Beat the Energy Companies' Price Hikes!
With so many households struggling with bills and the cost of those bills constantly rising, it makes more and more sense to ensure your household is using less energy to provide the same warmth and hot water. This can be achieved in a number of ways, each of which will give a benefit at a cost.
* Replace your old gas guzzling boiler for a modern, condensing, energy efficient model. Savings typically up to 30% off your gas bill and surprisingly a reduction in electricity usage too!
* Have your boiler serviced. This will ensure that your boiler is kept in good shape and any preventative maintenance performed as per the manufacturer's recommendations in the service schedule will prolong the life of parts and keep it as efficient as possible.
Many people think of the boiler for efficiency gains, but your central heating system is made up of many components, such as the pump, the radiators, the radiator valves, the hot water cylinder, the diverter valve or 3-way/2-way valves, and so on. Installing a Magnetic / Cyclonic Filter will help keep all components clean by capturing contaminants in the system water.
* Powerflush your central heating system to remove the build-up of black sludge in order to increase efficiency of heat transfer, make the boiler work less for the same output, prolong the 'wet' parts of your boiler or central heating (valves, pumps, heat exchangers, etc), and save money! Savings of up to 25% may be achieved with badly corroded systems. A simple analogy - would you use the same oil in your car for the car's lifetime, or would you have the oil changed and the engine cleaned out of dirt before it simply died from lack of maintenance?
* Add a magnetic/cyclonic filter to your central heating system to capture dirt, including the magnetite (black) sludge that rapidly decreases the life of your boiler and wet components. It also helps keeps a clean system clean, and is recommended for all systems regardless of boiler type. A simple analogy - would you have an expensive car without an oil filter in it, allowing dirty oil to criculate your engine?
* Ensure Rust (corrosion) inhibitor is added to your central heating system. This is often overlooked and reduces the creation of black sludge in your system to maintain a clean central heating water, an efficient heat transfer and a prolonged life to your boiler. Even if originally placed in your system, it is lost over time, either through evaporation of water from pinhole leaks, from the vent/feed and expansion tank on vented systems, and from every time you bleed radiators or top up the system pressure on unvented, pressurised systems. It all dilutes the inhibitor, reducing its effectiveness over time. It is recommended that it is re-dosed at least every 5 years.
* Changing manual radiator valves for Thermostatic Radiator Valves (TRVs). This allows you to create a 'zone' in each room where you can control the temperature, so that when that room reaches temperature, the valve stops allowing heat into the radiator, so it is diverted elsewhere that hasn't yet warmed enough. These are typically approx £20 per radiator and fitting these can save about 14% on your fuel bills in conjunction with:
* Adding controls - this means adding a Room Thermostat if you don't have one, adding a Programmable Timer if you don't have one, or a Programmable Room Thermostat if you have neither. These devices give you control over the heat in your house provided by the boiler and also allow you to have control over when the boiler is on and off for hot water and for central heating.
It is a common misconception that keeping the boiler on 'constant' demand for hot water and always keeping the cylinder hot is energy efficient. This is a complete myth. Keeping the boiler constantly cycling to top up the heat in the hot water cylinder is less efficient than timing for when your household has hot water demands. Every time your boiler goes through a 'heat cycle' to top up the cylinder's hot water storage, there is heat loss from the boiler and the pipework between the boiler and the cylinder. You pay for this heat! Keeping the water hot all the time (even when not needed!), will not only use more gas, but also increase the build up of scale in the cylinder and on the heating coil inside, and actually increase(!) the heating time to heat up the water due to the reduced transmission of heat from limescale 'insulating' the coil. Also the boiler will, as a consequence, have to burn more gas to heat the same amount of water due to limescale. It becomes a constantly efficiency-degrading, viscous circle. Think of the analogy: You wouldn't keep your kettle on simmer all day for when you may use it for a cup of tea in a few hours time, as it's a waste of electric!
* Adding an electrolytic scale reducer can help alleviate this problem and is relatively inexpensive, with no annual servicing required. If you have a combi boiler, then chances are you need one of these just to validate your boiler's warranty and to stop the secondary heat exchanger from scaling up within as low as 2 years, and requiring a new secondary heat exchanger. A scale reducing device is a requirement of Building Regulations when the area has >200ppm scale. Andover is about 290ppm, so most definitely a hard water area.
* Replace your old gas guzzling boiler for a modern, condensing, energy efficient model. Savings typically up to 30% off your gas bill and surprisingly a reduction in electricity usage too!
* Have your boiler serviced. This will ensure that your boiler is kept in good shape and any preventative maintenance performed as per the manufacturer's recommendations in the service schedule will prolong the life of parts and keep it as efficient as possible.
Many people think of the boiler for efficiency gains, but your central heating system is made up of many components, such as the pump, the radiators, the radiator valves, the hot water cylinder, the diverter valve or 3-way/2-way valves, and so on. Installing a Magnetic / Cyclonic Filter will help keep all components clean by capturing contaminants in the system water.
* Powerflush your central heating system to remove the build-up of black sludge in order to increase efficiency of heat transfer, make the boiler work less for the same output, prolong the 'wet' parts of your boiler or central heating (valves, pumps, heat exchangers, etc), and save money! Savings of up to 25% may be achieved with badly corroded systems. A simple analogy - would you use the same oil in your car for the car's lifetime, or would you have the oil changed and the engine cleaned out of dirt before it simply died from lack of maintenance?
* Add a magnetic/cyclonic filter to your central heating system to capture dirt, including the magnetite (black) sludge that rapidly decreases the life of your boiler and wet components. It also helps keeps a clean system clean, and is recommended for all systems regardless of boiler type. A simple analogy - would you have an expensive car without an oil filter in it, allowing dirty oil to criculate your engine?
* Ensure Rust (corrosion) inhibitor is added to your central heating system. This is often overlooked and reduces the creation of black sludge in your system to maintain a clean central heating water, an efficient heat transfer and a prolonged life to your boiler. Even if originally placed in your system, it is lost over time, either through evaporation of water from pinhole leaks, from the vent/feed and expansion tank on vented systems, and from every time you bleed radiators or top up the system pressure on unvented, pressurised systems. It all dilutes the inhibitor, reducing its effectiveness over time. It is recommended that it is re-dosed at least every 5 years.
* Changing manual radiator valves for Thermostatic Radiator Valves (TRVs). This allows you to create a 'zone' in each room where you can control the temperature, so that when that room reaches temperature, the valve stops allowing heat into the radiator, so it is diverted elsewhere that hasn't yet warmed enough. These are typically approx £20 per radiator and fitting these can save about 14% on your fuel bills in conjunction with:
* Adding controls - this means adding a Room Thermostat if you don't have one, adding a Programmable Timer if you don't have one, or a Programmable Room Thermostat if you have neither. These devices give you control over the heat in your house provided by the boiler and also allow you to have control over when the boiler is on and off for hot water and for central heating.
It is a common misconception that keeping the boiler on 'constant' demand for hot water and always keeping the cylinder hot is energy efficient. This is a complete myth. Keeping the boiler constantly cycling to top up the heat in the hot water cylinder is less efficient than timing for when your household has hot water demands. Every time your boiler goes through a 'heat cycle' to top up the cylinder's hot water storage, there is heat loss from the boiler and the pipework between the boiler and the cylinder. You pay for this heat! Keeping the water hot all the time (even when not needed!), will not only use more gas, but also increase the build up of scale in the cylinder and on the heating coil inside, and actually increase(!) the heating time to heat up the water due to the reduced transmission of heat from limescale 'insulating' the coil. Also the boiler will, as a consequence, have to burn more gas to heat the same amount of water due to limescale. It becomes a constantly efficiency-degrading, viscous circle. Think of the analogy: You wouldn't keep your kettle on simmer all day for when you may use it for a cup of tea in a few hours time, as it's a waste of electric!
* Adding an electrolytic scale reducer can help alleviate this problem and is relatively inexpensive, with no annual servicing required. If you have a combi boiler, then chances are you need one of these just to validate your boiler's warranty and to stop the secondary heat exchanger from scaling up within as low as 2 years, and requiring a new secondary heat exchanger. A scale reducing device is a requirement of Building Regulations when the area has >200ppm scale. Andover is about 290ppm, so most definitely a hard water area.