly sizeable property with several people in the house, it is likely that you will need some stored hot water.
• If your contractor did not measure the flow rate of your cold water, in other words – your mains pressure, and is suggesting a combi boiler, then you should ask why they have not measured it. Combi boilers often will not work at their optimum if the mains water pressure, and therefore – flow rate, is not high enough.
• Check to see what size copper pipe is currently coming from your boiler. It should be 22mm, or for very old systems 3/4″ pipe. You should have a decent length of pipe running into the property on larger pipe as this holds heat in the water whilst it is dispersed around the house. It is most likely that you have 22mm or 3/4″ already, but we occasionally see homes where there is 15mm all the way through. If you have 15mm pipe already installed. Ask your contractor is they will be installing 22m copper from the boiler into the house. If they say no, challenge them on it.
• If your contractor proposed a pressurised tank system, sometimes referred to as an unvented cylinder system. Ask your contractor how they calculated the KW rating of the boiler and the volume/size of your cylinder if you have been proposed a system like this.
• Boiler Oversizing: A lot of contractors either can’t, or can’t be bothered to, calculate the exact requirements of your home. They will often oversize all of the equipment to be on the safe side. This is bad practice, it will cost you more in the initial outlay, and can cost more to run over time. Sometimes the servicing costs can be higher, and maintenance can also be higher when considering spare parts prices. We have given a quick way for you to calculate the heating requirements for your home, room by room. This is not an approved method, but for gauging your requirements yourself it is more than adequate and it is easy to work out. Don’t forget to ask your contractor for the design calculations that they are proposing for your particular system. If they can’t provide them, question it.
• If you are having your new boiler situated in a different location to your current one then ask your contractor if they will be removing the old piping in the airing cupboard. This is a job which is a pain in the neck for any contractor, but if you want it, they should offer to do it. This is just one of those points of professionalism to watch for. Don’t pay more for this item. This only applies if you are trading a conventional boiler for a combi boiler. You don’t want to be left with an airing cupboard that you can’t use to store more towels in, for instance.
• Your contractor should also do a pressure/rate test on your gas supply. If your contractor hasn’t done this before they propose a boiler then ask them why. Don’t accept reasons like: Oh we’re just swapping like for like. Just because a ten or twenty year old boiler is working ok with the current gas rate, doesn’t mean that the new one will. It should be one of the first things that your contractor checks. The tool they should use is called a: Monometer (you can tell them this, it will let them know that you have done some research).
• Ask to see your contractor’s credentials. As a minimum they need to be Gas Safe Registered. Just because their vehicle has a Gas Safe Logo on it, doesn’t mean to say that they are qualified. You can check the validity of their credentials on the Gas Safe Register web site.
• Ask your contractor what Inhibitors that they will be adding to your system. This is very important, it is important generally as it provides protection for your boiler and heating system from the build up sludge and corrosion. It can be especially important for certain boilers and manufacturers that offer extended warranty on the basis that you have such additives added to the heating system when your boiler is changed. Ask your contractor to show you the small print regarding your extended warranty, if you are being offered such a warranty.
• Ask if your contractor will be fitting a cleaning system such as an Adey MagnaClean system. This will normally be extra, but they are such a sensible addition, and will provide continual protection from metallic debris floating around your system. These products really do give a boiler and the whole heating system a longer life, as well as a more productive life, which means less maintenance cost for you.
• Ask about your Central Heating Clock, if you have an old manual clock it is probably best advised to change it. We know this is an undesirable thing, in fact most people love their new boiler but hate their new clock – because they are so used to the old one. Your plumber should offer you a variety of controls that suit your needs. If you want a simple clock then tell them, and make sure that they only charge for what you have asked for. You should be absolutely clear about this right from the start when you ask for a quote.
• Room Thermostat. There are lots of different Programmable Room Thermostats on the market these days. The radio frequency ones are particularly good as they are completely wireless. If you want a simple dial type room thermostat then, like the clock above, make sure you are clear about what you want up front. We would normally advise you to go for an all in one programmable room thermostat and timer.
• If you are having new radiators all the way through the house, or even just one or two, then make sure you ask for thermostatic radiator valves to fitted. These are mandatory in a bedroom, but you should have them fitted all through the house wherever possible, sometimes there are restrictions, but these are great energy saving devices and relatively low cost.
• We normally offer to use valves that have drainage ports for all radiators, these make it so much easier to drain the radiator when needed. The additional cost is minimal compared to a normal valved. Ask your plumber if they can fit this type of valve.

The best thing you can do once you’ve determined that you have a good contractor is to develop a good relationship with them. This doesn’t mean throw caution to the wind, if your contractor needs extra money for something then make sure you get it in writing, with a breakdown of charges, and if your instinct tells you it’s not quite right, then get a second opinion.

If your contractor won’t give you a breakdown then challenge them. I cannot think of any situation where a lack of transparency was a help. My company gives everything in writing, but we also go to a great length to give as much as possible without charging customers that develop good relationships with us, and we have many of them. When you give, you get, it’s a rule of life.

If you are willing to give feedback as feedback, then you should also be willing to accept feedback as feedback. If your contractor is being unreasonable because you have been unreasonable then it goes without saying that your job will be carried out under an air of tension. Nobody wants that, always try to clear the air.

We're warming some related posts up, check back soon..

So, like I said in the introduction post, some of the posts will be slightly “off the wall”,  just meaning there is no technology involved – just things that you might walk past a hundred times a day and not realise they can reduce energy and waste, and also save you some money.

So to start with, I thought I’d choose something really off the wall, normally posts won’t be as simplified as this one.

I will also try to show some realistic savings whenever I can, but sometimes like this post, I won’t be able to make an estimate reasonable enough that I’d want to stick my neck out for it. If you think you can calculate the cost savings, then you are more than welcome to try and make a comment below so that we can all read about it.

A bit of background… I am what you might term as a deep-thinker – just plain ol’ nuts in some respects. But I often ponder things that are quite abstract. By that, I mean things that perhaps half the population may never think of, and the other half would never want to think of. This idea was one of the things of I thought about over a year ago, and have been doing it ever since.

So, Energy Saving Milk Jugs, what are they?

It’s more of a statement of fact, if you think about it, how many times a day do you go to the fridge and open the door to get a bottle of milk out for a cup of tea, or coffee, or cereal etc etc.

I tend to work from home quite regularly, if I’m not out and about, which these days I don’t tend to be, I’m either at the office or at home working there. So if you take an average week day (Mon-Fri) in our house, the fridge door can be opened something like this:

• =4: 4 kids each will do cereal prior to school, normally one after another after the first battle of the day (for the bathroom)
• =6: At least two hot drinks will be made so that’s another +2 fridge door openings
• =7: Someone will have toast so out comes the butter (can’t do anything about that one)
• =8: Me or her indoors does the school run and the other one will have a drink ready for the other’s return
• =11: Minimum another 3 cups of tea before lunch
• =12: Lunch made, butter out and maybe something to throw on a sandwich
• =15: Minimum another 3 cups of tea before fetching kids from school
• =16: Another cup of tea after fetching kids
• =20: Minumum another 4 cups of tea or coffee prior to dinner
• =22: Fridge opened at least a couple of times whilst making dinner
• =24: Normally another couple of drinks prior to bed, sometimes one of the kids will eat cereal for supper or have a drink of milk

Now this is the number of times that you open the fridge to get something out, but most times you also need to put something back into the fridge when you’ve used it. If the milk is used up, for example, then you don’t open the fridge to put it back but you have got to open the fridge to put the new bottle in so we’ll say you can safely double the tally above.

That makes: 48 times in an average day that the fridge door is opened in our house, so during the course of a week that makes 336 times, and so on, like this:

• Daily: 48
• Weekly: 336
• Monthly: 1,440 (using a 30 day month)
• Annually: 17,520 (over 365 days)

Why opening the fridge door costs money

Every time you open the fridge door, the warm air from the room will enter into the cold fridge so when you close the door the fridge then needs to chill that warm air that you just let in.

Even worse, if you took out the milk and left the fridge door open whilst you made the cup of tea before putting the milk back and closing the door – shame on you – and you would be horrified if you realised how much electric you are burning unnecessarily by doing that.

When you leave the door open to the fridge, well it [the fridge] doesn’t know that the door is open so it tries to make the whole room cold and suddenly kicks into cooling mode to try and cool down the whole kitchen, or worse, the whole outside of England if your fridge is in the garage.

Simple cost free energy saving solutions

So, I was thinking about this and even though I couldn’t quantify how much money I could save by just having a milk jug – I knew it must be tons of money (at least compared to the cost of the jug). If you think that milk is pence to buy, but you have to buy it anyway, then why add more pence to it in electricity (which incidentally was going to be the alternative title to this blog post – Electric Milk)

Open your fridge 10,000 times less a year

Out of the original daily trips to the fridge I estimated that I could save about 30 fridge door openings per day, or 10,950 per year. Now a Milk jug costs about £2.99 at Sainsbury’s (or any other supermarket).

So, does £2.99 spent on a jug pay for itself? By my reckoning it must pay for itself within a few short weeks, or about 2,737 fridge openings – that is my pure assumption.

If someone with a good maths brain would care to try and figure it out, I’d love to hear from you and I’m sure many others would too.

Some additional ways to reduce fridge energy consumption

There are a number of other ways to reduce the cost of energy consumption with your fridge, and you if read between the lines and get into the right mindset you can apply this thought process to almost every other appliance in your home.

Here are some other ways to save money with your fridge alone, I will publish a later post to try and summarise some all round savings that apply to other appliances and other energy consuming products in the home.

• Ensure there is a good gap around the  cooling system at the back of your fridge. Your fridge relies on good air circulation around the cooling system to be efficient, when you restrict the gap around the fridge you can drastically reduce the energy efficiency, even if you have the latest A+ rated appliance.
• Try not to keep the fridge empty, when the fridge is empty and you open the door there is more space for warm air to go into the fridge. If your fridge is full you can significantly reduce the effect that opening the fridge door has on additional energy consumption.
• Put things back into the fridge as soon as you are finished with them, leaving things out of the fridge allows them to warm up. When you put them back into the fridge it then needs to cool it back down to the correct temperature, which a 6 pint bottle of milk will consume a lot of energy to cool back down from room temperature, but if you buy a milk jug then you’ll only need to open it once or twice all day.
• Position your fridge away from other heat sources, if your fridge is near your oven it will certainly consume a lot more energy than if it were positioned in the coolest place in the kitchen. That also goes for radiators which should never be near a fridge. If you have underfloor heating you should insulate the base of the fridge from the floor with a reflective mat, this will pay for itself in next to no time.
• Position your fridge away from direct sunlight, i.e. windows/doors. A process known as solar gain is where the heat from sunlight is amplified through glass, think of a south facing conservatory and how warm they get right from first light in the morning.
• Consider installing air conditioning, especially if you live mainly in one room. During the cold months you will still use your central heating unless you have a central air conditioning system which is without doubt the best energy saving investment you will ever make at home, on a par with any other heat pump technology.
• If your fridge has an ice maker, and particularly if you don’t use it, then have it disconnected. It is much more economical to buy a bag of ice and keep it in the freezer. In some light research I did around the internet the consensus seems to indicate that this increases your fridge energy consumption by at least 10% (WOW! that’s a lot). From what I read, even if you don’t use the ice maker it still consumes power! Perhaps this does not apply to every model, but it is worth noting and finding out about your model.
• Auto defrost fridges, these are something of a grey area, whilst it is certain that a frosted up fridge consumes a lot more energy, as much as 20% by all accounts, the auto-defrosting functions also consume additional power. I suppose you need to weigh this up against all of the other information in this list here, and if you are doing most of them then at least you have minimised the additional waste. Frosted up fridges/freezers consume more energy due to the fact that the frosted up ice needs to be kept frozen but it also acts as an insulator between the fridge and the contents inside, therefore causing additional chilling to be required. 20% is a heck of a lot of energy, just this one factor equates to you running your fridge for an extra 1½ days a week (in theory 8½ days per week) – think about that.
• Upright freezers are by default less efficient, if you don’t need a half and half fridge/freezer and you have room for a chest freezer then you should opt for one. Modern uprights are in fact a great improvement on older models, but the fact is that opening the door chews up energy like a kid with candy-floss – it’s gone in a voosh! Chest freezers are less prone to this effect.
• An empty freezer will eat more money than a plague of locusts, this offender has more ASBO’s than that kid in your street. Never ever leave a freezer empty because cold air escapes instantly upon opening the door. Even if you don’t keep the fridge full of normal food stuffs, then keep it full of bread, or even bags of newspaper, seriously. Bread is cheap, freezes brilliantly and lasts a while in the freezer. When you open the door, bread isn’t likely to jump out to make way for warm air, and this makes a big difference to the energy savings you will easily reap. If you take a large item out of the freezer and it’s likely to be a few days before you restock it, then get a carrier bag full of scrunched up newspaper and pop it in the gap, you can even do the “here’s one I made earlier” with this.

In a later post I will go into a bit more detail on the things to consider when you are looking to purchase a new fridge or freezer, that will save you money from the day you plug it in.

Here is a good link to give you some idea of how much energy your appliances use, it’s a USA site so you will need to do some simple math in your head, but it gives you a good insight into energy conusumption.

I’d love to hear your thoughts, your take on this post and if  you were surprised by some of the information?

All comments here are do-it-yourself, contribute by knocking one in below.

Related posts:

1. Garlic Flavoured Chocolate

Ok, so I’m going to give you a flavour of things to come in the future here in the blog. This is an introductory post to indicate what you can expect from some of the posts that we will publishing here in the advice blog. I hope the title of this post grabbed your attention, Garlic Flavoured Chocolate, its the kind of thing that we will be doing to get your attention – and hopefully save you some money in the process.

I’m not trying to typecast the flavour of our advice blog before I start, but just let you see a snippet of some of the help we’ll give you that is sometimes:

• Practical
• Off The Wall
• Free Easy to Achieve Savings
• Savings Requiring Small Investment (quick return)
• Savings Requiring Small Investment (long return)
• Savings Requiring Modest/Larger Investment

Now without labouring over each item above, because I want to get to the meat of this post, I’ll give you a one-breath definition of each:

Practical - All the advice we give will be practical, it’s what you potentially choose to do with it that may make it impractical.

Off The Wall – Think Outside the Box, these will be posts about every day ‘waste’ that you can save by avoiding the needless waste of anything that consumes power, fuel, electric or gas.

Free Easy to Achieve Savings – Some topics will require no investment for you to achieve a saving, we may not always be able to quantify the savings but rest assured a saving will be achievable.

Savings Requiring Small Investment (quick return) – A saving that may require you to spend a few quid to achieve it (a good example would be energy saving light bulbs..)

Savings Requiring Small Investment (long return) – A saving that, again, may require you to spend a few quid to achieve the saving, but these are savings you will typically make if you are the “earth friendly” type, and I say that with the greatest of respect – because I am personally in this group, they will ’save the earth’ before they ’save you the earth’

Savings Requiring Modest/Larger Investment – These are savings that can achieve from investments that you only plan once in a while – like a new boiler, or a new tumble dryer or something akin to that. Other headings in this group will be such as solar, wind and renewable energy, heat pumps etc. Much larger investments but bringing much larger savings.

All things to all people

This is certainly not what we intend to be, or are trying to be, I can say here and now that on some topics, better advice may exist out there somewhere in internetland. On others we may be first to the batting crease, we are not innovating in this blog, we are communicating, which means that we will be taking available information and jigging it so that it is understandable for everyone.

One thing I see all the time is people trying to portray themselves as “6th Dann Nuclear Fissionists” Professors, trying to be clever clogs and baffling anyone who everyone who they talk to. If you want your advice to be easy to read, easy to understand, and above all, easy to remember then here is where it is – after all if you ate Garlic Flavoured Chocolate you’d remember that, wouldn’t you?

If you have a comment or suggestion then please make it below.

We are open to all comments with the exception of disrespectful, aggressive and derisory comments – which will be deleted by the administrator during moderation without exception.

All comments are DIY. Knock one in below.

We're warming some related posts up, check back soon..

For now, all of the information regarding the changes we are making is all on front page of this website and will eventually be moved here when we introduce our new home page after the online store goes live.

That’s as much as we can say about that right now, so why don’t you head on over to home page and take a look around from there.

For those that made it to this point of the page, then we’ll give you some more information because you seem so persistent heh heh!

What you will find in this section of the web site in future is news articles, information about new products and probably most importantly free advice. Naturally it will take some time to build up a large knowledge base but if we get enough response and help from the wider community of engineers – What!! people that work for other companies can post here! Actually – YES. We hope to attract a core community of people – especially local tradesmen – some we will know – some you will know – that can give advice here.

Naturally, as you would expect, we don’t want any old armchair DIY know-it-all (who really knows nothing) giving you duff advice about the latest deep bore ground source heatpump systems – or even something more banal like changing a tap washer. You can rest assured that everyone who wants to join us as an advisor will be vetted and sweated before being allowed to post. After all we might learn something too!

Anyway, getting back the core of what I was trying to explain, if we get enough response then Koolwarm will purchase and install an online professional knowledge base which will be freely available to the local community and to which the community can contribute to, actually anybody can contribute to it but this is something that we want to focus on giving to our local community but it is obvious that everywhere is local on the internet. So if you’re a Midlander, Tammy (youth!), Brummy, Black Country whatever, help us build a knowledge base that can help anyone-anywhere-with-anything. It doesn’t have to be heating or plumbing oriented or even building at all, if your Grandad has a magic formula for growing big tomatoes then post it here and let everyone learn.

As soon as we see that there is a good flow of regular posts and information and this web site has outgrown its purpose we will make the investment, please check out the link to see a video of the Interspire Knowledge Manager that we are referring to.

Are you part of a support group that could really benefit from an online website and blog? We’re giving ‘em away free!

If you are a local Tamworth community group and you want somewhere to store information for open access then you’ll be able to place it here – want a special place on our website to have your own discussions on topics in private – no problem, just ask us. You just need to supply us with your official information, then come and briefly meet us so that we can see who you are – and presto! you’ll have your own subdomain with your own blog – please note that this is strictly restricted to organisations, support groups and genuine/ethical not-for-profit organisations in Tamworth – only!

Please also note that our servers have finite capacity so we may have to limit the number of applications depending on the response – early birds get the worms!

We're warming some related posts up, check back soon..