New Website on Heating Controls to Help Householders Stay Warm this Winter

15 Nov 2022

With the price of gas having more than doubled since last Winter, even under the Government’s Energy Price Guarantee[i], experts from the heating industry have produced a new website to demystify the role of heating controls as a powerful energy saving measure.

The Control Your Home website is now live.

The ‘Control Your Home’ website, produced by the BEAMA Heating Controls group, sets out simple, practical advice on how best to use heating controls for gas central heating. It also includes evidence from tests on a heating system to show the scale of savings that are possible from some practical adjustments to the controls. The emphasis is on encouraging householders to think more about where and when they want to be warm, helping them to set and adjust their controls accordingly, and on how they can make sure that changing the way they use their heating system saves them money.   

Heating systems use more energy than anything else in the home. Many householders will be looking for ways to keep their fuel bills down this Winter while still staying warm, and heating controls can provide the answer. Choosing settings to reduce wasted heat and focussing on only providing heating when and where it is needed could save hundreds of pounds in many homes.

The test results covered on the website reveal that:

  • Small adjustments to time and temperature settings on a programmable room thermostat could deliver a saving in energy bills of £192 this winter.
  • Using thermostatic radiator valves to keep rooms other than the living room to 18oC rather than 20oC can reduce gas consumption by 16%.
  • Putting heating on for an hour every now and again to “warm the house through” is less cost-effective than running it for several hours continuously.
  • Turning your heating off when you’re not in is generally cheaper than leaving it on setback – but not by much. 

Commenting on the new website, Remi Volpe, Chairman of the BEAMA Heating Controls group said: “With the Energy Price Guarantee predicting that a typical household will pay £2,500 for energy this year[ii], it is understandable that people will feel some anxiety over how this is going to affect them. With this website BEAMA aims to support the public by demonstrating how heating controls can allow them to be proactive in reducing the amount of energy they use without compromising on comfort.”

Colin Timmins, Director of Technologies at BEAMA, added: “While the general cost of living crisis means that we’ve focussed on no-cost ways of reducing fuel bills, the website also shows what can be achieved by upgrading heating controls. Better off householders may well not be included in the Energy Price Guarantee after next April, and so should consider the benefits of investment in controls that can truly optimise their heating system efficiency. We also call on Government to ensure that any future financial incentives for energy efficiency improvements give people the opportunity to get better heating controls installed alongside insulation, as these measures together are the best way to ensure fuel bills are minimised.”

 

The Control Your Home website is at www.controlyourhome.org.uk.

 

[i] Ofgem average price for gas contracts of 4.3 p/kWh in the six months to January 2022. (Source: House of Commons research library briefing on domestic energy prices - 11 May 2022.) Average price for gas under the Energy Price Guarantee of 10p per kWh from 1 October 2022 (Source: Ofgem - https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/information-consumers/energy-advice-households/check-if-energy-price-cap-affects-you)