CLPM provide independent domestic heating advice for both residential and commercial clients and their architects across the UK.

CLPM offer site surveys where one of the team can visit a property and assess the site, understand our clients requirements and make recommendations for improvements. We can also undertake this remotely for clients who are too far away for a site visit.

Rob Bohm leads CLPM’s Heating and Energy Team. He is a fully trained and experienced plumbing and heating engineer with over 20 years’ experience. Along side Rob, Marcus Moulson has been working with CLPM since early 2020 and is one of our independent heating consultants.

Together with our Sustainability Director, Tony Duffin, Rob and Marcus are now putting their skills to good use, by helping our clients, and their architects, to specify their heating, plumbing and ventilation systems.

When you are extending, remodeling or renovating your home, it always makes sense to review your plumbing, heating and ventilation arrangements. However, making decisions yourself without technical expertise, or simply leaving it to your builder to choose what to do, is rarely the best way to approach the situation. It’s here that independent domestic heating advice can be invaluable. Making the best decision is very important – after all, errors can be costly both financially, and in terms of comfort!

When reviewing your heating and plumbing situation, energy efficiency should also be a key consideration. Carrying out major building work will probably give you the opportunity to make changes to your home that will both cut your energy bills, and make your home more comfortable throughout the year.

Modern gas boilers are now highly efficient, and often installing a new boiler is a key part of the building project. But how will you know what size you’ll need? You might also be interested in changing the design, size or positioning of radiators, or looking at the practicality of installing underfloor heating. Perhaps you have an open fire, or are considering adding a new wood burning stove. All of these things need to be taken into consideration when determining what heating system you’ll need.

With the governments proposals to stop gas boilers by 2025, do you need to consider an alternative heating system. With such choice today, it is hard to know what would be best for you!

The nature of your home’s structure will have a large bearing on your decision. Is the building reasonably airtight? Is it well insulated? Do you have modern, double or triple glazing? Are you planning on boosting your home’s energy efficiency as part of the project? Is your home located in an exposed situation? Do you have any south facing glazing or roofs?

Then there are lifestyle considerations. Are you out all day or do you work from home? Do you have older people or young children living in the property? Are there several member of the family who require hot water for showers every morning? If you under specify your boiler, you could run out of hot water every morning!

If you are not on mains gas, and are currently running your home heating system on oil, you might be interested in looking at the feasibility of more modern, alternative heating solutions. This could include renewable systems such as a wood pellet boiler, an air source heat pump, or a ground source heat pump. But what capacity system will you need? What will this mean in terms of radiators or underfloor heating?

Unfortunately, there have a been a number of stories in the media about clients being sold unsuitable renewable technology  heating systems by unscrupulous, hard-sell installation companies. Typically, customers have been sold an air source heat pump for example, without any proper consideration to its suitability, given the nature of the existing building and heating system components. Sadly, the result has invariably been very high electricity bills, a cold house and a very angry customer.

Not surprisingly, this problem has led to some negative publicity for air source heat pumps and ground source heat pumps. However it is not the technology that is really at fault. It’s much more the lack of understanding of what is a relatively complicated piece of technology, combined with a disappointingly large number of opportunistic or rogue installation companies.

As you can see, unfortunately when making decisions about heating systems it can all be a bit of a minefield! Get it wrong and it could be a very upsetting, and expensive, mistake.

It’s therefore very important to consider your needs in a lot of detail and get proper, professional advice. If you want to make the best decision, it’s a good idea to get independent domestic heating advice from a respected company like CLPM.

We’ll help you assess what heating system you need, including whether your home is suitable for renewable energy solutions. We’ll work with your architect to carry out a full audit and then help suggest the best solution for your home based around you and your family’s needs.

If you’d like to find out more about how we can help then do get in touch. Call 01923 896550, email info@cl-pm.com or complete a contact form.