Top Tips to Make the Most of Your Boiler

If you have a boiler then it is likely to be burning fuel to provide your heating and probably your hot water too. Every single unit of that fuel is paid for on your utility bills, so it is important you are utilising your boiler most efficiently for your own needs.

It’s hard to know where to start when you are trying to make the most of your boiler. So here are some very simple tips that everyone should consider to help minimise the amount of fuel you use and to save money!!

Turn the Thermostat down by just one degree.

It’s reckoned that a comfortable habitable room temperature is around 18 to 21 degrees Celsius. By turning your Thermostat permanently down by one degree within this range you could save yourself up to 10% on your fuel bills!

Thermostatic Radiator Valves (TRVs)

These very simple and fairly inexpensive additions to radiators can help to individually control the heat output for each radiator. Rather than every radiator in the house being at the same temperature you will be able to control each room separately. After all, do you really waste money by heating a store room or an unused guest room to the same temperature as the rest of the house?

Beaware of Open Windows

It sounds sensible but we all do it. We all open windows up and then leave the heating system on full, or worse, turn the heating system up to compensate for the cold. All that is happening is that we are paying to heat the air that is now being lost through the window. So before you open a window, turn down the heating!

Keeping the Heat Circulating

If you think about it nearly every room in our properties comes with a door. Often we keep these doors shut. Heat in our properties not only rises but it circulates. By opening internal doors for rooms you are using or intending to use it actually allows air throughout the property to circulate helping to warm all the rooms. Of course, if you don’t want to heat all the rooms, make sure the doors to those rooms are shut. Why heat space you aren’t using?

Draught proofing

There is nothing worse than a draught in a room to upset the temperature. Take some time to check rooms and make sure that the windows, doors and even loft hatch are closed tight and not draughty. Draught proofing doesn’t have to be expensive and can be done simply and effectively.

Don’t Cover Radiators

It’s very simple. If you cover over the radiators then they are operating less efficiently. If you are drying clothes on the radiators then the heat has to pass through the wet clothes to heat the room, reducing the efficiency. You’ll be burning more fuel to achieve the temperature you want. Always dry clothes on an airer or, preferably, outside.

Also try not to hide the radiator behind furniture or behind curtains. All you are doing is putting a barrier between the heat and the room. The radiators will not act effectively and you will end up turning them up to achieve the results you want.

Finally, if you have some money to spare, consider replacing your boiler with the most modern, fuel efficient boiler that is suitable for your property. There may be grants or schemes available to subsidise this. It is a potentially large outlay cost but the ongoing savings will drastically reduce your fuel consumption on an annual basis.

Simple steps to ensure that you stay warm and spend less!

Written By Symon Silvester, MD of SAS EPC Limited