Last week, Martyn Bridges, our Director of Marketing and Technical Support, was inaugurated as the new Chair of the Oil Firing Technical Association [OFTEC]. The ceremony, which lasted around two hours, took place in London.

Martyn, who has sat on a number of OFTEC committees since the organisation was formed in 1991, now starts a two-year spell as chairman. During his acceptance speech Martyn touched on the current shape of the market and the future of the heating industry. He outlined his plans to address the need for a wider take-up of more efficient appliances, as well as greater acknowledgement of biofuel under the Government’s Renewable Heating Incentive (RHI).

Suffice to say, Martyn is delighted at the chance to be able to work more closely with OFTEC and said: “I am extremely honoured to be given the opportunity to take up this role within an organisation which is key to the on-going development of the domestic oil heating and cooking industry.

“I have been in the heating industry for 35 years and involved with OFTEC for over 20 years, so I look forward to helping OFTEC continue the challenge of preserving the oil market, encouraging the uptake of high efficiency oil-fired appliances and growing the combination of oil and renewable solutions.”

Martyn has worked for Worcester since 1986, when he joined as a technical services engineer. Since then, he’s worked in a number of different roles and departments until taking up his present position in 2005.

Martyn’s new role ha
s been welcomed by all the team at Worcester, and we are all thrilled to be able to support him in this new chapter.

Sue Pennington, Consumer Brand Manager.

http://www.worcester-bosch.co.uk

We are thrilled to have donated a whopping £3,983 to local charity, Acorns Children’s Hospice. Carl Arntzen, our Managing Director, recently visited the hospice’s Worcester premises on Bath Road and met with Ellie Griffiths, their Corporate and Partnership Manager, to present them with the cheque.

The money was raised at a recent dinner dance for the Energy & Utilities Alliance (EUA), of which Carl is chair. At the end of the dinner we held a raffle to drum up support for this inspirational charity and gave away prizes such as experience days, iPods and top-of-the-range camcorders, which were kindly donated by suppliers.

Carl chose to donate the money to Acorns Children’s Hospice, as they are a charity close to the company’s heart. A Worcester employee’s niece is cared for at the hospice and has experienced first-hand the fantastic services and dedicated work the charity’s staff carry out  every day.

Speaking at the dinner Carl said: “This year’s annual EUA dinner dance was a spectacular event. Everyone who attended gave generously to help support Acorns Children’s Hospice, a charity which is a cornerstone of the community providing much needed services for seriously ill children across the West Midlands.

“I am proud of the success of the evening and would like to thank everyone who dug deep in their pockets to reach this fantastic total.”

Ellie Griffiths, Corporate and Partnership Manager at Acorns Children’s Hospice, said: “This donation is one of many made to us over the years by Worcester, Bosch Group. It’s always great when a local business really gets behind fundraising, all the efforts of the staff provide a brilliant example of how it’s possible to support a charity in a number of different ways.

“We rely on fundraising for the majority of the £8m plus needed every year to run our vital services providing care to local life limited children and their families. The commitment and enthusiasm of organisations like Worcester, Bosch Group is vital to ensure we can continue our work. I’d like to say a big thank you on behalf of everyone at Acorns.”

We look forward to raising more for Acorn’s during 2013 and we’ll keep you updated on our efforts.

Sue Pennington, Consumer Brand Manager.

ENDS

http://www.worcester-bosch.co.uk

The annual event plays host to the UK’s largest exhibition of sustainable design, construction and innovative technologies from over 1,000 exhibitors with dozens of attractions and demonstrations.  Our team were there in force, with a brand new stand and an army of helpful technicians ready to showcase our latest products to visitors. This year we introduced the ‘Wonder Wall’ of boilers to celebrate the launch of the Greenstar CDi Compact boiler earlier in the year.

A series of videos, including the one below, showing the unique manufacturing process involved in the production of the new boiler was projected on to the wall which proved popular, with many visitors stopping by.

2013 is an exciting year for Worcester in terms of product launches and the new stand enabled us to display each of our new and upcoming additions over the three days.

Every day we also day we held live Greenstar CDi Compact demonstrations on our stand. As a company, we wanted to make sure that as many visitors as possible had the chance to see our newest boiler in action, as well as access to hands on advice.

During the event, Greg Barker, minister for energy and climate change, visited the stand and chatted with Martyn Bridges, our director for marketing and technical support, about Worcester renewables products and the introduction of the Green Deal.

With the Green Deal now in full swing there is an ever increasing focus on energy efficiency in the home, and EcoBuild certainly reflected that with the inclusion of the exhibitions first ever ‘Green Deal Terrace’, giving visitors a place to find out more about the scheme. This year, we will be continuing our focus on product innovation whilst helping as many installers as possible to become Green Deal ready.

All in all, it was another great year for Worcester at EcoBuild.

To see how our exhibition stand was created and built for Ecobuild take a look at the video below. 

For more information on our latest products and renewable products head to our website www.worcester-bosch.co.uk

Andy Garbett, Marketing, Communications and Branding Manager

Each year Sight Concern carries out a variety of exciting fundraising campaign, so when we were given the opportunity to sponsor the fire walk we just had to get involved. 13 Worcester, Bosch Group employees, including three directors (one of which will be dressed as Bobby the Boiler), have bravely signed up to tread the hot coals and raise much-needed funds for the charity. The team has already been briefed that the challenge is very much ‘mind over matter’, and we will certainly find this out tonight.

Our boilers are known for keeping homes across the nation warm and toasty, but this time it’ll be our employees feeling the heat as we get ready to bare our ‘soles’ for the charity.

We’re very excited about the event and will be trying to raise as much as possible.

Sue Pennington, Consumer Brand Manager.

“The Green Deal highlights the Government’s commitment to offering a sensible solution for UK homeowners to increase the efficiency of their homes and reduce fuel bills.

At the moment many homeowners are wasting money running inefficient boilers in poorly insulated homes and the Green Deal will effectively help address this.”

The Green Deal is essentially a framework enabling accredited Green Deal providers to offer consumers energy efficiency improvements at no upfront cost, and then payments can be reclaimed through a small charge added onto their electricity bills. Improvements should help consumers reduce their immediate energy outgoings; meaning with repayment charges added, bills should never be greater than they were originally.

The Green Deal provides benefits to the environment as well as to the consumer and installer. The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) have created a number of incentives in order to attract as many consumers as possible. As well as introducing the long term loan payback plan consumers are also being offered cash-back incentives, how much is dependent on the works carried out. Additionally the DECC will pay £270 (gas boiler) £330 (oil boiler) to consumers who update the existing boiler with an energy saving condensing boiler.

These incentive schemes provide a solid foundation to ensure that volumes of UK home owners opt to have works carried out which will create increased job opportunities for installers. Worcester will support installers wishing to become Green Deal accredited and we will be providing more information on professional development courses that will be offered. We welcome the Green Deal, now we have got to make it work for all.

To find out more about the Green Deal visit www.decc.gov.uk or click here http://www.worcester-bosch.co.uk to head to the Worcester, Bosch Group website.

Sue Pennington, Consumer Brand Manager at Worcester; Bosch Group.

Using valuable feedback from customers and installers we designed the CDi Compact to be, of course, compact, as well as easy to install and extremely energy efficient. With over two million of our Greenstar boiler range installed across the UK, we hope that the new CDi Compact gives those with less space access to the range as well.

What are the main features of the Greenstar CDi Compact?

* The dimensions are just 690 mm x 390 mm x 280 mm

* It is available in variety of outputs ranging from 28kW, 32kW and 36kW

* It is energy efficient, using less than 1W of electricity when in standby mode

* It offers cleaner combustion [factory set Class 5 NOx Levels below 40mg/kWh]

* It will fit neatly into a standard kitchen cupboard

For more information including an installation gallery and a technical data table click here http://www.cdi-revolution.co.uk

Or get in-touch with our contact centre on 0844 892 3366 to find out if the Greenstar CDi Compact is the boiler for you.

If you’re currently using the Greenstar CDi Compact we’d love to hear your feedback, join the conversation on twitter @HeatingYourHome or email us marketing@uk.bosch.com

Sue Pennington, Consumer Brand Manager at Worcester; Bosch Group.

At the start of the year we pledged to donate 50 days of volunteer work to local charities.

Employees from departments across the business each took some time out from their   day-to-day duties to lend a helping hand to those in need. Colleagues pulled together and painted the facilities at Sight Concern and the Acorns Children’s Charity, helped to build new wildlife areas around Worcester, and even mucked in to de-rust and repaint the Severn Valley Railway.  Internally we also organised a number of fundraisers around special occasions, such as The Christmas fancy dress days during Christmas Week [pictured].

Christmas Fancy dress for the production team.

All the money raised over the course of the year has been split between five Worcestershire charities to help make a difference locally.

We owe special thanks to our employees, suppliers and customers for really getting involved in our charity work this year and helping us to make 2012 so memorable. We plan to announce the total sum raised and will also be presenting our chosen charities with their share in the next few weeks.

Helping paint the new Sight Concern facility.

Paint brushes at the ready at Acorns, Children’s Charity.

Thanks for reading, and Happy New Year.

Victoria Billings, Marketing Projects Manager, Bosch Group.

Many of you will be aware that the 14^th September 2012 marked our 50^th Anniversary. Cecil Duckworth set up Worcester Engineering way back in 1962, and the expert workforce that we have developed over the past half a century has meant that Worcester, Bosch Group has grown into the established company it is today.

To ensure we marked this special occasion properly Worcester launched a search for commemorative golden tickets, hidden in boilers nationwide. When the prized tickets were found installers were able to give their lucky customers £1,000 off the cost of their new boiler, as well as a five year manufacturers guarantee and free servicing for its lifetime. Big congratulations to the installers who found the tickets, as they also bagged themselves £200 worth of Bosch power tools.

Our 50^th anniversary also gave us the opportunity to join a number of installers who were also celebrating big anniversaries making 2012 a year of celebration. To help each of the firms celebrate, our local technical sales managers surprised the companies with chocolates and balloons to help get the party started. One of the most notable anniversaries was for Barclay Erskine Ltd who celebrated a massive 150 years in action.

We were was also proud to reward those who are committed to conserving the environment. At this year’s Environment 2020 awards, installers, builders and specifiers were commended for their outstanding work using high-efficiency technologies and installation best practice to help make customers properties more energy efficient.

2012 has been a truly memorable year for us. Reaching 50 years trading in today’s difficult economic environment is no mean feat. Here’s to the next 50!

To those celebrating, we wish you a wonderful Christmas, from all at Worcester, Bosch Group. Stay tuned for ‘A look back at 2012, Part 2′

Sue Pennington, Consumer Brand Manager at Worcester, Bosch Group.

The best way, of course, is prevention not cure. By that we mean double checking heating pipes for cracks, having your boiler serviced and ensuring your heating system is well maintained. Planning ahead will also help you save money.

1. First things first, get your boiler serviced. Servicing your boiler has the same benefits as getting your car MOT’d. As well as saving money in the long run, you’ll have peace of mind that your boiler is working safely and unlikely to breakdown during the winter months. Book a service and get one of our accredited technicians to give it a health check it for you.

2. Once you’ve got your boiler sorted, check that your house is properly insulated. Even if your home is warm and cosy, it may still be losing valuable heat out of the roof or windows – and lost heat can also mean lost money. Did you know that by insulating your loft between 100mm and 270mm, you can save up to £175 per year [Energy Saving Trust]?  In addition, have a look for any draughts as this will indicate if there are gaps in your property which are letting cold air in and warm air out. Fitting draught excluders around the joins of windows and doors is low cost and will help save money on your fuel bills by keeping your house better insulated.

3. Water pipes can often freeze or burst during the winter months so we advise you check as much of your pipework as you can, particularly in unheated areas like out-houses or the loft. If you notice any cracks or distortions call out your local heating engineer. Worcester has also just launched a product called CondenseSure which can be used to prevent boiler condensate pipes freezing. Speak to your installer about the benefits of fitting one ready for the cold months ahead.

4. And finally, make sure your heating system is working to its best ability by checking all your radiators. If the top of your radiator feels cooler than the bottom, you may need to bleed it and remove any trapped air. Make sure you protect the surrounding area with a sheet, or similar, and release the air from the radiator, a small amount of water may be released so catch it in a cloth or some paper towels. When you next heat the radiator you should find it heats more quickly and evenly.

If you want more advice on heating your home check out our help videos and make sure your home is ready for winter.

Sue Pennington, Consumer Brand Manager

Small steps count and even minor changes can help make your home more energy efficient.

Martyn Bridges, director of marketing and technical support, at Worcester, Bosch Group has outlined a few simple steps to help you make quick savings on both your energy bills and carbon emissions:

• Turning your thermostat down by just 1°C, can help to reduce your heating bills by up to 10%.

• A boiler which is 15 years old or more may actually be wasting as much as 30 pence of every pound spent to heat your home or water. This could mean that as much as £235 may actually be escaping through the flue each year (Source: Energy Savings Trust).

• Boilers over 15 years old are also likely to have a standby pilot light, which could be costing in the region of £50-£60 per year just to keep running.

• Depending on the efficiency of your old boiler, a replacement condensing boiler could actually reduce your home’s carbon emissions by 15-30%.  In fact, if everyone in the UK had a condensing boiler, our annual carbon emissions would be reduced by 17.5 million tonnes, resulting in a saving of £1.3 billion on energy bills every year, according to the Centre for Alternative Technology.

• Updating your heating system to an ‘A-rated’ condensing boiler, such as Worcester’s Greenstar range of gas and oil-fired condensing boilers, could make your system up to 90% efficient – helping you to stay warm all winter long without accumulating a big bill from your energy provider.

So all in all even just by carrying out a few checks and making small changes you’ll be making a difference to your fuel costs. Making these changes puts you in a better position to mitigate the widely-publicised rise in energy costs.