A boiler should receive a safety check and service from a qualified, CORGI or OFTEC registered technician on an annual basis. You should never attempt to service a boiler yourself, even if you are adept at other types of household repairs, as a faulty boiler can be lethal. Having your boiler regularly checked and serviced will prevent most problems from occurring in the first place, and helps you to avoid the cost of emergency repairs or replacements.

Carbon monoxide is a poisonous gas that can be given off by the incomplete burning of gas by household appliances due to an insufficient supply of oxygen. It is colourless and odourless, so there is no way of detecting it without the aid of a separate device. The first symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning in humans include tiredness, nausea, headaches and chest or stomach pains.

If you experience any of these flu-like symptoms while you are in an enclosed space with a gas appliance, then you need to seek urgent medical assistance. Because of the effect that carbon monoxide has on the body, smaller people will succumb to its deadly effects quicker, which means that children and the elderly are particularly vulnerable.

Carbon monoxide invisible and odourless, which can make it hard to detect until it is too late. However there are some visible indicators that you can watch out for:

Flames which are yellow or red rather than blue, pilot lights that are frequently blown out, brownish yellow stains around the appliance, or high condensation levels in the room can all point to a possible carbon monoxide presence.

The best thing that you could do in order to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning is to buy an audible carbon monoxide detector. These cost around ?25 and will alert you in the same way that a fire alarm does, except it will only sound if carbon monoxide is detected in your home.

Although there are cheaper, non-audible ?black spot? detectors on the market, these are not recommended, as they are often inaccurate and cannot alert you if you are out of the room or overcome by fumes.

In the past, boilers used to require constant attention but recent developments in digital technology have meant that nearly all of these old manual controls can be automated. With this lack of interaction, however, comes with it the decreased likelihood of you ever noticing if your boiler is malfunctioning ? until, perhaps, it is too late. All is not lost, however, as long as you carry out all the recommended safety checks on a regular basis.

Fixing a boiler can be an expensive business, which is why the majority of boiler owners take out boiler insurance plans, which often include the yearly service as part of the deal.