Central heating isn’t exactly an inspiring conversation choice. Nobody even likes thinking about their bills other than to wish for them to disappear. But heating our home is something we all have to do in one way or another and unfortunately we have to pay for it.
However, there are a few small changes that you can make to your home and appliances that will keep the heat in and the bills down. You’ll even be helping the environment too.
Most of us use boilers to heat our home. Thanks to the combi-boiler, gone are the days when you needed a large space, separate to your boiler, for the hot water tank. Not only do combination boilers save you space, they also save you money.
Combi-boilers only heat up the water when you need it. This mean that you will save on your energy bills because you won’t have the heating on all the time just so that you can have a hot shower in the morning and you will be using less power so you’ll reduce your carbon footprint.
You can also make the switch to energy-efficient boilers, known as condensers. These use the gases that would normally escape from the flue to condense the water vapour in the tank back into water, thus saving power and reducing heat loss.
These boilers could save you around £170 a year and if you buy one from British Gas now you could save £852. This saving includes £400 off a new boiler, free home care for one year worth £204 and free radiator heating and controls installation worth £248.
Heating controls offer further savings potential. By using timers and individual thermostats on each radiator you can have full control over the heating in your house. This means you can chop another £100 off your bills.
If all of us installed one of these new energy-efficient combi-boilers we would save enough energy to heat 3.4 million homes for a year and will prevent 13 million tonnes of CO2 escaping into the atmosphere.
Once you’ve spent the money on keeping your home warm, don’t let the heat escape. Nearly half of the heat from your home is lost through the roof and walls, so you will save a considerable sum by getting the proper insulation.
Although installing the proper insulation will cost around £700 for your cavity walls and roof but it can save you £365 a year on your electricity bills and you will qualify for a tax rebate from your local authority of up to £125, so it will pay for itself in less than two years.
