When the winter comes, concerns over rising fuel bills can take the edge of your festive spirit. Instead of following people around turning off lights, turning the heating off and wearing multiple layers, try some smart energy saving ideas and relax in the knowledge that you can live comfortably and save some money too.
Many people do not fully understand how their central heating system functions. Read the manual and take some time to learn the optimum operating actions for your type of system. You can then use the controls correctly and heat your home in the most cost-effective way. For details on Boiler Servicing Cheltenham, visit a site like HPR Services, a leading Boiler Servicing Cheltenham company.
Turning your thermostat down by just one degree can save around £ 75 a year and you really will not see much difference in terms of temperature. Give it a try, you’ll be surprised!
Using a hot water bottle in bed at night is much cheaper than running an electric blanket. Under a blanket, your body will make itself warm and that heat combined with a thicker blanket should make it nice and toasty.
Pulling furniture away from radiators is another easy tip for increasing the efficiency of your heating. If you have a settee sitting against a radiator, the furniture will be absorbing all the heat and stopping it from escaping into the room.
It is also advised to avoid hanging wet laundry in your radiator as this lowers the amount of heat that is released into the room so the boiler must run longer and work harder to maintain the same room temperature.
Adding a radiator to a cold room
If one room never feels warm enough, an extra radiator can make a real difference, but first check your boiler can cope. A typical three or four bedroom house has a boiler of between 24 and 30 kW, which should run up to ten radiators. A larger home may need a bigger boiler.
Think about where the radiator will go and how you use the room, and plan how the pipework will reach it. Find the nearest flow and return pipes: the flow pipe heats up first when the heating comes on. A BTU calculator will tell you what size radiator the space needs.
Fitting one is a big job and many people use a professional. If you do it yourself, shut down the boiler and drain the system, fit the valves with PTFE tape, then fix the brackets so there is about 125mm between the radiator and the floor. After connecting it, refill with corrosion inhibitor, bleed the radiators and adjust the valves to balance the heat.