subject: Home Emergency Cover – Keeping The Home Fires Burning [print this page] Home Emergency Cover Keeping The Home Fires Burning
There is nothing like a bit of xenophobia to get the attention of the reader! However, we are not talking here about matters pertaining to the First World War, but something albeit still close to our hearts, keeping warm in the winter. One of the more depressing statistics to come from the much revered offices of `Which`, is regarding central heating boilers. They are things that we expect to work forever without any servicing and we are astonished that they always seem to break down when the weather is cold!
It is a statistical fact that 1 in 3 new boilers will break down within the first 6 years of their existence. It is not just the inconvenience of the breakdown either. There is the stress that associates such events, particularly if you are elderly or living alone. To compound matters, it is very hard to find a plumber who will come out at the drop of a hat during the winter months especially at Christmas time. Add to that the typical costs of some of the more frequent items in your boiler that can go wrong and you have the recipe for disaster.
A typical Heat Exchanger will set you back around 325. The Printed Circuit Board, used extensively in new computer controlled boilers will cost you 225. A Water Pump will cost 200 to replace, and so on. There is no such thing as a cheap repair if your boiler gives up the ghost. So, if you want to spare yourself a lot of grief, get some home emergency cover to protect yourself against the cost and trauma of a boiler breakdown. The cost of a basic cover can be pence per day, probably less than you pay for your newspaper.
I recently had reason to be thankful that my wife had the presence of mind to take out home emergency cover when she was trawling the internet doing some online shopping. The first I knew about the policy was when it arrived at our house. It seemed insignificant at the time. I got up one morning to go to work, when I noticed that it felt cold. It struck me straight away that the heating was not working. Needless to say, it was very cold overnight, with a frost, so it was very noticeable.
I went downstairs and checked the thermostat. That had not been altered (something the kids used to do when they were younger!). So I continued into the kitchen where the main control panel was situated. I tried to reset it a number of times, but it would not fire up. After about 10 minutes of trying all the usual remedies, I gave up and decided to call that number my wife had stuck next to the control panel in the kitchen.
The people were very helpful and guided me through the usual ignition sequences to eliminate any simple solutions. It still did not work, so they despatched a central heating engineer. I left for work and left my wife to deal with it.
When I got home that evening, I immediately felt the difference from the morning. The heating was working again. Evidently, the printed circuit board needed replacing, and whilst it was simple to replace, it would have cost over 200 had I not been insured. It was a good feeling to know that we had the reassurance that our home emergency cover gave us.
