A beginner's guide to gas boiler installation

Gas burners efficiently burn a combination of gas (either natural or propane) and air to heat either air or water in your furnace or boiler. Gas boilers are relatively straightforward devices, requiring simple installation. However, as this beginner's guide to gas boiler installation will show, for much of the work, you will need the help of a qualified gas heating engineer.

Regulations

Unfortunately, in reality the installation of all gas appliances - including home boilers - is one of the major areas where a qualified engineer who is on the Gas Safe Register will have to carry out the majority of the work. With this in mind, to ensure that your engineer is suitably qualified, you should check that he/she is officially on the Gas Safe Register by examining his/her business card or letter head to see if it has the GSR logo printed on it.

Lighting the pilot light

However, one job that you may have to carry out yourself, will be to light the pilot light. In this case, you should begin by turning off the gas knob and main electric switch to the boiler and turning the thermostat right down. Then, wait for five minutes before turning the gas knob to 'Pilot'. While pressing the reset button or gas knob, light the pilot and wait for one minute before releasing the button or knob. If the pilot light goes out, wait for five minutes and repeat the previous step, this time depressing the reset button for a little longer than a minute. Combination boilers If you have had one of the combi type boilers installed and the pilot light won't light, check the water-pressure gauge on the boiler display panel. If it reads below one bar, try re-pressurising the system by opening the valve at the end of the filler loop (the braided hose connecting the boiler to the mains). Turn off the water once the pressure has reached between 1 and 1.5 bar, then try lighting the pilot light again.

Care and maintenance

Give your boiler an annual health check. All boilers should be serviced annually by an expert heating engineer. A faulty boiler can emit lethal carbon monoxide fumes, but you will also save yourself a potential four figure bill for buying and installing a replacement boiler, if small faults such as a worn seal or internal leak aren't spotted and fixed at an early stage.