Post-outage

Boiler will not restart after a power cut: what to check

Rural parts of the Mendips and the Chew Valley lose power more often than the city, and heating systems do not always come back gracefully.

Written for: Households in areas with overhead supply and frequent outages
Heating programmer and timer on a kitchen wall

Practical notes on a boiler that will not restart after an outage

  • Reset the programmer clock and schedule first
  • Replace wireless thermostat batteries as a matter of course
  • Smart controls may need re-pairing through their app
  • Oil burners may need a single reset after an outage
  • Check the consumer unit and the boiler's fused spur

A boiler that will not restart after an outage: the short technical version

Programmers with dead backup batteries revert to off, wireless thermostats lose pairing, and some smart controls need a manual re-link. Occasionally an outage trips the RCD or leaves an oil burner control box locked out. Checking the clock, the schedule and the room thermostat batteries resolves a good share of post-outage calls without a visit.

Who should undertake the work

  • Gas appliance work must be completed by a suitably qualified Gas Safe engineer
  • Oil appliance work should be completed by a suitably qualified OFTEC technician
  • Jamie Crawford Heating states both Gas Safe and OFTEC registration

Where we deal with this

Questions we get asked

Why does my heating come on at odd hours now?
The programmer clock has reset. Re-enter the time and your schedule and it will behave.
Could the outage have damaged the boiler?
Surges can damage electronics, but most post-outage faults are configuration rather than damage.

Get a boiler that will not restart after an outage looked at properly

Where this leaves you: Clock, batteries, pairing, reset. Four checks that save a callout after most rural power cuts.

Include the appliance make and model in your enquiry so the correct technical information can be checked.

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