Homeowners are more commonly deciding on the boiler they want before they even call a heating engineer, which is fine, so long as the right product is specified for the needs of the property. Otherwise it could lead to disappointment if performance and/or gas savings are not as good as expected.

It’s important to remember that Gas Safe registered installers take lots of factors into account when specifying a particular product, such as how many people are living in the property, the number of radiators and space available. There are a whole host of different options available and their knowledge and training can help to ensure homeowners are provided with the best solution for them.

One particular homeowner recently took the advice of their installer and was overjoyed with the decision, despite it not being their original choice of product.

With a large family – five children – the water demand was very high. A standard combi boiler wouldn’t be able to cope with the demand, which might then lead to the next obvious choice of a system boiler with unvented cylinder. However, space was limited, a 200 litre cylinder would have taken it all before the boiler was even fitted.

Taking these factors into account, the installer specified the Alpha FlowSmart 50 system, which fitted neatly into the existing space. While centred around a combination boiler, the addition of the GasSaver and 50 litre thermal store allows the unique system to outperform a system boiler with 200 litre unvented cylinder.

Not only can FlowSmart provide a continuous supply of hot water, it can also supply multiple outlets at the same time. In fact this particular homeowner was “delighted” that the household could “run a bath, have a shower and do the washing up all at the same time.”

The icing on the cake though was when the gas bill arrived. Following a rather cold winter, especially the snowy spell in December, when the heating had been on a considerable amount, the customer reported savings of £140 over the winter quarter – approximately a 40% reduction from the previous year.