AB Energy Centre Ltd – 2024 Biomass Boiler Service Contract Terms and Conditions

By agreeing to proceed with the biomass boiler servicing contract and/or any of the additional packages that run concurrently alongside it, or allowing us (AB Energy Centre Ltd) to service your boiler you agree to the following terms:

Servicing

1. The service quotation given is to service a boiler in full operating condition. If the boiler has any other issues, any additional time spent on the boiler is chargeable at our standard hourly rate.
Such issues may be:

a) Overly heavy carbon deposits in the heat exchanger resulting in the heat exchanger not operating correctly, possibly due to:

• • • the wrong or damp fuel being used,
    • the boiler’s cleaning mechanism has failed,
    • the boiler is being run incorrectly e.g. not “batch burning” when using a log boiler,
    • the boiler isn’t being serviced at the manufacturers recommended intervals or annually as a minimum.

b) The boiler isn’t installed to manufacturers guidelines/regulations,

c) Part of the boiler is malfunctioning, and you are not aware of it.

d) The boiler has little or no maintenance between servicing, e.g. ash removal

e) The boiler is too hot to service.

For the safety of our engineers we required all boilers to be cooled to 30°C or lower before servicing.

If you have not switched off your boiler in time for it to have cooled down for the appointment, you will be charged for either additional time waiting for the boiler to cool, or for the travelling to and from your site.

Please see the guide below for boiler cooling times, or ask if you require clarification.

Our default position is to repair a boiler when we are still on site unless we require additional parts and/or equipment.

If you explicitly DO NOT want us to repair any issue we find during the service please let us know before (or when) we contact you to arrange the service.

MCS, HETAS & RHI
2.  We are both MCS and HETAS approved, and all servicing is carried out to manufacturer standards and in accordance with MCS standard MCS040 – Planned and Preventative Maintenance of Biomass Appliances.

As per the 2022 change to the RHI guidelines, we can register that the boiler service has been completed with the HETAS HABMS scheme. There is an additional cost for this registration (see section 7g).

We will only register the service with the scheme if you ask us to and provide your RHI number (e.g. RHI0000001234) for each boiler serviced. You will get an email confirmation from HETAS when the service is registered. If you have not had confirmation within 21 days of the service, please contact us.

We accept no liability for loss of RHI revenue, or delay in payment from the RHI scheme due to a service not being registered with the HETAS HABMS scheme.

Technical Assistance
3.  Our service package includes telephone assistance 24/7/365 with regards to the biomass boiler. To access this please call 01228 318 900.

If you are calling between 8am – 5pm, Monday to Friday, except bank holidays (office hours), select option 3 to speak to an engineer.

If you are calling outside of this time, you should get straight through to an engineer.

If the engineer is unable to answer you call, they will only call back if you leave a voicemail detailing:

a)  Your name.
b)  Your address and postcode.
c)  The best number to reach you on.
d)  Your boiler make and model.
e)  A brief description of the fault the boiler has.

If you contact us in any other way, we cannot guarantee you will receive a swift response, especially out of office hours.

Travelling
4.  All biomass boiler service quotations only include one way travelling costs (unless otherwise stated). We do this to help reduce the cost to yourself, but also to minimise our carbon footprint.

If you require an urgent service, we will add the cost of the return journey and a call out fee to the service cost – See Section 7.

Service Intervals
5.  After our initial service we recommend a service interval. This may alter if we find the boiler needs more or less servicing as time goes on.

This is generally judged on how well the boiler is maintained by the client/operator or their representative, how good a condition the boiler is in, and/or how many hours the boiler has been active for since the previous service and the quality of the fuel the boiler is using.

These are usually 3, 6, 9 or 12 month intervals between servicing. These are the maximum recommended servicing intervals.

If you fail to get your boiler serviced at the recommended intervals:

a)  expect to be charged additionally to the quoted service as the boiler will take longer than we have allowed for to service.
b)  you will no longer be eligible for telephone assistance.
c)  if you require a reactive repair visit you will be charged at the “out of contract” hourly rate.

Ancillary Equipment
6.  As well as servicing the biomass boiler, we check the heating system parts immediate to the boiler as well. These may include, but are not limited to pellet/chip stores, fuel transfer systems, pumps, expansion vessels, system fluid, auto air vents, valves and controls.

We may make recommendations to issues we find with these systems, but we hold no liability for the following:

a)  Leaking pressure relief valves after testing they function. These will usually reseat and seal in 2-3hrs, if not they will need replaced. Testing of these is a requirement of MCS040.

b)  Corroding boilers/pipework/components after installing inhibitor and/or other corrosion prevention devices/chemicals to reduce system corrosion.

Although happy to discuss/recommend/carry out preventative works, as corrosion starts the moment a system is filled with fluid that has not previously been treated, anything we do will only slow down the effect of corrosion on the heating system.

We are therefore not liable for corrosion after preventative measures have been taken.

c)  Components that fail prematurely after being installed in a polluted system, such as pumps, valves and auto air vents.

These are in contact with the heating fluid and as such can be blocked, corroded and/or worn by the fluid which may be corrosive or carrying fine particles of metal and/or sludge.

Charges
7.  Our standard charges are outlined below. We reserve the right to discount these charges at our discretion.

These charges are reviewed annually against inflation, GDP & average labour costs and adjusted accordingly.

a)  Customer Out of Service Contract (COSC)

These charges relate to customers where either we have not serviced the boiler, or the customer has declined our/the manufacturers recommended service interval, and that interval has now lapsed.

COSC Engineer rate – £65.00 + VAT per hour (charged per half hour or part thereof)

COSC Mileage – £0.61 + VAT per mile

Call Out Charges

We do not provide an out of office hours service to COSC. We charge an additional flat fee of £100.00 + VAT on top of the hourly rate, mileage charge and any parts used, for any urgent reactive repairs that are required during office hours.

We define urgent as an engineer attending site within 24 office hours of the customer agreeing to a site visit.

b)  Standard Customers (Customers Under Service Contract (CUSC)

These charges relate to customers where we have serviced the boiler and the time between servicing has not exceeded the recommended service interval.

Engineer rate – £56.00 + VAT (charged per half hour or part thereof)

Mileage – £0.61 + VAT per mile

Call Out Charges

We charge the following additional flat fee on top of the cost of the hourly rate, mileage and any parts used for urgent attendance calls during the below times:

Within office hours – £65.00 + VAT
(engineer attending site within 24 office hours of the customer agreeing to a site visit)

Out of Hours – £90.00 + VAT
(engineer attending site during the hours of 5pm – 8am inclusively, Monday to Friday, except Bank Holidays)

Weekend – £110.00 + VAT
(engineer attending site during Saturday or Sunday, unless during a bank holiday weekend, where Bank Holiday charge would apply)

Bank Holidays – £130.00 + VAT
(engineer attending site during a Bank Holiday or Bank Holiday Weekend)

c)  Labourers are charged at up to £38.50 + VAT per hour, regardless of customer status.

d)  Engineer time is charged from leaving our base at Maryholme, CA8 2NE until returning. Although we do try to work multiple jobs in an area to reduce this cost by sharing it between them.

e)  Mileage is charged from leaving our base at Maryholme, CA8 2NE until returning. Although likewise, we do try to work multiple jobs in an area to reduce this cost.

f)  Passing jobs – Customers who request we carry out non-urgent work when we are “passing” will still be charged for the mileage and time for the deviation in the engineers journey.

Unless requested specifically, it is at our discretion as to how far we travel for a “passing” job.

g)  HETAS/HABMS Scheme

We currently charge £17.50 + VAT per boiler to register a service with the HABMS scheme on a boiler not exceeding 999kW.

Although this cost will change if HETAS alter their charge for registering the service.

Cancellations
8.  If you cancel any appointments, you may still be charged an amount to cover our costs if cancellation is of short notice (less than 2 working days).

Servicing/Remedial work cancellations

a)  If less than two full working days’ notice is given for service works you will be charged 50% of the service cost.

b)  If less than two working days notice is given for remedial works you will be charged £150.00 + VAT

Call out cancellations

c)  Once a call out has been requested you will be charged the appropriate call out charge (see section 7 a & b) and in addition any labour and mileage accumulated before the call is cancelled.

For example – An engineer is called out at 6pm and travels for 1hour before the call out is cancelled. The customer would be charged the Out of hours call out fee, plus 2hrs, plus for the mileage travelled.

Parts
9.  It is the customers responsibility to ensure any parts or materials left on site are stored in a dry, secure area until they are able to be installed or returned to AB Energy Centre Ltd.

Any parts or materials lost, stolen or damaged will be charged to the customer.

Credit Account
10.  We reserve the right to charge any customer who are outwith the terms of the credit account they hold with us, as a COSC customer.

a)  We reserve the right to withhold our services from any customer who is outwith the terms of the credit account they hold with us.
b)  Any customer that does not hold a credit account with us will be charged via pro forma invoice at the same rates as a COSC. Although this will be reduced to CUSC rates if they wish to hold funds on account, the sum of which shall be determined on a customer-by-customer basis.
c)  We require all pro forma invoices to be paid in full in advance of any works being carried out or parts supplied/ordered.
d)  All Invoices must be paid within 28 days of the issue date (unless stated otherwise).
e)  We will exercise our statutory rights to charge interest on any unpaid bills at 8% over the Bank of England base rate and compensation for debt recovery costs under the Late Payment legislation.
f)  All goods supplied by AB Energy Centre Ltd remain to be the property of AB Energy Centre Ltd until payment is received in full.