5 Ways To Improve Boiler Efficiency in Your Home

When it comes to those cold winter nights you rely on your boiler and central heating system to make sure that your home is warm and comfortable for you and your family. You can’t live without it. Therefore, you need to make sure that it is running as efficiently as possible to avoid wasting money on heating your house. 

In this blog, we will be looking at ways in which you can check and improve your boiler’s efficiency, saving you money on your energy bill.

Annual Servicing

One of the best ways to be certain that your boiler is in good shape, running and performing as well as it should is to have an annual service. An annual boiler service, by a gas safe registered engineer, will make sure that your boiler is in good health. You will receive a full inspection, safety check and testing, as well as a clean of all the relevant components. The engineer will also identify any issues that may require repairing meaning you could avoid a nasty boiler breakdown. As well as saving money on your bills, many boiler manufacturers require an annual service to maintain it’s warranty. Take a look at our boiler cover packages which can help give you peace of mind as you won’t need to about your boiler breaking down and the cost of boiler repairs.  

Check Your Pressure

You may notice that your boiler pressure is dropping unexpectedly. This can have an adverse effect on the performance of your central heating system. There are many reasons why this may be happening such as a faulty pressure valve, an air leak or the radiators are full of air. For your boiler to work effectively, water pressure must be stable, therefore when it drops it is no longer working efficiently. Most boilers work at 1.0bar to 1.5bar; if it exceeds 3bar, or drops below 1.0bar this is the problem. On some domestic boilers in the UK you can top up the pressure yourself, however, if you are not able to you can call a qualified heating engineer to fix it for you.

Bleed Your Radiators

Sometimes your boilers will have a build-up of scale or sludge, over time this may cause a blockage within your radiator pipes. This causes an issue with the flow of water and means that you may develop cold spots in your radiators. This obviously affects the performance of your heating. To check if your radiators aren’t performing well, turn on your heating system, check how long it takes for your radiators to come on and also carefully check whether there are any cold spots. If there are cold spots, then you will need to ‘bleed your radiators’. To do this you will need to turn off your central heating system. This guide will help you understand how to do it.

Keep It Ticking Over

Boilers if not used for long periods of time, over the summer, for example, or when you are away on holiday, may seize up. Therefore, during the warmer months, it can be beneficial for you to turn your heating on for a few minutes once or twice a week. This allows the boiler to warm up and means that is less likely to breakdown when you need it most. When it comes to combi boilers, the ideal temperature for your central heating is between 18 and 21 degrees Centigrade on your heating control.

Clean Your System

Ensuring that your boiler is clean both inside and out can make a massive difference when it comes to its performance. As mentioned, your heating system can suffer from rust and sludge in its pipes. Generally bleeding your radiators will fix this, however, sometimes this is not enough. You may require a ‘Powerflush’, a Powerflush is a cleaning process aiming to remove all debris. Generally, this should only be required a few times in the lifecycle of your boiler. Your heating engineer will inform you if this is required during your annual or a one-off servicing, they will then be able to perform it for you. After which you will notice increased performance and also benefit from a more reliable heating system.

What else can I do?

As well as the above there are other steps you can take to improve overall energy efficiency. These include investing in a new A+ rated high-efficiency boiler and installing pipe and loft insulation where possible within your home, all of which will result in energy savings. Take a look at our Ideal Boilers vs Vogue vs Worcester Bosch boiler review to help you decide which is the best boiler for you.

At ProTech boilers we have been working with domestic customers across Hull and East Yorkshire for 5 years, installing and servicing boilers. Speak to an expert today to see how we could help you.