Energy News

Brits spend £450m every year repairing boilers

Tuesday 8 March, 2011

By Dominic Welling dominic.welling@consumerchoices.co.uk

Brits end up paying nearly £450 million getting their boilers fixed each year as more than a third choose not to take out any insurance.

Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) are having no influence on homebuyers and are failing to help cut energy emissions, according to new research from Consumer Focus.

Households in the UK shelled out £447million last year getting their boiler fixed, after the harsh winter took its toll on peoples’ heating.

Five million houses across the country said that their boiler broke down in the last year as a result of the cold weather and the age of the boiler, according to boiler manufacturer Everest Energy.

However, due to lack of insurance, more than a third of these households had to pay out an average £256 in boiler repairs - meaning UK households have burned through at least £447million on repairing boilers in the past year alone.

Conversely, more than a quarter managed to avoid paying any repair bills because they had boiler insurance in place.

Roy Frost, managing director of Everest Energy, said: “The cold weather means that people crank up the heating and this puts additional demand on their boiler.

“Older boilers in particular can struggle to cope, so it’s worth checking how old your boiler is and considering replacing it if it’s over 10 years old.”

Just under half a million (466,000) households have had to cope with their boiler breaking down more than four times in the past 12 months and an unlucky few homes (90,000) have seen their boiler go on the blink 10 times or more, according to Everest Energy.