Efficient home heating

Heating your home during the colder months uses a large proportion of the energy you use throughout the entire year.

Ensuring your heating system is running efficiently and that you are not wasting any energy can therefore help you to make big savings on your fuel bills.

Heating experts at boiler manufacturer Glow-worm advise homeowners to consult a qualified engineer on the best boiler for their home, to ensure that you get it right from the very start.

Other top tips from Glow-worm to help homeowners get the most from your central heating:

•    Ensure your heating system is working most efficiently

Many people believe that keeping their heating on all day, even when out, is more efficient as it will take less energy to bring their home up to the desired temperature.

In fact, a far more efficient way to heat your home is to programme your system to operate when you need it most.

•    Intelligent controls

New, intelligent controls such as Glow-worm’s Climapro2 RF, a wireless programmable room thermostat with two channels, can be used as part of a heating system containing a cylinder, to accurately set your heating and hot water to come on together or at totally different times of the day.

The advanced programmable thermostat can also enable you to programme your specific heating and hot water requirements for the exact times you require, throughout each part of every day, so that you can manage your heating more effectively.

Controls like this are central to the efficient running of a heating system.  All Glow-worm controls use an advanced communication system to ‘talk’ directly to the boiler so the flow temperature of water to the central heating system can be controlled directly, based on the temperature measured in the room.  This helps to create a more efficient heating system which can deliver significant savings on household energy bills.

•    Thermostatic radiator valves (TRVs)

Your heating engineer may suggest installing thermostatic radiator valves.  This means applying a valve to each radiator, which will control the temperature of a room by regulating the flow of hot water to the radiator.  If a room is not used, then the thermostatic radiator valve can also be turned off completely.

•    Call in the boiler doctor for an annual maintenance check

It’s important to arrange an annual maintenance check for your boiler and central heating system by a Gas Safe Registered engineer, to ensure that it’s working correctly and efficiently.  A check up can sometimes seem unnecessary when nothing’s broken, but your installer or service engineer can help to ensure that everything is in good working order and reduce the risk of any breakdowns during the cold snaps of winter.  It’s also very important to get your boiler serviced annually as in many cases; you will need to do this to keep your manufacturers warranty valid.

Glow-worm has a list of installers available online at www.glow-wormheating.co.uk all searchable by postcode, or if you’re looking to get your Glow-worm boiler serviced call 01773 828100 to speak to our after sales service department.

Insulate

Loft insulation is effective for at least 40 years, and it will pay for itself over and over again in that time.

If your loft is already insulated, it’s worth checking that you’ve got enough insulation to get the maximum savings. The Energy Saving Trust estimates that if everyone in the UK installed 270mm loft insulation, we could save nearly £500 million – and 2.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year – the equivalent of taking nearly 100,000 cars off the road.

Approximately a third of all heat that is lost from un-insulated homes is lost through the wall, due to wall cavities, so investing in cavity wall insulation from the offset will keep your home warmer for longer, and limit costs in the long run.

As well as walls, heat can be lost through doors, windows and fireplaces, so make sure to shut the living room door in the winter to stay cosy, and ensure windows are all closed.  Leaving them open whilst the heating is on will mean your home doesn’t heat as efficiently.

As well as preventing heat from escaping your home, insulating your cylinder also avoids heat lost through the tank itself. Glow-worm’s  new range of high efficiency cylinders exceed Central Heating System Specifications (CHeSS) best practice with regards to insulation, making them the preferred choice for retaining heat, and for the ultimate choice in energy efficiency. The new Glow-worm Hydracyl and Flurocyl₂ cylinders are available as single and twin coil domestic hot water cylinders (for traditional boiler and renewable installations respectively) in a range of sizes, so you can find the one most suitable for your home.

Time zones

Be selective as to where and when to allocate your central heating. Most advanced heating systems allow flexible settings, so as to suit your preferences with regards to which rooms you would like heated and when. Taking the time to set up the timers correctly on your heating system, and checking to make sure they are functioning properly can save a lot of money on bills in the long run. Make sure you heat the zones of your home which you spend most of your time in and avoid heating those which aren’t used.

Plus, if you make sure to turn the heating off for the hours that no-one will be in the house , such as when you are at work, and set it to come on for when you will be arriving back in the evening, you will be saving a lot of otherwise wasteful heat and energy.

Intelligent boiler controls like the Climapro₂RF provide an easy way to control and time your heating to fit in around your lifestyle, enabling you to pre programme your heating and hot water requirements for each part of every day.  Controls like this can also be teamed with an outdoor sensor to benefit from external weather compensation, which enables your boiler to automatically adjust the temperature in your home in line with both the internal and outside temperature, meaning you’ll always have the heating at just the right level.

Don’t forget to make the most of your controls, and set your heating requirements for night time too.  It is easy to forget to turn the heating back off before going to sleep which means the system continues to work overnight and wastes energy while you’re sleeping – this will not only expend unnecessary heat energy and crank up the energy bills, but it will also leave your home uncomfortably hot at night.

Some extra wooly warmers!

Putting some extra layers on, may be the cheapest way to keep us warm, but sometimes it takes more than that to keep us cosy when trying to keep the heat in and the cold out. A well insulated home and an efficient central heating system should do the main job, but here are some good old fashioned tips for that extra bit of winter warming at home:

•    Hot water bottles: even though we now have more modern, practical solutions to keeping warm, more traditional ways of staying warm can still top up your temperature.

•    Drink up! Hot drinks warm us up instantly, as they work like an internal radiator, and although the effects are short-lived, your body temperature will go up for a time, meaning you can turn the thermostat down!

•    Thermal curtains: Thermal curtains can significantly reduce heat loss around the home and offer a cheaper alternative to insulated walls. You can either buy these readymade or the make your own by simply lining your curtains with an insulating material.

For more tips on energy efficient home heating, visit our advice page.

Keeping cosy

Making sure you insulate your home efficiently will not only save you money on energy bills, but will also keep your home toasty and warm over the winter months. Finding the most efficient heating system for your home and its specific needs is the first step towards energy efficient home heating.  By using a modern day high efficiency condensing boiler in a well insulated property, your heating system will modulate to control the output to give the best performance, ensuring that it operates in the most economic and fuel efficient way to help you save money on energy bills.

In addition, once a suitable level of insulation has been achieved the property will be in a much better position to take advantage of the latest renewable technology – which could mean even bigger savings!

For more information and advice, visit our Home Heating advice page.

Our lines will be closed on Christmas Day, but we’ll be back, bright and early from 9AM on Boxing Day to answer any questions you may have.

We’re open as normal every other day over the festive period except on Sundays and Bank Holidays when we’ll be open from 9AM – 12.

If you’re experiencing any difficulties with your Glow-worm boiler, or would just like to call for some Christmas heating and hot water advice, you can contact us at 01773 828100.

Don’t forget, there’s also lots of home heating information and advice available via our main website .
Stay warm and have a great Christmas.