Programmers allow you to set times to turn the boiler on and off, and some have separate controls for room heating and water heating. If you already have central heating, it is worth having the programmer changed if you can’t separate water heating from room heating.
If you have electric heating, fan-assisted storage radiators can reduce your use of energy and CO2 emissions if they have ‘automatic charge controls’ — these adjust the amount of heat stored overnight according to the temperature inside or outside.
Individual room controls — TRVs (thermostatic radiator valves) can be added to radiators in rooms that aren’t used often or that tend to overheat, so you can turn down the heat in those rooms without the rest of the house being affected.
Room thermostats are used in some systems to switch the boiler on and off when a certain temperature is reached in that room — so the whole system depends on the temperature in the room where the thermostat is fitted.
You don’t need a TRV in the same space as the room thermostat. If the boiler cuts out before the house is heated or stays on too long, it may be that the room thermostat is in the wrong place. Get advice from a heating engineer — they may move the thermostat if it was fitted:
too near a radiator (too hot, so it switches off too soon for the other rooms to be comfortable)
in a room that’s not often used (too cold, so it switches on too early and stays on long for the other rooms to be comfortable).
Savings [Savings information from EST]
Replacing an old boiler could save you up to a third on your heating bills. By upgrading heating controls you will improve the efficiency of a central heating system, and cut your energy consumption and costs by up to 17%. Fit the right heating controls as well as a condensing boiler and you could bump the savings up to 40%.
Typically, installing new controls could cost £200 and could save £60-£70 each year for a semi-detached house with a gas boiler, so you would get your money back in about three years.
If you install a new programmer the building regulations will apply — you’ll need a 7-day programmer.
If you have electric panel heaters, you will pay less on an off peak tariff — but this doesn’t reduce the amount of energy you use, or the CO2 emissions.
