Winter weather and your home

We know that when the cold weather strikes, it can impact parts of your home including your heating and hot water which will of course affect you and your family.

Find out what to do if your pipes are frozen or your boiler is broken, here.

In times of particularly bad weather, Greatwell Works and Greatwell Heating can become extremely busy and will prioritise emergency situations. We also have to make sure our staff and those working on behalf of us are safe, particularly during icy and snowy conditions.

In many cases, there are things that you can do during bad weather conditions in order to unfreeze your pipes or check why your boiler isn’t working, before getting professional help.

Frozen pipes

  • If your outside condense pipe is frozen, pour hot water over the pipe or wrap a hot water bottle around the condense pipe.
  • Lift up your loft hatch and leave open for a day or two (and keep your heating on) to be able to heat up your loft.
  • Keep your home heated, were possible, at a consistent heat – even if it’s at low temperatures such as 15° or 16°. This will then heat the pipes and warm areas that are harder to access such as the loft.
  • If a pipe bursts, turn off the stopcock – if you are unsure as to where your stopcock is this is usually located under the kitchen sink.

 

Broken boiler

  • Check to see if you have credit on your gas/electric meter, if you have one.
  • Check that your gas meter doesn’t say ‘OFF’ – if it does, please ring your gas supplier and they will be able to assist you.
  • Check to see if the electrical isolation switch is on – this is usually the switch next to your boiler.
  • Check your room thermostat is turned up.
  • Check to see if you have any of the below fault codes.

Fault codes –

L2 (on ‘Ideal’ boilers)

E133 or E128 (on ‘Baxi’ or ‘Potterton’ boilers)

If you have any of the above fault codes on your boiler, this may mean that your condense pipe could be frozen – unfreeze them by using the tips above.

 

 

Get help

If you have done all of the above tips and your pipes are still frozen, or boiler is still not working, you can report your repair via your online account or contact us. Remember that in particularly bad weather conditions, our phone lines will be busy so using your online account may be quicker.