Heating

With the rising energy costs that householders are facing currently it is worth reviewing the central heating system in the home and assessing whether it is working efficiently or whether there are elements that need up dating.

If there is a gas boiler that supplies hot water and the central heating, and it is over ten years old then it may be an idea to see whether there is a more energy efficient model on the market to replace it with. Government grants are sometimes available to help with the costs involved in changing a boiler, so it is a good idea to enquire whether this is available to you.

It is important to check the settings on the boiler to see that it is not being used unnecessarily and heating water that is not used. Most properties with a gas boiler have a room thermostat that can be programmed so that the heating comes on and goes off at different times in the day to suit the lifestyle of the family. Simply turning the thermostat down one degree can make a huge difference to the energy used.

If the property has electric central heating for instance storage heaters or panel heaters they should be controlled by a thermostat which can be set to the required temperature for each room. Make sure that the electricity tariff that you are on is suitable for the storage heaters and as a night-time charge is usually cheaper.

It can be a worrying time at the moment for many with the cost of living rising to extreme highs. Energy bills are one of the costs that we have seen sore the most with the average household now having to fork out two thousand eight hundred pounds each year for their gas and electric. Although the government are promising help, we still need to try and ensure that we reduce our energy usage as much as possible to combat this.

Many elderly people already get help towards their energy bills and are often eligible for schemes such as the warm home discount, but this may not be enough and we need to ensure that people don’t suffer this winter because they are too scared to put their heating on. There are a number of things you can do to help reduce your gas and electric bills and if you are elderly and on certain benefits that you may be eligible for free help towards this. Often a company will come out and do a survey on your house. They will then tell you want the current energy rating is and what they can offer to improve this. It may be that they install a new boiler or central heating system or that they add solar panels on to your roof. All of these can make a huge different to the cost of your energy bills.

The cold weather has certainly hit us now but with the rising energy prices, we are all aware about the cost of heating out homes and looking for ways in which we can reduce our usage. Although you want to try and keep your bills as low as possible, it is also important to make sure that you are warm. This is especially true if you are elderly or vulnerable or if you have very young children who cannot regulate their body temperature as much and may not be able to tell you if they are cold.

Try and work out the best time to put the heating on. It may be that you manage throughout the day and only det it to come on in the evening when the temperature drops even more. When you do put it on, be sure to turn off any radiators in rooms that do not need to be heated as this will help same the amount of gas central heating you need to use. You may find that you only need to put the heating on for an hour or so as this could be enough to keep the rooms warm throughout the night. You want to ensure that you retain the heat as much as possible. Closing doors is a great way to keep the heat in. You should also try and close curtains and put curtains across doors that lead to the outside to help reduce the amount of heat wasted.