Heating
We are responsible for ensuring that you are safe in your home and that our gas appliances are regularly serviced and maintained. The meter and supply of gas to your home is your responsibility.
If you wish to install a gas appliance, you must obtain written permission from us.
It is important that airbricks and other ventilation channels are not blocked or obstructed.
Should one of our fixed gas appliances break down, please contact us to let us know.
Contact Wales & West straight away on 0800 111999.
You should also:
- Open all doors and windows.
- Switch off the gas supply at the mains.
- Check if the pilot light has gone out. If any gas appliances have been left on, turn them off. If the pilot light is still on and your gas appliances are off, there may be a gas escape.
- Do not switch lights on or off, use doorbells, mobile phones or any other electrical appliances.
- Do not smoke, light a match or any other kind of naked flame.
We will maintain and check all gas heating and hot water appliances, gas installation pipework, flues and chimneys on which gas appliances are installed so that any risks are minimised. We will visually inspect tenant owned gas appliances to ensure they are safe. This is in accordance with the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998.
To comply with gas safety regulations, we aim to have a valid Landlords Gas Safety Record (LGSR) for 100% of our properties at any time in the year.
Stroud District Council’s Gas Safe registered engineers will carry out a safety check every year.
As a tenant, it is your responsibility to allow our engineer access to your home, clear access to appliances and gas meter, to keep appointments that are made for your annual gas service, or contact us to rearrange an appointment you cannot keep (please refer to your tenancy agreement for further information).
If you need to rearrange a gas servicing appointment, please contact us.
If you do not give us access, you are preventing us from carrying out our legal obligation contained within the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 and you are in breach of your tenancy agreement.
If you do not telephone to make an alternative appointment, we will cap your gas supply where possible, or commence with legal action to gain entry to your home. You will be liable for all associated costs.
Carbon monoxide (CO) is known as the 'silent killer' as it is colourless and odourless. It can come from faulty appliances powered by any fuel such as gas, solid fuel and oil fuels.
Carbon monoxide can be produced when an appliance has been incorrectly fitted, badly repaired or poorly maintained. It can also occur if flues, chimneys or vents are blocked.
CO alarms detect the presence of this poisonous gas.
We fit a CO alarm in our tenants' homes with an open flue or chimney. If you are concerned and don’t have a CO alarm please contact the our repairs team on 01453 766321 or email property.care@stroud.gov.uk.
If your alarm is not working, please contact us and we'll arrange a repair for you.
Did you know? You're twice as likely to die in a fire if you don't have a working smoke alarm?
Mains-powered smoke alarms with a backup battery are fitted in all our properties. We will service these alarms once a year when we visit your property to check other things (such as a gas service), however it is your responsibility to check these at all other times.
We (and the fire service) recommend you:
- Test them every week by pushing the test button on the alarm
- Keep it clean using a vacuum nozzle or brush to remove cobwebs and dust on and around the alarm
- Don't paint over the alarm
- If you can't reach it use a broom handle or something similar to gently push the test button. You should replace the battery when needed. Never remove the battery except to replace it.
If you don't have a smoke alarm, your alarm doesn't work or it's a sealed unit, please contact us to report it as soon as you can and we'll send someone out to fix it for you.
Smoke alarms in the communal areas of sheltered schemes are regularly tested by the Site Officer.
If you want to fit a new gas appliance in your home, you must obtain written permission from us first. If permission is granted, you will need to do the following:
- The new appliance must be installed by a Gas Safe registered engineer. Visit the Gas Safe Register website for details
- Appliances must be installed according to the manufacturer’s instructions and the current gas safety (installation and use) regulations
- It is important that airbricks and other ventilation channels are not blocked or obstructed in any way
- The appliance must be inspected as part of our gas servicing programme
If you want to arrange a new gas supply, you must get permission from the Council before contacting the supplier, unless we are installing the gas heating for you.
If you have a problem with your gas meter, you will need to contact your energy supplier.
To find out who your gas supplier is, call the Meter Point Administration Services on 0870 608 1524 (calls cost 7p/min plus your network access fee). They may ask you for the serial number located on your meter.
A combination boiler only heats up water when you turn on a hot tap, so you don’t need to programme it. However, if you have a hot water cylinder, the water in the cylinder will need to be heated up during the course of the day.
In most cases, the functions on your programmer are:
- Auto or Twice means the heating goes on and off during the day at the times it has been programmed to do so
- 24hrs or On means the heating stays on all the time
- Off means the heating will remain off all the time
- All day or Once means the heating will switch on at the first ‘on’ setting you have programmed and then remain on until the last ‘off’ setting of the day
- Boost or +1hr switches the heating on for a one-hour boost of heat
Advance moves the programmer to the next ‘on’ or ‘off’ setting in the daily cycle
Programmer - Drayton LP111
This is a 24-hour time switch with 4 switching options, along with:
- Boost and advance
- Holiday mode
- Automatic summer/winter time change
- Built-in standard programme – 3 on/off settings
User instructions are available to download in our ‘How to guides, videos and useful downloads’ section.
Programmer - Horstmann CentaurPlus C17
The Horstmann CentaurPlus C17 timeswitch will allow:
- Up to 3 ON/OFF settings per day for each day of the week
- Has a 1-hour manual boost
- Advance button to temporarily override current settings
- A programming switch allowing permanent selection of OFF/ON/AUTO/ALL DAY
User instructions are available to download in our ‘How to guides, videos and useful downloads’ section.
A room thermostat is usually found in a hallway. It monitors the temperature in your home and tells the boiler to switch off when the house is warm enough.
Thermostats are normally set between 18 and 21°C.
Turning a room thermostat to a higher setting will not make the room heat up faster. How quickly the room heats up depends on the design of the heating system, e.g. size of boiler and radiators.
Neither does the setting affect how quickly the room cools down. Turning a room thermostat to a lower temperature will result in the room being controlled at a lower temperature, and saves energy.
The way to set and use your room thermostat is to find the lowest temperature you are comfortable with, and the leave it alone to do its job.
To do this, set the room thermostat to a low temperature, say 18°C, and then turn it up by one degree each day until you are comfortable with the temperature. You won’t have to adjust the thermostat further. Any adjustment above this setting will waste energy and cost you more money.
Room thermostats need a free flow of air to sense the temperature, so they must not be covered by curtains or blocked by furniture. Nearby electric fires, televisions, wall or table lamps may prevent the thermostat from working properly.
Standard room thermostat
Simply set the desired room temperature on the control knob against the setting mark.
Digistat+RF thermostat
To operate:
- The display normally shows the current room temperature to within 0.5°C
- To adjust the required temperature, turn the dial clockwise to increase, or anti-clockwise to decrease (1 click = 1°C). The LCD will display the temperature setpoint as it is being adjusted and ‘SET’ will be displayed. After a few seconds, the display will return to normal operation and will display the actual room temperature.
If you reach the maximum possible setting while adjusting the temperature during normal operation, the display will flash to indicate you cannot adjust the thermostat further.
A video is available to watch to see how to set minimum and maximum temperature limits on this type of thermostat or download the user guide for further information. Both can be found in our ‘How to guides, videos and useful downloads’ section.
To make sure you are safe in your home, we regularly check and service your solid fuel appliances. Faulty solid fuel appliances can be dangerous, so it’s important that you allow us to check them regularly.
We will arrange for the appliance to be serviced on an annual basis. If you have any issues with your solid fuel appliance, please contact us to arrange for an engineer to visit.
Please note, if you have a purpose provided vent for your heating appliance, please do not block this, as all heating appliances that produce heat from the combustion of carbon based fuels such as gas, oil and solid fuels, including wood burners, require enough fresh air from outside for complete combustion and to enable the products of combustion to safely exit through the chimney to the outside.
Permission for the installation of wood burners will be refused due to significant risks in respect of health & safety
Storage heaters work by storing heat generated by cheap night-time electricity and releasing this heat during the day.
They use electricity at night, when it’s cheap, and give out their heat during the day. They work best if you have Economy 7; a night-time electricity tariff (typically around 30% cheaper than day time electricity).
Traditional storage heaters have input and an output controls. The input control regulates the amount of heat your storage heater stores during the night. If it’s not particularly cold, or you’ll be out of the house for most of the day, you don’t need to set the input to maximum because you won't need so much heat.
As the winter gets colder, you’ll need to turn your input button up higher at bed time and set your output button as low as possible. The following day the output can be turned up as the day goes on. It’s important that at the end of every day you turn it back down to one for the start of a new day.
A user guide is available to download in our ‘How to guides, videos and useful downloads’ section.
Top tips
If you have a storage heater in a room that you’re not using - turn both dials down to one. This will help prevent mould and condensation.
Check the electrical switches to your heater are switched on and any fuses haven’t blown before contacting us.
For your safety, DON’T:
- dry clothes directly on the heater
- put anything flammable close to or touching storage heaters
The most common type of air source heat pumps found in our housing stock are Mitsubishi or Dimplex.
Air source heat pump systems generally consist of three main components: a heat pump, cylinder and control box. If your property has solar panels, the sun's energy will be used to heat your water, rather than the heat pump.
Your heat pump (see examples below) uses electricity to heat your radiators and hot water. It is located on an outside wall.
It’s important to keep the area around the heat pump clear of leaves or other items such as bushes. Otherwise, it will not operate correctly and may stop working altogether.
The cylinder (containing your hot water) and control box next to it, are usually located in an airing cupboard. Please do not touch the control box settings as any alterations may cause problems/stop your heating system working.
If you have any problems with your renewable heating system, or if an error code appears on the controller, please contact us to arrange for an engineer to visit.
Use the thermostat to control your heating. User guides for the most common thermostats we have installed can be found in our ‘How to guides, videos and useful downloads’ section.
If you live in a property with solar panels and there are any issues with it, please contact our contractor, LCX, on 01175 591414.
During periods of very cold weather your heating and hot water may fail.
Before you email us, you may be able to fix this quickly and easily with advice from the Heating and Hotwater Council:
1. Locate your condensate pipe
This is a (usually white) plastic pipe that runs along an outside wall, the other side of where your boiler is sited. If it's very cold or snowing it's possible that there is a blockage of frozen water in the pipe.
2. Unfreeze the blockage
Either by placing a hot water bottle or microwave heat pack on the condensate pipe, or pouring very hot (not boiling) water over it. Be aware that if you are pouring water onto the pipe this can freeze on the ground causing a slip hazard.
3. Reset your boiler
If you are unable to carry out the above then please email us at property.care@stroud.gov.uk
If you try this and still have no heating or hot water, please email us using the email address above.