How To Reduce Your Heating Bill

Winter is just around the corner, energy prices are going through the roof and the weather is proving to be unpredictable. Our gas bills are being hiked and that leaves us asking the question, what can we do about it? Our in-house experts have given their advice and opinions on how to keep these gas bills down as much as possible, using your boiler efficiently and I’ll share them with you now. 

The first thing we would recommend is to check where your homes heating thermostat is, and check what temperature it has been set to. We read a study that nearly 3 million homes in the UK have their thermostats set to at least 25 degrees Celsius. A simple change like lowering this to let’s say 18-21 degrees will make a difference to your bill. Even with lowering it to 21 you will see a substantial different in your gas usage and eventually then your bill. 

I’ve had many customers asking me, “is it cheaper to leave your boiler on all the time instead of turning it off and on when I want heat”, I’ll put this question to bed here, NO! This may sound like a no brainier, but the best way to save on your gas bill is to simply turn on the boiler when you need to. If you’re away to work for example, there’s no sense having your boiler on heating an empty house, better to use your gas when you actually are physically at home and want to be comfortable. Then there’s the question, “I want the house to be warm for when I come home”, simple solution for this, set up a timer, a heating programme with your time clock or even better, modern technology now allows us to install a smart thermostat that knows when we are on our way home and will turn the heating on before we walk through our front doors. 

I was speaking with one of our engineers yesterday and he told me that some people think that if they turn up their home thermostats to the maximum that it will warm their homes quicker. Don’t fall for this, the thermostat won’t change the temperature of the water that’s running though your radiators. Your thermostat is basically like a thermometer, it will only pick up on the temperature of your home and when it reaches that temperature it simply sends a signal back to your boiler and tells it to turn off and then back on when the temperature drops. If you did this using the logic that it will warm the house up quicker, you’re simply wasting gas and running up bigger bills. 

Another thing we find, people warm every room of their house, even the ones they don’t use. A lot of people have a junk room, somewhere where they throw things in so it’s out of sight and out of mind. Turn the radiators off in these rooms. They don’t need to be cosy, small changes like this will positively affect your bill at the end of the quarter.