How To Reduce Your Heating Bill?
How exactly can you reduce your gas bills in these expensive times?
Here is all the information you need to significantly reduce your Gas Bill courtesy of ex Gas Safe 10 year veteran of the heating industry!
Wear warmer (or more) clothes
This may sounds very obvious but it is an often overlooked way to keep your heating costs down.! You don’t need to have the latest Rab or North Face gear to stay warm in a cold house! Get some thermals that are worn under your trousers and top and this makes a massive difference to your heat retention (you can get some off Amazon or other internet shops) and another big ticket, get some warm socks (I highly recommend Totes toasties from personal experience!) , any will do as long as they are thermal and you can wear your shoes comfortably with them on (this won’t work with high heels sadly!).
Another option is a very warm wrap shawl and some furry slippers!
Get thicker curtains or add liners
Even for a house with triple glazing, thicker curtains equal more heat retention to the house. Also, if your curtains cover the radiator and reach the floor. While it may be aesthetically pleasing, it does not allow the radiator to properly heat the room!
Keep curtains closed for longer or partly closed
Keeping your curtains closed may seem a bit extreme, but it can reduce heat loss from your house significantly and if you’re wanting to save money on heating up the house it should be considered!
Keep your internal doors closed
Another one that seems obvious, but you need to keep all the doors internally closed, particularly ones to less heated rooms (like spare rooms etc) because the heat from your living space is quickly dispersed around the house when all the doors are open.
Fit draught excluders to doors and windows
The initial outlay from doing this can be quickly reclaimed in savings on your heating bill over time! Get that draughty front door sorted! And stop heating the outside air up with your precious heating system.
Switch your energy supplier
This is not always so simple with modern utilities costs but you can still make savings using an online provider like Ovo or Octopus versue a traditional utilities company. Whatever you do, ensure that you go for an established well rated provider if you are considering a move
How Old is Your Boiler?
How old is your boiler? (source Gas Safe engineer for over 10 years)
Replacing an old boiler can be a good investment depending on what type and make of boiler you have, and how large your house and heating demands are.
For instance some old floor standing boilers like old Glow-worms (or old wall mounts) can use big amounts of gas just from having a permanent pilot light, never mind the fact they are not condensing – condensing boilers recycle the heat from the boilers emissions and reclaim every last drop of energy they can.
The question of ‘should I replace my old boiler’ is an article in itself, which is why we have done one here! But in essence, it is not a quick win in terms of reclaiming the cost back, but over a few years you can quickly be ‘in profit’ after replacing a very inefficient (and possibly unreliable) old boiler.
Potential Cost Savings from New Boiler
Cost savings (annual) according to energy saving trust from replacing a lower rated boiler to an A rated one (condensing) are as follows
Detached Bungalow – G rated boiler. saving by upgrading to A rated £435 PA. F rated saved £310 PA, E rated saves £275 PA, D rated saves £250 PA.
Detached house – saving £375 PA upgrading for a D rated boiler, £460 PA upgrading from an E rated boiler, £590 PA upgrading from an F rated boiler and £840 PA saved when upgrading from a G rated boiler.
Semi Detached House – £305 PA upgrading for a D rated boiler £335 PA upgrading from an E rated boiler, £380 PA upgrading from an F rated boiler and £540 PA saved when upgrading from a G rated boiler.
Check your Boiler Flow Temperature
Check your boiler flow temperatures are correct. A combi boiler should have hot water set at 55-60 degrees and heating about 55 degrees (if you have long runs of pipework to your taps or shower you may need hot water turned up higher). If you have a boiler pre heat function as many Higher end boilers do (for example some Vaillant Ecotec’s) then turn it off! This feature makes your boiler fire up at random times in order to keep some DHW (domestic hot water) to temperature so that you can have it quicker to the tap. While we don’t advocate wasting cold water (you can use it for the kettle, brushing teeth etc) it is cheaper to run the tap slightly longer.
If you have a system boiler or conventional boiler (with vented or unvented hot water cylinder) then you are recommended by energy providers to have your heating flow at 60°C and set your hot water cylinder to 60°C. This is to prevent legionella bacteria formation which can potentially happen if the hot water is stored under this temperature.
Have you got TRV Radiator Valves?
If you don’t have TRV radiator valves, consider getting them fitted to your radiators. TRV valves are not overly accurate in terms of temperature control, they have a fine line between fully on, luke warm, and off! But they do give you an option to turn the radiator off in rooms you are not using, or just keep the room ‘aired’ on a low heat setting.
You may have old radiator valves (non TRV) known as lock shield valves. Turning these off can put your heating system out of balance and that could mean that your house does not warm up effectively so is not advisable. Additionally, to that, old lock shields can start to leak when they are adjusted after being unused for years (the rubber seals perish) so it is a bad idea on that front as well. The cost of getting this done depends on how easy your system is to drain down (if it needs draining like a pressurised system) , if there are blockages on refill if it’s an old system, and how old your radiators are . An approximate cost would be £50-£70 per radiator using 10 radiators as an example (this includes all other labour, inhibitor for refilling, bleeding and testing the system etc)
If you already have TRV radiator valves, consider turning them down to 1 (keeps the room aired) in rooms you don’t use often for example the spare room if you have one.
Smart thermostats
Consider installing a smart thermostat – My preferred thermostats from personal experience are the Google Nest or the Hive. The main difference on installation between the two is the Google Nest is not wireless and needs either a nearby socket or a wired thermostat to power it up and wire to (eg it replaces the old stat). Both of these are app controlled (the Hive app is preferred by some for useability) and will save you money if you use their full capability’s. These include eco mode, away mode, not to mention fine control of the temperature at all points of the day.
Smart Meter
The basic idea behind a smart meter is that is takes your readings automatically, digitally. So technically your bill should be more up to date and you should be paying for only what you use. There are two schools of thought on smart meters, some people prefer not having to do any meter readings at all but then some people like to monitor their gas and electricity usage and know there is no funny business going on in the billing process!
Is it cheaper to leave the heating on all day?
The big question that everybody wants to know about is if you should leave the heating on all day. After all, surely if your house stays at a fairly constant temperature, your boiler will not have to work so hard?
The truth to this is that the hotter your house is, the more heat it can lose. And this costs you money! Experts at the Energy Saving Trust recommend against leaving your heating on constantly.
If you have a separate hot water cylinder for your hot water, (S plan or Y plan system) then you may also think its cheaper to heat your water constantly. Again, this is not the case, the hotter your water is, the more heat it can and will lost. Only heat the hot water during set times so that the hot water works for your lifestyle (e.g. 1 hour in the am, 2 hours 6-8pm). This will depend on how many people are in the house, as you don’t want the shower running cold for the last person of the day, but equally for only one person you don’t want to be heating hot water that will never be used that day.
If you have a copper hot water cylinder (vented cylinder) then ensure you have a modern ‘lagging jacket’ on it, and if you don’t then you should get one on there.
Loft Insulation DIY GUIDE
Research shows that almost 30% of a homes heat is lost through your roof so ensuring your insulation is thick enough is an easy win in reducing your heating bill. The minimum insulation thickness recommended is 270mm and many older houses have very thin loft insulation which can be greatly improved on at relatively low cost. This is a DIY able job if you want to save money on it. What you will need is the following:
- Good particle filtering mask suitable for the task in hand
- Plastic over suit
- Work gloves (thick ones)
- Rough blade wood saw
- Suitable amount of fibreglass insulation
(from my own experience the best deals on this are usually to be found at B and Q or Wickes). You can measure the correct amount you need by measuring the length and width of your joists in the loft and adding the total length up.
You should also measure the depth of your joists and you need to factor in if you have flooring down in your loft (if so that is a whole new ball game and you would need to ensure the floor will lay flat again without putting too much pressure on the plasterboard ceiling below (or you will burst some screws in the ceiling and cause issues with the ceiling looking a mess)
Then if you have the depth, you can overlay the new insulation in the joists on the old stuff, usually modern insulation is wider than the joist runs. That’s not a massive issue if its not a large amount, as it will ‘crump’ into place! If you have a walkway or boarded out area you will need to lift it, lay the insulation and work around it, then relay the walkway asap so you can walk around. Take care not to step through a ceiling…
If overlaying your insulation on the old stuff is not practical as it would be too tall above the joists, you can remove the old insultation and put it in a skip or black bag it and take it to a tip. Then lay your new stuff down.
How to cut your new insulation to length?
You can use an old wood saw to cut insulation to size (a new saw works best but it will not be fit for much else after you are finished in my experience as it blunts the blade!). Turn it on its side and hold it so it rests on the floor, now you can saw through it carefully.
Another alternative is to see if there are any gov grants available for this as sometimes you can get money towards the cost of home energy efficiency work. In that case you would likely use a contractor for the work.
Cavity Wall insulation
A massive 35% of heat is lost through walls. It is definitely worth checking to see if you have cavity wall insulation and if you don’t have it but are able to then you should get it.
Insulating your cavity walls could save up to £275 a year for a detached house according to the Energy Saving Trust. If you live in an old stone-built house you may not have cavity walls!
According to Which, cavity wall insulation will cost somewhere between £320 and £730 depending on the size of your home. However, you should get a return for your money within approximately 3 years.
Ensure you check out the provider before engaging them (reviews etc) because cavity wall insulation needs to be done correctly to prevent any problems associated with cavity bridging.
Replace Your Old Windows
Last but by no means least, is your windows! If you have single glazed windows, or draughty or thin old double-glazed units, you should potentially think about investing in upgrading or replacing them (or add thick liners and curtains if you don’t have them yet which is way cheaper). Over 10% of heat can be lost through doors and windows, sometimes significantly more in older houses
Before you start spending out on some of these items
Check if your (or other) energy providers have any deals on regarding free insulation to customers
The same goes for cavity wall insulation and in some cases new boiler grants.
