You can save money by adjusting your combi boiler
As a Letting Agent we are always keen to boost our knowledge to help us best support all our Tenants & Landlords. I’ve come across these guys so wanted to share Home – HeatGeek. It’s full of helpful information & tips on energy saving and goes into ‘Geeky’ but interesting detail on energy saving.
I’ve included a focus on hot water as all I seem to hear about at the moment is Heating & turning it down and staying warm in other ways…but what about your hot water and how that’s ramping up your energy bills!
So lets take a quick look….. 🧐
If you have a combination boiler, look for how to set your hot water temperature. Most combination boilers come with hot water already pre-set to 50°C. This might be helpful if you’re doing the washing up, but if you have a dishwasher and don’t do dishes by hand then you don’t need water this hot! You are simply wasting heat and energy.
The average shower temperature is 38˚C. So it is a complete waste of energy and money heating hot water to 50˚C then blending it back down to 38°C with the cold water. By reducing your hot water you could save up to 8% on hot water bills alone.
As ask yourself do you need much hot water that day? Are you even using it more than washing your hands a few times? Maybe you are having a bath or 2…maybe not. Therefore, you may want to switch off your hot water on your panel while keeping your heating on. You wouldn’t keep boiling a kettle would you unless you wanted to use it!
If you have a standard boiler with a hot water cylinder, you’ll want to test your hot water thermostat. These stats fall out of sync over time, which means you may think that your hot water is set for 55˚C, but in reality it could be heating up to 70˚C.
To do this, get yourself a temperature sensor and either test on the hot water pipe out the top of your cylinder. Or wherever the stat is located, usually a third of the way up the cylinder which will be slightly cooler.
Just turn down the stat until your temperature sensor reads between 50˚C and 60˚C. Below 50˚C you have risk of legionella, and above 60˚C will be scolding. If you start running out of hot water, just pump it back up a bit.
This will save up to 15% on your hot water bill because of the reduced heat loss from the cylinder.
If you do not feel confident doing any of this then you are not alone. It may well be worth calling an engineer or checking out further information on your specific heating system first.
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