Hello. In this article I have three items from the heating, plumbing and solar panel world that might be of help to you.

First I surprised my parents recently when I told them that drinking water from the bathroom tap isn’t a great idea. This might apply to you too. The reason is that in most houses the bathroom taps are fed from the cold water tank in the loft. This water could have sat there for a few days or worse, if the tank has no lid, dust or other objects could have dropped in and tainted the water. So my advice is to get your drinking water from the kitchen tap as it is fed directly off the mains. Even better in our hard and chalky water area, fit a filter. There is no comparison in the taste of the water.

Second, I want to offer free support to those of you with boiler breakdown cover. I’ve had a number of you get in touch since my earlier article quoting The Guardian’s advice that ‘If you can find a good, trustworthy local plumber, this has to be the best option.’

The most common stories are from people being told that a part is needed and it’ll take a week to come or it’s no longer available. If this does happen to you, feel free to get the part number from the engineer and give me a call. I’ll be happy to let you know whether the part is still available and how quickly it can be had – 99% of parts I need I can get within 24 hours.

And finally definitely one to be aware of. The Guardian recently reported that ‘Thousands of households that agreed to rent their roofs to solar panel companies, in return for free electricity, could find their properties are unsaleable.’ In short, they have uncovered that it can be very difficult to remortgage if you go this route. Far better is to go the buy-it-yourself route. You can read more at How Solar Panels dim Mortgage Prospects on The Guardian site.

I hope this has been helpful. If I can help you at all, please give me a call on 07905 908143.

In this issue I want to tell you about a couple of new products in the plumbing and heating world, and a cunning plan to get the most out of a government incentive. But first I want to say a big thanks for the support of so many of you in the village. I never knew word of mouth could be so powerful.

The first new product fixes two problems with ordinary water softeners. As you probably know, we are in a hard water area. Until now, water softeners have needed topping up with salt – one customer estimated he spent £30 a month on salt – and the softened water wasn’t drinkable so you’d need a separate feed from the mains to go to the kitchen tap. Now there’s a new Continue reading →

First, thanks for the positive feedback on my article in the last issue of the magazine. In this issue, my thoughts turn to what I’ve seen in the village in the last few weeks and in particular how sometimes it’s the small things that matter.

Yes, sometimes substantial work is needed to improve a heating system so that it’s reliable and efficient. For example, the village is now that little bit ‘greener’ since I’ve replaced four old and unreliable boilers with Continue reading →