Get the most out of your heating, with lower bills

Winters are here and the weather’s gotten unbearably cold. You have done almost everything to beat it but if that isn’t working then it’s time to cope up with these tips below to cosy you up this winter.

Get to know your boiler well

Honestly, many of us don’t understand how our boilers work and are oblivious of the functionalities of those sets of buttons, settings and programs

For an efficient heating you need to understand the boiler, take out its manual and go through it. Get to know about its settings and functions, understand its timing mechanism so that you can efficiently spend energy when needed without wasting it.

Understand the thermostat

Yes, its true, turning down your thermostat by one degree can save you about £55 a year! But before doing that take a moment out to understand how your thermostat works.

The thermostat is usually placed in the living rooms or hallways, and to make it function effectively it should have enough air around it to let it breathe. Make sure your thermostat isn’t covered by doors, closets  nor facing the wall so that you can properly gauge the temperature.

Suppose your thermostat is set to 20◦C, once the temperature around it has reached 20◦C it will send a message to the boiler to turn off. Eventually the heat generating will stop in other rooms. Similarly if the thermostat is positioned in a well-insulated place the other cold rooms might not get as warm as the room with the thermostat, or conversely if the thermostat is situated in a cold area the other rooms might get extra heated as the thermostat in the cold area will take time to reach 20◦C.

Start to set off your temperature at 18◦C, gradually increase it by one degree until its comfortable enough to sit inside. Unfortunately if you feel chilly with a temperature of 21◦C then consider replacing your insulation.

Program yourself

It is absolutely useless to keep your heating ON while you are asleep, but then its no fun waking up on a cold morning  or return home from work to a cold house. That’s why its essential to understand the boiler programming functions. Properly adjusting the program means you can set to turn ON and OFF your boiler automatically.

Consider your family’s routine to make the most out of this feature. Program your boiler an hour before the earliest riser in your family and set it off half an hour before everyone leaves for work. Similarly set it ON an hour before you come back from work so that you can have a nice comfy, cosy feeling on arrival.

This self-programming will eventually save you a considerable amount of energy and money in comparison with leaving the heating ON for the whole day or simply turning it off before you leave for work.

Adjust your valves

Boilers and thermostats work together to provide heat through your radiators which then spread heat around the room. Adjust your valves accordingly, open them up when you have entered the room and lower them till you are comfortable enough.

You also have an option to Zone around the heating in your house, implying to keep the valves open in the living rooms or lounges and turn the valves low in rarely used rooms to make the most of your heating efficiently.

Invest in Heating

Energy Efficiency is a big issue nowadays and we all have to deal with it personally, If you own a boiler for ten years or longer then its time for an upgrade. By upgrading your boiler you can save around 50% on your heating bills.

Boiler replacements aren’t cheap enough they cost around an average of £900 plus installation charges. If you cant afford a replacement consider investing on other heating components, get valves installed on radiators around your house which may cost around £150.  Think about upgrading your boiler controls so that you can make the most out of your heating efficiency.

Is it worth investing in a new boiler?

If you own an old boiler or are constrained to using electric heaters, which put a staggering burden on your bills. You can economize your spending by opting for a new boiler installation instead. Modern gas heating boilers are better energy/ heat efficient and heat your home on lower running costs compared to old boilers and electric heaters.

Here are some of the problems people face with old boilers and electric heaters which are detailed below

Problems with old boilers 

If you possess an old boiler which is out of date but still works, you are probably wasting energy and therefore money. There can be a number of reasons, For example if your boiler cylinder does not have a thermostat or has a broken thermostat, it will be impossible to control the temperature which will cause extensive heating eventually resulting in scalding.

If you have an old boiler with a gravity fed hot water cylinder it can be really slow to re-heat the whole cylinder causing slow heating using double the energy which is going in waste.

Old heating systems usually don’t come with room thermostats so you are basically heating the whole house rather than the rooms you want to be heated so eventually you are wasting energy and money to heat those rooms which don’t need to be heated.

In Efficient Electric Heaters

Many people turn off their central heating systems and switch to electric heaters in order to save money by using electric heaters in specific rooms rather than heating the whole house through central heating, in fact they are spending more electricity to heat a single room. Electric heaters are cheap to buy and provide a good source of heat BUT what people do not realize is that as soon as you switch off the electric heater the room temperature comes back to normal in no time, they are not particularly effective in maintaining a constant room temperature.

Boilers with Programmable controls and their Benefits

Replacing an old styled heavy weight boiler can save you about £300 yearly says the Energy Savings Trust. Modern Programmable boilers are very much efficient because they are able to re-use some of the energy which they produce. Programmable controls make it easy for users to direct which parts of the house they need to be warm eventually saving you money and energy which was wasted through heating unoccupied rooms by old boilers.

Modern programmable controls make it easy for you to measure the warmth of the room and adjust the temperature as you wish it to be.

Easily operated boilers make it easy for users to program the boilers to work only when there are people in the house or room, You can even schedule your boiler to work on specific dates with specific temperature for each specific room, which eventually will save you a lot of energy and money that you won’t be wasting by heating places that aren’t required to.

So it is clear that getting a new modern boiler is undoubtedly a very good decision for you to save money and energy.