Test the heating before you need it — the September check that avoids a cold, dark week
Heating systems fail on the first cold night, not in summer — and that is the worst time to discover it. Twenty minutes now, plus one carbon-monoxide check and one backup way to stay warm, is the whole job.
Published late. This briefing was due on Thursday 17 September.
Heating fails on the first cold night, not in summer
Every autumn, heating engineers get much busier after the first real cold snap — because that is when everyone turns the system on and discovers it does not work. A pilot light that will not hold, a pump that seized over summer, radiators cold at the top. Finding this out in September, when an engineer can come within days, is a minor annoyance. Finding it out in the first frost of November, when engineers are at their busiest, can mean a cold house for days.
The twenty-minute test
Run your heating now, before you need it. Turn it on, let it run for twenty minutes, and check three things:
- Does every radiator get hot all the way up? Cold at the top usually means trapped air — bleeding a radiator is a five-minute job with a small key and a cloth.
- Any smell, noise, or leak? A gas smell means stop, ventilate, and call the emergency line — do not switch anything electrical on or off. A new rattle or drip is worth a service call while appointments are easy to get.
- Is the thermostat actually controlling it? Change the battery if it is a wireless one; they die silently.
If you use wood or solid fuel, this is the week to have the chimney swept and check your stack of dry, seasoned fuel — not green wood, which chokes a flue and coats it in tar.
Carbon monoxide — the quiet one
Every heating source that burns something — gas, oil, wood, paraffin — can produce carbon monoxide if it is faulty or poorly ventilated. CO is colourless, odourless, and kills people in their sleep every winter across Europe. The defence is an inexpensive alarm marked EN 50291 and a habit: a working CO alarm in any room with a fuel-burning appliance, tested when you put the clocks back. Never run a camping stove, barbecue, or petrol generator indoors or in an attached garage — that is the classic fatal blackout mistake.
One backup way to stay warm
Heating and power fail together in winter storms. You do not need a second heating system — you need one backup way to keep one room and the people in it warm for a night: warm layers and a good sleeping bag or duvets per person, one closed-off room everyone gathers in, and the knowledge that bodies and blankets in a small room hold heat far better than any gadget.
One thing this week: run the heating for twenty minutes and bleed any radiator that is cold at the top; then test the carbon-monoxide alarm, and replace its battery if it has a replaceable one. Book a service now if anything seemed off — appointments are still easy to get.
— Systems Fail Lab