2. Check eligibility
What's required?
To ensure the safety and suitability of the advice given, it is important to:
- check that the house has a gas condensing combi boiler
- check that there is no hot water tank
- assess any vulnerabilities within the household.
Users will need detailed guidance to ensure that their heating system is suitable as there is a low level of awareness of technical terms and of how the constituent parts of a system relate.
Why do it?
Users want clear, specific advice. Ensuring that anyone who isn’t eligible for this advice is made aware as soon as possible saves time and helps avoid disappointment. Identifying houses that are not eligible early on can also ensure that best practices around the storage and supply of hot water to taps and outlets in the home are upheld and will reduce the risk of legionella bacteria forming.
On the other hand, confirming that their house is eligible gives users confidence that the advice is tailored to them.
There is also extra guidance provided on checks you may want to consider if you are working with vulnerable users, this can be found towards the bottom of this page.
How to do it
Key points and assets to help build your service.
Check whether the user's heating system is suitable
Show details
This guide focuses on gas condensing combi boilers. It’s important that clear questions are asked of households so that they are confident in identifying the type of boiler they have.Key points to consider:
- Check that users have a gas boiler.
- Check that there is no hot water tank.
- Give help and guidance on identifying what a water tank is, this could be a description or example image.
- (Optional) Check for possible vulnerabilities in the household (see subsection below)
Considerations for different users
Clinical vulnerability
Users who require a higher than average heating demand.
If a member of a household requires higher than average indoor temperatures, caution should be employed when providing guidance around lowering flow temperatures.
Judgement should be made on how well the fabric of the building is suited to ensuring a low flow temperature system could match the required heat demand.
Energy rationers
Those who may be limiting their energy use.
Caution should be given when presenting this advice to those who only use their heating for short intensive periods. Those rationing energy may ration lower flow temperature heating in a similar way, which may be counterproductive and reduce the level of comfort further.
A wider behaviour shift, such as running their heating for longer periods, may be required to ensure they remain comfortable. Without this, lowering flow temperatures might not be a suitable action for this user group.
Limited dexterity
Those users who may live with limited dexterity.
Users with dexterity issues may struggle to change settings on the boiler.
In order to ensure that these users are able to benefit from low flow temperatures, it may be best to offer in-person advice or ensure that any change to the boiler settings are made by a visiting professional, friend or relative.
It may also be worth ensuring that, if needed, the user has access to people who can tweak settings after the flow temperature has been reduced.