Seasonal Heating Advice

To help you get some economic and ecological savings from your heating system we offer a little seasonal heating advice-

Make sure your boiler is not only serviced once a year but that you have- a programmer, room thermostat and thermostatic valves on your radiators. And, to retain as much of your heat as possible, insulate the loft and fit draught excluders to doors, especially exterior doors such as the main front door.

What is a Programmer?

Also known as a timer, this is a form of clock which you set. It tells the heating and boiler, when to switch on and off. The types of features vary from simple mono-fixed settings through to 7x day programmers where you can choose when the heating comes on according to what day of the week it is.

Room Thermostats, What are they?

A room thermostat, often fixed to the wall in a central area of the home, is rather like a thermometer with an in-built on/off switch. You dial in the temperature you want the room to reach, e.g. 20ºc. With the heating on the room thermostat will tell your boiler that the temperature is now 20ºc, therefore, the boiler can turn off as the required temperature has been achieved. Upon the temperature dropping the thermostat will sense this and tell the boiler to turn on again.

What do Thermostatic Radiator Valves do?

Also known as TRV’s, Thermostatic Radiator Valves control the heat output from individual radiators. As each room heats up to the desired temperature the individual radiator valve automatically closes, thus saving on boiler energy and heating bills. Only do they re-open when the temperature has lowered. In addition, you can control the TRV manually- yourself. There are a number of temperature range settings on the head which you can open and close as you please.

Loft Insulation

Without this you could be loosing 25% of your heat through the roof! Fitting loft insulation is straight forward and whilst we will do this for you it is a task you could undertake yourself, preventing a quarter of your heat escaping through the roof! Laid across the loft floor the insulation ought to be 200mm (8 inches) thick. Also known as ‘Rock wool’ or mineral fibre, these rolls provide an insulating quilt above your top floor ceiling. In addition to loft insulation you can get rigid foam insulation, this can be fitted under floors and above ceilings and is useful if you live in a flat or, have a flat roof to insulate.

Are there any cheap ways I can save on my Heating?

• Set your heating, via the programmer, to be off when you’re- out at work, away for the day or have gone to bed.
• Turn the heating off, or down on individual radiators in rooms which you are not using, this is easy to do with TRV’s.
• Touch your radiators. The heat output should be even and equal over the whole surface of the radiator. If you can feel distinct cold spots in either top or bottom corners have the problem rectified, your radiators are not working to their maximum potential. We can help and assist with all of these areas, apart from an extra winter jumper.

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