Boiler Servicing in Essex
Boiler Servicing in Essex
Families can cut energy bills by £300 by making two changes on boiler settings
Experts at the heating Hub say you can save around 18 per cent (£325) on your energy bill by making two small changes to the way your boiler works.
Families could potentially save up to £300 on their energy bills this winter by making two simple changes to their boiler.
Households will continue to feel the pinch of cost of living this year after Ofgem has confirmed an 80 per cent rise in the energy price cap, sending the average household’s yearly bill to £3,549 from October.
The cap will come into effect for around 24 million households in England, Scotland and Wales on default energy tariffs on October 1, and will remain in place until December 31, when it will be adjusted again.
Experts at the heating Hub say you can save around 18 per cent (£325) on your energy bill by making two small changes to the way your boiler works. Here are two ways you could make to improve your energy efficiency.
Turning down your flow temperature
On a boiler, the flow temperature regulates how hot the water is when it leaves the boiler and goes to radiators. Most condensing combi boilers in the UK are set to their factory setting by default – around 80C. However, at this temperature, boilers cannot operate at their most efficient.
When a boiler burns gas, a large amount of the heat can escape out of the flue and onto the street, dissipating into the air. At lower temperatures, the boiler helps recycle much of the heat back into the water it’s trying to warm up.
Jo Alsop of the Heating Hub said: “It’s worth making the point that condensing boilers, even though they’re A-rated on the box (for efficiency), they don’t necessarily achieve A-rating in the home.” It’s important to note that turning down the flow temperature is not the same as turning fown the thermostat.
Alsop adds: “We would advise to do that to around 60C and if they find that’s a bit too cool on a very cold day, they can always notch it back up, but importantly reduce it down again when the weather gets a bit warmer, and keep reducing it down.”
Rebecca Dibb-Simkin, chief product officer at Octopus Energy, said: “Safely turning down the water flow temperature of your gas boiler is a little-known but very effective tip for saving gas whilst staying warm, and could save people up to 8% off their gas bills.
“Over 100,000 of our customers who took part in our energy efficiency scheme last winter told us they tried it, with some of them knocking nearly £100 off their bills.”
Turning off your boiler’s pre-heat function
The pre-heat function helps to ensure that water is hot as it flows at the taps at any moment, meaning the boiler always keeps a small amount of water hot.
“If the boiler is not on and heating the home, it will fire anyway, just to keep that water at temperature, even if someone is not home during the day, and certainly it will fire all through the night, even when hot water is not in demand,” Ms Alsop said.
Turning off the pre-heat function will likely result in a longer wait for the shower to get warm in the morning, however, it could save hundreds of pounds. Ms Alsop estimates that households could save around 5 to 10 per cent of their gas use this way.
* source – https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/lifestyle/families-can-cut-energy-bills-27838186
