One easy change to your boiler could save you around £100 a year. Here’s what the money saving boiler challenge is all about and how you can take part.
Household energy bills should be cheaper in July when the new energy price cap kicks in. Based on typical annual usage, the average annual energy bill is expected to drop from £2,500 to £2,074. But while the unit price of energy may be falling, we’re still paying much more for our gas and electricity than this time last year. If you’re looking to cut costs, taking the money saving boiler challenge could slash your energy bills by around £100 a year.
Many households have turned off the heating for the summer, but you still need your boiler to power up for your hot water. Innovation charity Nesta has mounted a money saving boiler challenge urging households to turn down the flow temperature on their combi boiler to 60 degrees or less.
With more than 15 million homes having a combi boiler in the UK according to Nesta, this could save households around £100 a year on energy bills.
The challenge aims to get 10 million homes to make one easy change to their boiler, which could save £1 billion in energy bills and 1.7 tonnes of carbon emissions – that’s the equivalent of nearly six million people taking transatlantic flights.
Nesta is in partnership with energy suppliers such as EDF, Octopus Energy, E.ON Next and Energy UK and have also been working with the UK government.
Here’s how to take part and lower your boiler flow temperature to cut on your energy bills.
How to lower your boiler's flow temperature
You can only lower your boiler’s flow temperature if you have a combi boiler and it’s suggested not to go in blindly when making the change.
Not everyone has the same boiler, so check your boiler manual which will tell you how to change the flow temperature in the correct way. If you can’t find it, there should be a copy online.
Nesta has put a step by step guide together on how to change the flow temperature on your boiler which you can use too.
This change to your boiler does not work in the same way as a thermostat, which means it might take a bit longer to heat your home after lowering the flow temperature.
Also note, you might have to test different temperatures at 60 degrees or below to see which one heats your radiators comfortably.
At different times of the year you can change the flow temperature again, for example in the summer, the temperature could go lower than what it’s set at in winter.
Why you should lower your boiler's flow temperature
Your boiler’s flow temperature is what controls the temperature of the water that goes from the boiler to the radiator.
Usually the flow temperature on your combi boiler is set to around 80 degrees, but this is too high and it’s not the best temperature for your boiler to operate at.
Lowering the flow temperature to 60 degrees or below will result in your boiler working at its most efficient – saving you money.
Research by Nesta found that an average household uses 12,000 kWh of gas consumption, and reducing the flow temperature to 60 degrees will save 1,092 kWh of gas per year.
Based on the new energy price cap rate of 8p per kWh for gas, that results in a saving of around £100 per year.
The reason for this is when the water travels between the boiler and the radiator, heat is lost.
So if you keep your flow temperature at 60 degrees or below, it means less heat will escape and your boiler will work less hard to reheat the water.
How to take part in the money-saving boiler challenge
All you need to do is go onto the money saving boiler challenge website and click ‘turn down your boiler today’ on their page.
This will take you through a step by step process, asking you what type of boiler you have and it will instruct you on how to reduce the flow temperature on your boiler.
