Off the gas main in the east of the island
The government's latest estimate is that 42% of homes in Sheppey East, the part of the island that takes in Eastchurch, Warden and Leysdown, aren't connected to mains gas. That's four times the Swale average. Those homes heat with oil, LPG or electricity, and the oil and LPG ones need an engineer with the right tickets.
We are OFTEC registered for oil and Gas Safe registered for natural gas and LPG. So one engineer can look after an oil boiler and tank in Eastchurch and a gas combi in Minster. If you're weighing up a change of fuel, we'll talk you through both and let you decide.
Bigger houses in Minster
Minster is different from Sheerness. Nearly half its homes are detached, and in Minster Cliffs it's more than half. A detached house with two bathrooms often outgrows a combi: run two showers at once and one of them goes cold. A system boiler with an unvented cylinder keeps both going at full pressure. We'll tell you honestly which suits your house, and our boiler size estimator gives you a first idea before we visit.
Very hard water, the whole island
Every postcode we checked on the island, from Minster to Leysdown, is on the same Southern Water supply from the chalk at Eastling, at about 303 mg/l. That's very hard. It scales up combi heat exchangers and immersion heaters, so a new combi on the island should have a scale reducer on its cold feed, and we check for scale at services.
Help with heating costs
Swale Borough Council's Winter Warmth Grant pays up to £5,000 towards repairing or replacing heating, for people over 65 or with a health condition made worse by the cold. Its Cold Weather Priority Scheme helps rural households with someone over 75 get heating oil. Check with the council whether you qualify, and if you do, we can quote for the work.
A bit of island history
Eastchurch calls itself the home of British aviation. In 1909 the Aero Club took on land at Leysdown as a flying ground, and in 1910 Short Brothers moved their works to Standford Hill, just south of the village. The memorial on Church Road is listed Grade II*. Minster Abbey, up on the hill, is Grade I.