Small Steps to a brighter future
It has started to get chilly – a definite nip in the air. It is this time of year that I suddenly remember how much I love slippers. Before your heating kicks in for the winter, it is time to make sure you are not wasting energy in your home.
We’ve got used to sitting in shirt sleeves whatever the weather. Heating your home produces about 4,000 kilos of the average household’s CO2 emissions each year. Research has shown that having an excessively hot house can be bad for your family’s health. Woolly jumpers are rather a good invention (as are thermal vests). Your heating footprint goes down by 10% every time you turn down the thermostat by 1 centigrade. You can make major savings and still be comfortably warm.
Challenge / Actions: Some like it hot! / Carbon dioxide saved (Kg/year)Bronze / Set the hot water thermostat to 60 degrees / 60
Silver / Set your heating to come on an hour later / 230
Gold / Set thermostat at 18 degrees when active in the house and 12-14 degrees at night / 280
Heating water
Heating water for your home uses much less energy than heating the air in your home but it is still a pretty “big ticket “item on the domestic scene. Most homes heat their water using a gas boiler. This typically causes 700 kilos in a year (about 13% of your home’s emissions). Heating water electrically, e.g. with an immersion heater, will cause about 2.5 times more emissions than gas.
Set your boiler control or hot water tank thermostat to 60C. Don’t go any lower as the official advice is that it has a risk of Legionnaires’ disease. People with very low incomes are sometimes eligible for help to make their heating better and homes warmer from various schemes. Have a look at to see if you could save some money on upgrades.
Tips for heating air
Learn how to use your central heating timer. Try setting the timer to switch off half an hour before you leave home in the mornings, and switch on only half an hour before you come back.
Set the main thermostat (also known as the room thermostat) to 18°C when someone is at home (unless of course if someone is old or ill and needs extra warmth). Put on a jumper or a vest if you are chilly. Only turn it up when you are actually cold. Remember you feel the cold more when you’re sitting still than when you’re moving about, so set different rooms at different temperatures.
Turn off the central heating before you go to bed. If you need to, add a blanket or thicker duvet. You will adapt to sleeping in cooler rooms quickly.
Get gadgets
Fit a dual-channel programmer if you haven’t got one already, to control the central heating and hot water independently. Every hour of heating you save will save you 12% of your heating emissions. Install thermostatic radiator valves if you don’t have them (but not in the same space as your main thermostat). They allow you to set the temperature for individual rooms, cost about £10 and are quick to install yourself or by a plumber.
Learn how to use thermostatic radiator valves. They don’t warm a room quicker by being set at 5 - they just make it too hot. Number 2 or 3 is usually warm enough in rooms you use