Although it sounds counter intuitive, heating and boiler experts at Heatable are warning people not to turn off unused radiators to save money this winter as it may potentially drive-up heating bills.
Ben Price, founder of Heatable, explained: “Turning off your heating in unused rooms by turning the radiator’s thermostatic radiator valve to zero or off can save you energy, but it could also cost you more money because ultimately they’re always directly related. However, this largely depends on the age of your current boiler.
If your boiler is an old G-rated and non-condensing boiler (typically sold before 2005) you will likely save money by turning off unused radiators. But, if you have a modern condensing boiler - if you had your boiler installed after 2005 - they operate more efficiently at lower flow temperatures.
How to check what type of boiler you have
If you’re not sure which type of boiler you have, Heatable explains a simple visual check is all you need to do - no fiddling required.
If you have a modern condensing boiler, it will have a ‘white pipe’ coming out from underneath it - this is the boiler condensate pipe.
Ben explained that this is all due to the way modern condensing boiler technology works - instead of heat being wasted and sent out by your flue pipe it is recycled back into your central heating system.
Since modern boilers operate at lower flower temperatures, reducing the flow temperature is an easy way to increase the efficiency of your heating.
There are two ways to achieve this:
- using a modulating thermostat
- by increasing the radiator surface area
Essentially, that means that the unused radiators or radiators in rooms not being used should be left open or on as not doing so will make your boiler have to work harder and burn more energy to reach the desired temperature of the radiators you have left on.
This all due to the fact that while the radiators are less hot, they are still able to heat your home to the desired temperature.
The key thing to remember is that if you are not using radiators in unused rooms, you still want to leave them on in order to allow water to continue to flow through them or the other radiators and your boiler will have to work harder.
The optimum temperature to run your combi boiler is 60C as this will help your boiler achieve higher efficiency by utilising its whole functions, resulting in cheaper heating bills.
Boiler Challenge
Some 61,337 people across the UK have turned down their combi boiler to 60C as part of charity Nesta’s Boiler Challenge which offers a step-by-step guide to tweaking your boiler to save money without affecting the heat in your home - find out more here.
To keep up to date with the latest cost of living news, join our Money Saving Scotland Facebook group here or subscribe to our newsletter which goes out three times each week - sign up here.
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