No hot water or Heating + 3 children (aaarrrrhhh!)

ANY_CHANCE · 13 December 2011 at 4:29PM

:eek::eek:On the coldest day so far we have had a bit of bad luck
This afternoon there was a pop and bright light and it seems the fuse next to the boiler has blown... now we have no hot water or heating.:eek:

Does anyone have any idea what should I do to get this working again safely? funds are limited at the moment who am I best contacting to get this fixed?
Can I just change the fuse? would this be safe?

Thankyou

Just had a look at Npowers site
http://www.npower.com/Home/npower-hometeam/Repair/Pay-as-you-go-central-heating-repair/index.htm
£70.47covers the cost of call out and the first half an hours labour, additional charges may apply for any parts required to complete the repair. Any additional time will be charged at a rate of £45.96 per half-hour. or
£250 which covers call out, parts, labour and VAT up to the value of £600.

gas4you · 13 December 2011 at 4:47PM

The fuse has blown for a reason, so replacing it without investigating what has caused it is, sadly, not of much use.

WillowCat · 13 December 2011 at 4:53PM

Change the fuse.

Make sure you match the rating - i.e. same number of Amps (I'm making an assumption here that the correct fuse was used in the first place!)

I recommend if you're at all nervous to shut down that circuit at your consumer unit, or if not MCB's then the main switch.

If the fuse blows again when you turn power back on then it's likely you have a fault in the boiler, and the fuse is correctly safeguarding you. In which case you'll need to call out a gas safe registered plumber. Although it's possible that an electrician could help, from my experience they tend not to go near boilers unless the plumber instructs them to.

Your best bet is to go to your normal gas safe plumber who services your boiler.

ANY_CHANCE · 13 December 2011 at 5:42PM

Well, just been on the phone to British gas who have 2 options one of which includes £99 payment and £20 per month for boiler and heating cover which doesnt seem too bad.
But whilst I was on the phone to them my son flicked the main fuse switch back on (the one that was off on the big panel) and the boiler came on ????? so the fuse hasnt blown then? But when the boiler went off earlier there was definately some light and noise from the boiler cupboard and the switch next to the boiler looked burnt.

What could have done that?

So do I just go for the monthly cover with BGas in-case something happens again?? I wonder if it does pack in and I have only just started the monthly cover will it then cost me hundreds of pounds to get it fixed as it wont be covered? DOH what a nightmare

ANY_CHANCE · 13 December 2011 at 11:25PM

Thanks for the suggestions folks,

Found this evening that water is leaking from somewhere onto the switch which must have caused the problem, so have now had to switch off the power to the boiler and also the plug sockets in the kitchen have to be off too. which means the cooker and fridge freezer are off as well as having no hot water or heat...mmmm not good

ANY_CHANCE · 10 March 2012 at 8:50AM

update
The boiler was leaking onto electric wires, I called British gas out and they fixed the problem i think it was a seal/washer? and I now pay a monthly fee to cover any problems