Taking care of your home in cold weather

Cold weather and snow can cause problems for your home. Here is some practical advice to help keep your home warm and safe this winter.

Fixing frozen pipes

If your taps stop working and you find yourself without water, this will likely be because the condensate pipe outside has frozen.

The condensate pipe is a plastic pipe that runs from your boiler to the drain. You can find the pipe directly behind your boiler outside. It could be in the front or back garden.

When water freezes in the pipe, the boiler will automatically shut off as a safety feature.

To unfreeze the pipe, fill your kettle up halfway and put it on to boil. Once the kettle is boiled, fill it up with cold water. You must not use hot or boiling water, as this can damage the pipe and scald you.

Run the water up and down the pipe until it defrosts. Depending on how cold the weather is, you may have to do this a couple of times.

Once the pipe is defrosted, turn your boiler on and make sure the pressure gauge is at one bar.

If you have an air source heat pump, this will have a defrost cycle to prevent freezing, but please contact Celtic Horizons if you have any issues with your unit. You must not turn an air-source heat pump off.

Preventing frozen pipes

There are a few things you can do to stop your pipes from freezing in winter:

• Turn your heating on for regular short periods.
• Don’t leave taps dripping or running as the water in waste pipes can freeze.
• Open the cupboard under your sink to make sure warm air can circulate round the piping.

Keeping your home warm in winter

Energy bills rising in winter is a big worry for many people.

Make sure you turn on your heating for short periods during the day and night to keep yourself warm. Between 18-21ºC is an ideal temperature.

Setting times for your heating to turn on and off will help with managing your energy bills.

The videos below tell you how to use your heating controls, and how to keep your home cosy for less.

@unitedwelsh

These are our tips for staying cosy at home this winter ❄️ what are yours? 🎤 #cosyhome #costofliving #homehacks #winter

♬ Sweet Tea – Neyaraf

Our Money Advice team can also help you if you’re struggling with your energy bills. You can get in touch by calling 0330 159 6080 and pressing 3 to speak to our Customer Engagement team who can refer you for Money Advice.

Report a repair

There are some repairs that you may need help with this winter, and in these cases, you will need to get in touch with our repair service, Celtic Horizons.

Non-urgent repair requests can be made on your customer app, TED. Click here to login or register if you haven’t already.

You can also call 0330 159 6080 and press 1, or email info@celtichorizons.co.uk. If you need an emergency repair outside normal office hours (between 5pm and 9am, on weekends or bank holidays) please call the out-of-hours service on 0330 159 6080 and press option 1.

The Celtic Horizons team can only attend a repair appointment if you or someone over 18 is at home.