Air conditioning guides
Twelve guides on air conditioning - how it works, sizing, refrigerants, installation, running costs, siting and noise.
Read more →Short answer
Guides covering oil, gas, hot water, heating, water treatment, bathrooms, emergencies and F-Gas compliance. They exist because most of what we get asked on the phone is the same set of questions, and if reading a page saves you a call-out that is a good outcome.
Why these exist
Most of what we get asked on the phone is the same set of questions. Why is the boiler pressure dropping. Why is one radiator cold. Why has the hot water got worse. What does this fault code mean. Is this an emergency.
Those questions have answers, and most of them do not require a visit. Writing them down properly is more useful than answering them one at a time, and if a page saves you a call-out we would rather that than take a fee for something you could have resolved in five minutes.
A few principles that apply across all of them:
- Written from the work. What we actually find, not what a manufacturer’s brochure says should happen.
- Free checks first. Where there is something you can check yourself, it is near the top.
- No invented figures. Where we do not have a defensible source for a number, we say so rather than publishing something plausible.
- Honest about limits. Several pages say plainly where our competence ends and whose trade it is instead.
- No lead-capture. Nothing is gated, nothing requires an email address.
The clusters
| Cluster | Covers |
|---|---|
| Oil heating | Servicing, lockouts, running dry, condensate, tanks, siting, brands, efficiency and buying oil. The most detailed section, because this county needs it |
| Gas | Boiler types, replacement, CP12, services, fault codes, pressure, Boiler Plus, flues, pipe sizing, warranties |
| Hot water | Vented and unvented, G3, annual servicing, expansion vessels, sizing, troubleshooting, conversions, discharge pipework |
| Heating | Sludge, balancing, flushing, filters, underfloor, controls and radiator sizing |
| Water treatment | Why the water is hard here, what scale does, softeners, inhibitors, salt, installation and filtration |
| Bathrooms | Renovation timeline, tanking, accessible design, showers and pressure, ventilation, layouts and soil pipes |
| Emergencies | Stopcocks, bursts, frozen pipes, leaks, no water, what counts as urgent, insurance and isolation |
| Air conditioning | How it works, system types, sizing, refrigerants, installation, siting, running costs, servicing and noise |
| F-Gas compliance | What the regulations cover, CO2e and leak check frequency, logbooks, responsibility, phase-down, enforcement and recovery |
If you only read one thing
For a homeowner: find your stopcock. Ten minutes, and it is the difference between a wet floor and a flooded house. For a facilities manager: F-Gas: what the regulations actually cover, because it is the obligation most operators do not know they have.
The free checks, collected
Scattered across the guides are a number of things you can check yourself that resolve a real proportion of calls. Gathered here:
- Boiler pressure dropping? Look at the small discharge pipe outside. Wet, stained or algae below it means a relief valve is opening, which usually means a failed expansion vessel rather than a leak.
- Boiler down in a cold snap? Check the external condensate pipe for ice. Warm water over it, not boiling.
- Heating works, no hot water? Try the manual lever on the motorised valve. Thirty seconds, and it is the commonest cause on a cylinder system.
- One radiator cold at the top? Bleed it. Cold at the bottom is sludge, which is different.
- One radiator completely cold? Take the TRV head off and check the pin moves freely. They seize.
- Weak shower? Descale the head.
- Air conditioning not cooling? Filters, then the outdoor unit.
- No water at all? Ask a neighbour before calling anybody.
- Dirty system suspected? Drain a little into a jar and hold a magnet to the outside.
None of those cost anything and between them they explain a substantial share of the calls we take.
What we will not tell you
Several guides stop short of a number, and it is deliberate:
- Prices. We will publish them when we have a dataset from our own completed work – see what things cost.
- Heating oil prices. No licensed source, and scraping comparison sites is not a foundation we will build on.
- A water hardness figure for your postcode. The numbers circulating online are unverified. Your water company publishes the authoritative one.
- Specific F-Gas thresholds and dates. They are set in regulation and they change; we describe the structure and point you at the current guidance.
- Reliability statistics for boiler brands. We have not collected data that would support them.
The discipline is the point. A site that will not publish an unsourced number is a site whose sourced numbers you can rely on.
Cannot find what you are looking for? Call and describe it – and if it is a question worth writing up, we will.
Questions we get asked about this
Who writes these?
We do, from the work. They are not rewritten manufacturer literature and they are not commissioned copy. Where a page states a regulation or a standard, it says which.
Are they specific to Norfolk?
Much of it applies anywhere, and the emphasis is local – heavy on oil because this county is heavily off-grid, and heavy on hard water because of the chalk geology.
Do I have to give an email address to read them?
No. Nothing here is gated, nothing is behind a form, and nothing requires registration.
Can I follow the instructions myself?
Where a guide describes a check you can safely do, yes – and we say so explicitly. Where work requires competence or certification, the guide says that too rather than implying anybody can do it.
Will you write about my problem?
Possibly. Several of these exist because the same question came up repeatedly on the phone. If yours is one of those, tell us.
Why do some guides refuse to give a figure?
Because we only publish numbers we can trace to a source we can stand behind. Where we cannot, saying so is more useful than inventing something plausible.
Regulations and standards referenced on this page
- Approved Document L: conservation of fuel and power (the Boiler Plus measures apply in England) — Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
- Regulation (EU) No 517/2014 on fluorinated greenhouse gases, as retained and amended in GB law — UK Statute Law Database
- Fluorinated gases (F gases): guidance for operators and engineers — Environment Agency / Defra
Services
What we cover
Bathroom guides
Six guides on bathrooms - renovation sequence, wet room tanking, accessible design, shower and pressure matching, ventilation and layout.
Read more →Central heating guides
Seven guides on central heating - cold radiators, balancing, flushing, magnetic filters, controls and sizing radiators properly.
Read more →Emergency guides
Eight guides for when something has gone wrong now - burst pipes, frozen pipes, leaks, no water, isolating heating, and insurance.
Read more →F-Gas compliance guides
Eight guides on F-Gas duties - what the regulations cover, leak check frequency and CO2e, logbooks, operator responsibility, and enforcement.
Read more →Gas and boiler guides
Twelve guides on gas boilers - choosing one, what a replacement involves, fault codes, pressure, flue rules and what a service should include.
Read more →Hot water guides
Eight guides on hot water systems - vented and unvented cylinders, Part G3, annual servicing, expansion vessels, sizing and discharge pipework.
Read more →Oil heating guides
Fourteen guides on oil boilers, tanks, siting rules and running costs - written for a county where oil is the normal way to heat a house.
Read more →Water quality guides
Nine guides on Norfolk's hard water - what limescale does, softeners versus inhibitors, running costs, installation requirements and filtration.
Read more →Need this doing?
Call and describe the problem — you will speak to an engineer, not a call centre. Written quotes, no estimates over the phone.