25/10/2023
How to increase the efficiency of your boiler
If your boiler is not running at its best, you won’t just have a chilly house–you will be spending more money. Amidst the current increase in living costs, we understand that keeping your heating system in tip-top condition is essential.
Using these few boiler-efficient tips, you can ensure that your home and family stay cosy for less.
- Use a Timer
- Get it serviced… yearly
- Bleed your radiators
- Check the pressure
- Keep it clean
- Keep it ticking over
- Insulate the pipes
The most efficient way to run your heating system is often debated. Should you keep it low all day or have short bursts of heat?
While every individual home situation is different, using a timer – often included on your boiler – will give you peace of mind that regardless of when you want it on or off, your heating won’t be running when you don’t need it to.
Something that many of us forget to do is to book an annual service for our boilers. This can mean that the boiler could run more efficiently and cost more to run, often at a reduced and colder capacity.
If your radiators are lukewarm and you get surprised with cold showers, your boiler may be overdue a service.
Gas Safe engineers are the best bet for boiler servicing; they will be able to check if the set-up is efficient, remove any corrosive dirt and detect any potential issues before they cause havoc within your pipes.
Sometimes your engineer will suggest flushing the system out; this is done with high-pressurised water pumped through the whole system. This cleaning is required when there is a build-up of dirt, rust or sludge and will result in your system running much more efficiently.
If your radiators take a long time to heat up or have cold spots along the top, it may mean that they require bleeding.
Bleeding a radiator isn’t as scary as it may seem, and many how-to guides are online to help you out.
By bleeding your radiators, you will see a significant increase in the heat that they pump out and, potentially, a reduction in the cost of heating your home.
When your radiators are hot, it is normal to have a reading of around 2 bars and only 1 bar when they are cold. Anything above 2.75 means you have high pressure; if your boiler pressure is too high, you can bleed a radiator to reduce it.
Keeping your boiler pressure at around 1.5 bar is optimum for efficiency. Keep an eye on your boiler’s pressure, and if it is reading as low or high pressure, you may need to tweak it.
This is very simple, won’t take long, and many easy how-to guides can be found online for your specific boiler brand and style.
Although you won’t be able to clean inside your boiler – that’s a job for the yearly service – you should give it a once over with a duster to prevent any pipes from being blocked by dust and dirt.
While it is only a little thing, this can improve the efficiency of your boiler in the long run by keeping any tubes and pipes dirt free.
When summer rolls around, we often forget about the love that boilers gave us when the chillier days were here.
Much like a car’s engine, boilers need to keep ticking over to stay in good shape, and leaving them for extended periods can cause them to break down when they are finally booted up again.
To prevent your boiler from expensive breakdowns after the summer, pop it on for 15 minutes each week to flush out any debris, and it should be good to go when you need it again.
A simple and relatively cheap way to keep your heating system efficient is to insulate the pipes and boiler with lagging. You can find insulating material at most DIY stores; all you will need is the size of the pipes to find lagging that will fit perfectly.
Insulating your heating system will keep water in the boiler hotter for longer, protect the pipes from damage and dust and reduce the overall cost of heating your home.
Get in contact
As leaders in the heating industry, we can help you with the efficiency of your whole heating system. Speak with our team of experts, who can help you identify how your system may be improved.
