If you want to be sure of having heat and hot water available, you need to maintain your heater properly. Here we consider some of the things you can do to make sure that you do not wake up to a freezing cold home.
Lag your pipes
One the biggest reasons heating systems fail is that the pipe feeding the system bursts in cold weather. For this reason, your first step is to check that all of your pipes inside and outside of the home are properly insulated.
Give your heater room to breath
To work efficiently most heaters need air. The space around your heater is there to allow enough air to circulate to stop the system overheating and keep it running at maximum efficiently. If there are things on top of the heater or leaning up against it you should move them out of the way.
Get it serviced regularly
Perhaps the most important aspect of maintaining a heater is taking the time to get it serviced properly. A well-maintained heater will not only be more reliable it will also operate more efficiently. Not having your heater maintained usually works out as a false economy because your heater will only end up burning more fuel to keep your home warm. It will also be more prone to breaking down, which means paying large repair bills every few years.