When you look at energy-saving advice, it’s usually about how to keep your house warm during the winter, but no one talks about what you can do in the summer to save money.It might seem very unintuitive to think about heating during the summer, but this is exactly why you can save money. We put together 10 tips to help you save money this summer.
1. Book Your Plumber During A Heatwave
If you ever struggled to get a plumber during the winter, you are not alone. During the autumn and winter, plumbers get booked up really quickly due to people discovering boiler faults when turning their heating on for the first time and because there is more demand for radiator installation. There is usually a lot more availability during the summer and spring for plumbers and heating engineers as a result of this low demand.
2. Get Your Boiler Serviced Before You Actually Need it
Most people service their boiler when it is damaged, which usually costs them a lot more and leaves them without hot water during the winter. Now would be the best time for someone to get their boiler serviced because you can fix any issues before they cause any further damage and before you need it.
3. Buy A Radiator In The Summer
Due to much lower demand during the summer, there are a lot of savings to be had on heating appliances. Most retailers will offer sales as interest generally dips because people stop thinking about heating when it's hot outside. You could save up to %10 by buying a radiator in July compared to if you buy the same radiator in December. This would equate to savings of up to £270 as the average 3 bed/1 bathroom house will have 9 radiators.
4. Find Another Way To Dry Your Towels
Another thing people still do is run their heating in the summer because they want warm towels in the bathroom. We would recommend getting a dual fuel towel rail or converting their existing towel rail, which will mean they can still dry their towels in the bathroom without running their whole central heating system.
5. Make Use of Natural Sunlight
A common tip, but one that is commonly forgotten is to turn your lights off when you’re not using them or when you leave a room. Replacing all the lights in your home with LED bulbs could also help you save even more on your energy bills.
6. Use Your Fans Wisely
During the summer, the usage of fans increases significantly, but you can still save money by using your fans to their full potential. Positioning fans at floor level will help them circulate cooler air instead of warm air. Also opening windows to bring in cool air at night rather than using fans could be a great way of reducing your energy consumption.
7. Tweak Your Boiler Settings
Boilers need to be left on if you still want to have hot water, however, you can tweak the settings on your boiler thermostat/control panel to only provide hot water and not heating. This way, you will still get hot water throughout the house, but your radiators won’t come on, keeping your radiators cool but ensuring you have hot water where you need it.The downside to switching your system to hot water only is that if you still want dry towels for your bathroom throughout and you have a central heating towel rail, you'll have no choice but to put your heating on. The solution to this is to get a dual fuel heating rail or convert your existing one.
8. Clean Your Radiator
The best way to keep your heating system functioning as efficiently as possible is by giving it a nice clean. Giving your radiators a really good clean to remove any build-up of dust will help you reduce energy and maintenance costs.
9. Don’t Leave Appliance On Standby Mode
You can make some easy savings on your energy bill by remembering to turn off your appliances when not in use. Almost all of your appliances can be switched off and on without affecting their programming which will help reduce their energy consumption. You can always check the instruction for each appliance to make sure that turning them off won't change any settings.
10. Turn Off The Hot Water Preheat Setting
Another great money saving tip for combi boiler owners would be to turn off the hot water preheat setting. Gas costs a lot more than water, so it's a lot cheaper to only heat water as you use it, even if it means running the tap for a few seconds longer, than continually preheating the small tank of water inside the combi boiler.
