Energy Prices

Cuprajake

Here’s my hints and tips:

• If you have a boiler, turn down the outflow temperature as low as you can and still get decent heating. If the boiler has one temp setting for a storage tank and CH, turn it to 55C. Modern condensing boilers are much more efficient when they can condense properly.
• If you have a boiler like the above, have the hot water on shared with the central heating. You may have to have HW on a little longer, but it will give you a much lower return temperature (increasing the delta between outflow and inflow.
• For boilers with separate temps for heating and hot water (combi), turn the heating outflow temp as low as you can stand to warm the house and the hot water as well.
• 4 minute showers (use a timer)

The boiler changes above can save you up to 20kW of gas per day!!

• Find any appliances with high parasitic drain and switch them off when not using (modern appliances generally don’t use more than 1 watt), especially older appliances
• If you have a pond with a pump and fish, buy an aerator and only use the pump when you want it to look pretty, or for filtration, where you can cut it down to 6 hours per day
• Keep curtains closed where you can, it will save you a surprising amount of heat.
• Cook efficiently where possible, cook more than 1 thing in the oven and warm up next day in MW if appropriate.
• Check your fridge for bad seals, or high usage…it might be cheaper in the long run to replace it.
• Always, always dry clothes outside on a washing line if possible…you don’t need sun, just a dry day and wind…winter or summer.
• Turn down the washing machine to 30C and always use a biological powder. Never ever use liquids or liquitabs….always use powder. Powder mixes better, contains bleach and thus you don’t get slimy remnants for bacteria growth leading to a smelly washing machine.
• Always put a full load in the washing machine
• If you have a plasma TV, stop using it and dump it, the 400+ watts simply isn’t worth it!!!
• Ensure your computer doesn’t wake up at night and screw your leccy bill…probably better to shut it down.
• Turn that coffee machine off, if you are not going to use it for a while…
• Fill a kettle with only what you need to boil (unless you have an Osmio)
• Add an insulation jacket to your hot tank, even if it’s already foam dipped

LMSC I will assume that it’s a combi boiler running a pressurised system. If so, left knob is radiator temp. When winter comes reduce it a little in increments. Check rads get hot, they won’t get as hot, heat up time of house will be slower. If it all works OK for a few days, , you can reduce a bit more and see if it is still OK..

The right hand one is hot water, reduce it so showers can be just hot enough when the shower is set close to it’s max temp, and flow rate is acceptable. This will save a lot of gas.

LMSC then the hot water knob needs to be no lower than 55C (Listeria).

It looks as if whoever set up the boiler did a good job

MediumRoastSteam If you have a tank, most likely there’s a thermostat control on the tank itself in which you set the temperature of the hot water as you please.

It’s not the same though, that thermostat on the tank just tells the boiler when to stop. The one on the boiler tells it how hot to make the water that circulates in the HX tube. At which point you should experiment with how long the hot is on to give a decent tank hot fill. This is because you cannot rely on a tankstat set to say 60, as it will never turn off….

The efficiency of a condensing boiler is higher when the outflow temp is lower and the return temp is definitely as low as it can be (I think above 50C and most boilers won’t condense, loosing 20-30% efficiency

Turning the HW on at the same time as heating in many boilers results in a lower return, although you still have to work out how long to heat the HW for. My boiler has a single thermostat for outflow temp. So it’s quite important to me to have heating and hot water on simultaneously, to get the coolest return I can.

In fact for my boiler, I want the heating to come on for a while, as the return will be cool as the house warms up….then add the hot water in for it’s allotted time, which helps keep the return temp low. Maximising boiler efficiency.

Oh the reason for 55C is legionella, 55C Kills Listeria in about 2 hours, 60C to 65C kills it in 15 minutes…but really it’s not a risk to have 55 in a domestic environment. Especially if the tank is only 70% hot with a lower cooler layer…lower than 55 is probably not great.

Obviously with a Combi, Legionella is not an issue, what might be is a very low temp for showering ,might mean full hot and reduced flow…usually it’s OK though and 40C will give a more than hot enough shower.

Cuprajake I hope you use a washing line! Cos it’s faster and cheaper.