News

Some items that may be of interest, some recent and some highlights from the past...

September 2023 - Boiler Pricing / Heat Pumps

The UK Government, in its wisdom, is proposing to impose what is effectively a tax on gas boilers sold next year.

They are doing this in the form of a fine to boiler manufacturers. In their attempt to force people to install heat pumps instead of high efficiency gas boilers, the Government is suggesting setting targets for manufacturers to sell an amount of heat pumps instead of boilers. For every heat pump they fall short of the target, they are to be fined, and figures of £5000 have been mentioned. Obviously, manufacturers will have to pass these fines / costs on in the form of increased pricing. This in turn will affect the cost of a new gas boiler.

While the issue of trying to force people to have heat pumps installed instead of boilers is a tricky issue, and people have different views, the increased costs are very likely.

Anyone with a boiler around 10-12 years old should consider the performance and availability of spare parts for their current boiler. With the approaching situation it is likely to be far cheaper to replace a boiler in the coming months than from January 2024. While you might not be thinking about replacing your boiler at this time, it is worth thinking about it ahead of any price increases, rather than you find out next year that a boiler costs considerably more than it does now.

Feel free to contact us to discuss any concerns you may have or to discuss this more.

August 2023 - Gas Safe Register - Inspection All OK

Just completed our latest inspection with Gas Safe Register. All ok

Please feel free to check our registration at the Gas Safe Register website

Apr 2023 - Smart Controls

In addition to Honeywell's EvoHome controls, we have started to fit smart controls from Tado and have completed their online training to become more familiar with their controls. Tado Badge

Since then, we have fitted the Tado smart control in our own home to evaluate its options - so far, so good. click here to visit our new Tado page

Mar 2023 - 0800 Number

We have decided to stop providing the 0800 freephone number. While this meant customers could ring us for free, it was not free to us - we had to pay a monthly fee plus a per-call charge. With ever-increasing costs, we decided to remove the feature. We hope this is not too much inconvenience to customers and would like to remind them that we can be conacted by phone / email / text - contact us

Feb 2023 - Website

Some web browsers are now showing a warning saying that this website is not secure, don't worry. Google have changed their rules about all websites and are trying to get everyone to use the HTTPS protocol, which is fine for sites where you enter personal data, but not necessary for this site, as there is NO personal data stored on the site. The site does NOT use cookies, or ask you to enter anything personal to you.

January 2023 - Price Increase

Just like everyone else, we have increased costs and have had to slightly increase our charges to cover things like fuel and insurance, among other things. We are not making any more money from these increased charges and in some ways, are making less than before.

We will try to be as cost effective as possible - please contact us to discuss any requirements you may have.

October 2022 - Energy Efficiency

Saving money on energy bills is the most common topic that customers want to discuss these days. We can advise on energy efficient boilers, smart controls and other ways to stay on top of energy costs.

Please contact us to discuss any requirements you may have.

July 2022 - Boiler Shortages And Price Increases

There are still shortages of boilers, across many manufacturers, including Worcester Bosch. As well as this, Worcester have increased their prices by almost 20% this year so far. This inevitably means that boiler jobs will cost more as we cannot absorb such increases. We are striving to keep service and repair charges as low as possible.

Please contact us to discuss any requirements you may have.

May 2022 - Boiler Shortages

We are trading as near normally as possible but there are some shortages of some new boilers, from all manufacturers. With some notice, we can hopefully source them when needed.

Please contact us to discuss any requirements you may have.

December 2021 - Christmas And New Year

To avoid having to pay for postage and boost Royal Mail profits, we have not sent out Christmas cards again this year, but have made a small donation to charity instead. Merry Christmas to all of our customers, and best wishes for 2022.

September 2021 - Boiler Guarantee

Twelve Year Guarantee

Certain Worcester Bosch Greenstar boilers now have a 12 (yes TWELVE!) year parts and labour guarantee. This is an amazing offer and means customers buying a new Greenstar Life / Style boiler get peace of mind for 12 years.

Please contact us for more details and to get a free (obviously!) quotation.

July 2021 - Internet Access To Heating Settings

T6R Lyric We can fit a Honeywell heating control that provides wireless access to your central heating boiler, PLUS, remote access through an app. This allows control of your boiler while away from home - ideal for people who do not work regular hours, or who want to put heating on or off while away from home. Now is a good time to organise new heating controls, ready for the winter. Contact us for more details.

August 2019 - Website Redesign

This is the redesigned Harry Willis Limited website. Please feel free to contact us with comments, suggestions, or just to say 'hello'!

Website designed and built by Harry Willis, using CSS and standard HTML, without Javascript.

Tested in various browsers. Seems to work fine, other than some text resizing issues in Opera and Firefox - if you use these browsers and resize the text, strange things may happen! While it may be nice to spend time to correct these problems, there are more essential things to be done, here in internet land and real life.

April 2019 - Website

Some web browsers are now showing a warning saying that this website is not secure, don't worry. Google have changed their rules about all websites and are trying to get everyone to use the HTTPS protocol, which is fine for site where you enter personal data, but not necessary for this site, as there is NO personal data stored on the site. The site does NOT use cookies, or ask you to enter anything personal to you.

February 2018 - New Van

News item re new van

Having had previous van for a few years, it was time to find another one. I know that some customers think along the lines of 'well if he has a new van, he must be rolling in it', or similar. Those people can rest assured that the van is not brand new, he is not rolling in it, and the van will be paid for in three years time!

January 2018 - Paper Records

We have started using an electronic record keeping system, instead of the paper-based method. This is to reduce the amount of paper we use, and store, and to generally improve the details we keep.

During visits, instead of writing on expensive pads of pre-printed forms, we use an electronic system to record details of the address and findings from the work we carry out. These details can be printed if needed, but ideally we can provide the documents by email, saving paper and printer ink. This helps reduce costs, and the amount of paper records we have to store.

It would be appreciated that those customers who use email would let us provide documentation (including invoices) electronically. We promise not to use email addresses for any other reason than to send the documents relating to the work we carry out.

June 2017 - Competitors And Quotations

We are aware of at least one national company (who's name we aren't going to repeat here!) that claim to be able to install a Worcester Bosch boiler with a 10 year guarantee, for a lot less than we can. Having looked at their website, we can see a few things that need further consideration:

  • Firstly, the warranty - it is unclear who the warranty is actually with - is it a full, parts and labour manufacturer's warranty?
  • Secondly, the website is cleverly worded to imply that the company have their own installation engineers. This is not the case - the company simply farms the work out to whoever they can get to do the work in your area. While these people may be registered with Gas Safe Register, how can you tell that they are good installers, or will take care in your home?
  • If you have a dispute, will it be the company itself who you deal with, or their chosen sub contractor? (A potential minefield).
  • We advise anyone to look carefully at the terms and conditions on a competitor's website, especially the ones for the company we are trying to highlight here (further details on request!)

There is a lot to consider when selecting a new boiler and installer. We do not feel this can be done simply on a website, if you want to make sure you get the best boiler solution, sited in the best position, and installed by a good installer, of YOUR choice. Contact us for more details.

June 2014 - Honeywell evoHome Training

Undertaken training with Honeywell on their new evoHome control system. See Honeywell's website for more information, and contact us to discuss the possibilities to remotely control your heating system via the internet and your phone. As well as offering remote control of your heating system evoHome allows you to divide your heating system into zones and control each zone according to your needs and save money by reducing your energy costs....more

Link to WAI Page

TWENTY Years!

We were first registered as a limited company in 2003 and have been working as a small business for coming up to 20 years - thank you to all cutomers for supporting us during this time.

Social Media

We have a profile on Facebook, and on Twitter, but have found that customers rarely contact us this way. Email is far better for getting in touch, as we check that more regularly than Twitter or Facebook.

Card Payments

We can take payment by debit card, but for larger jobs we prefer bank transfer, or cheque, to avoid high card fees.

Square Card Payments

Contact Us

We can be contacted by telephone on our usual mobile number.

0773 918 5779

We can be very busy but if you leave a message, we will ring you back as soon as we can.

We can be contacted by email using the address shown below and we will reply as soon as possible.

Email Address Image

Gas Safe Register

We are Registered with Gas Safe Register and believe that it is essential that customers understand how seriously we take this.

Link to Gas Safe Register Website

Please feel free to check our registration at the Gas Safe Register website