Little Wenlock C Red
Little Wenlock Carbon Reduction Action Group Newsletter
(Aiming to reduce our carbon emissions)
Newsletter 14
Is your heating under control?
How old is your boiler? Boilers over 15 years old may be wasting a third of the fuel you use.
Ask your service engineer to test, and tune the efficiency of the boiler
Replacing with an ‘A’ rated condensing boiler, at 95% efficiency, plus controls, could save up to £260 of the average £650 annual heating. Bigger savings if you have a bigger heating bill.
Shop around on price of boiler and installers as total cost may vary between £3000 - £6000. Call Hilary for a list of local installers, and information on grants and discounts available, 505547.
What are the alternatives?
If you have been wondering about alternatives to gas, oil or LPG boilers, we hope to have more information about heat pumps and wood boilers in future newsletters
Heating Controls.
A full set of heating controls includes:
Timer / Programmer, Room (wall) Thermostat, Cylinder Thermostat (unless Combi boiler), Thermostatic Radiator Valves (TRVs) and a Boiler Interlock (turns boiler off when the thermostat has reached temperature).
Other options include a programmable room thermostat to set different temperatures for different times of the day, and zone controls to set different times or temperature for different parts of the house.
Timers.
Best set for 1-2 hrs am and pm, this may be enough if your house is well insulated, and you only need to press a temporary override button for more heat on colder days when at home.
Use warm up and cool down periods. Check that your timer is not set for longer than needed to reach temperature before you normally get up. Then it can go off at least an hour before you go out or to bed. Reducing heating by just an hour a day will save 6% of your fuel.
Adjust Time Clocks when clocks change at the end of October.
Room Thermostats are best set between 18-21C, possibly less if only needing background heat when using a wood burner. Turning down just 1C will save 10% of your fuel. TRVs can be turned down in rooms not in use, and when leaving a room or conservatory.
Turn them up to full during the summer to help prevent sticking, and they may also need to be turned up to full if in the same room as a room thermostat. (To prevent boiler constantly turning on & off)
Be happy to wear extra clothes!
That’s the message from David who thinks we should not be embarrassed to answer our doors wearing an extra sweater etc.
Do we have a knitwear designer who could design us a 'Little Wenlock, Happy to be Warm’ sweater?
Next C Red meeting: Cuba talk Mon 17th Nov, 7.30 at Village Hall, come and join us
