Thanks @BBCRadio4#YouandYours for flagging our guidance on how save ££ with a few adjustments to your condensing combi boiler
83% of condensing boilers are C-E-Rated in the home, not A-Rated. Equivalent to just 75-85% efficient
Our tips to clawing back some efficiency here🧵
You can safely turn down the heating flow temperature on your *condensing combi* boiler yourself to save 6-8% on your gas bills
You will have a *condensing* boiler if you have a white pipe under the boiler
You will have a combi boiler if you DO NOT have a hot water cylinder
You need to go to the front of your boiler to turn down the heating flow temperature
You are not adjusting your thermostat this time
For more help watch our video on how to turn down the flow temperature on different types of combi boiler
Turning down the flow temp from 80°C to 60°C saves around 6-8% on your fuel bills without affecting your comfort.
72% of homes can stay homes on a January day at 60°C flow temperatures.
If you have a home built after 2000 or purpose built flat try turning it down to 50-55°C
If you have a Worcester, Ideal or Vaillant combi boiler you could save another 5-10% if you turn the hot water pre-heat off. It comes set to on but it's unnecessary in most homes:
As @RegAssistProj point out, info sharing & community engagement produces results
In Germany, Gov & utility companies worked together on a huge marketing campaign, including radio adverts & community level trade fairs/town halls, with Gov representatives
£150 billion on the untargeted energy support package (now to be reviewed by treasury) is £5,395 for every UK household. Money that should have been spent a decade ago insulating our homes. 2nd best strategy, spend it now. The average cost to upgrade from D-C EPC rating is £6,155
The Gov's own 2017 Clean Growth Strategy said "the cost of policies delivering cleaner energy, support for vulnerable households & investing in upgrading our buildings accounts for 12% of an average energy gas and electricity bill. However these costs are on average more than...
...offset by savings from improvements to the energy efficiency of people's homes"
Yet green home policies have been few and far between. Following Camerons 'cut the green crap' & the failed Green Deal, we've had the Green Deal Home Improvement Fund (money run out after 6 wks)...
Next request to @RishiSunak is for building regulations to be moved to @beisgovuk. It currently sits under Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities. If BEIS is split into climate & business, building regulations need to move to climate. Little 🧵
2018 Boiler Plus let basic heating controls in the back door, which means boilers still fall short on their A-rated label efficiency. If we're to meet our net zero targets we need compensation controls mandated through building regulations and all others excluded.
We also need universal compatibility between heating controls and boilers, so that all heating controls can speak to all boilers and compensate the flow temperature and adjust the kW output. This is the case in other EU countries.