Scotland and the rest of the UK are set to face freezing temperatures this week as flurries of snow and ice have been forecast.
Temperatures could hit as low as -15C, the Met Office has said, with areas in northern Scotland such as the Highlands already seeing some snowfall over the past few days.
During this bone-chilling weather, it's likely you'll be keen to stay home and warm as much as possible. But the cold can wreak havoc on your boiler, as one heating engineer has issued a stark warning about the dangers of plummeting temperatures.
Specialists at Toolstation have warned that the extreme cold could make your boiler stop working, due to poorly insulated condensate pipes freezing over.
The Mirror reports that they'll then become blocked by the ice, meaning you won't be able to get any heating or hot water until it's fixed.
But thanks to a £1 easy solution, you can sort the issue yourself without having to call out an expert. That's according Lorenzo Giove, a heating engineer at Seven Heating.
He says that insulating the pipe is key to stop it from freezing over - a process also known as lagging.
Lorenzo explained: "During the cold weather in December, I was called and texted nearly 100 times by customers with the same issue - frozen condensate pipes. The condensate pipe is the external pipe which carries acidic water waste from the boiler out of the house to an external drain. When it becomes blocked with ice, your boiler stops working.
"In the first instance, the easiest way to prevent a frozen condensate pipe is to lag the pipe. It's a cheap and easy way of preventing issues when the weather really starts to bite. With particularly cold weather expected until Thursday this week, I'd recommend doing this as soon as possible."
You can buy pipe insulation from Toolstation for just 99p, and installing it yourself is fuss-free - simply wrap it around the condensate pipe and secure it with some cable ties.
If it's too late and your pipe has already frozen, Lorenzo said it's simple enough to fix using just boiling water from the kettle.
The heating expert said: "Generally speaking, a boiler will flash up a fault code if the condensate pipe has frozen and caused an issue. Head outside and locate the waste pipe coming from the exterior wall. Cover the pipe in something like a tea towel and pour over several rounds of boiling water.
"The towels will help retain the heat from the hot water and you will start to hear the cracking of the ice. Hopefully, all being well, it will get things moving and working again. Hot water did the trick for most people who contacted me when it was cold in December."
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