Heating Controls

Although adding wall, loft or floor insulation is the best way to keep your home warm and save on heating bills, there are also much simpler and cheaper measures which can reduce your energy usage. Probably the simplest of all is to set up your home heating to operate as efficiently as possible. Consider the following steps –

• Turn radiators off or down. There's no need to heat rooms that aren’t regularly used (spare bedrooms, storage rooms etc.). Turning those radiators off or turning down their control valve temperature will focus your heating in the areas you actually use.

• Reduce the thermostat temperature. It's estimated that each degree reduction will save approximately 10% on your heating bills. By putting on a jumper and reducing the heating from 21°C to 18°C the average home could achieve savings of £350 per year. You can also now install wifi-enabled heating controls - see below.

• Set the boiler timer to only heat the house when you're home. If you're at work during the day there's no need to heat the house – adjust the timer accordingly. It often makes sense to set different heating hours on weekdays and weekends. Most people can also tolerate lower temperatures while they're tucked up in bed – so there's no harm setting the heating to turn off for a few hours at night.

• Reduce your boiler's flow temperature. Gas boilers typically operate most efficiently when they heat water to around 60°C, however they are often set to 70 or even 80°C. Using a lower flow temperature will not affect the temperature of your home (that is controlled by the thermostat) but could mean you use up to 10% less gas to maintain that temperature.