Another basic tip: close all the curtains and blinds as soon as the sun sets each day. This reduces the circulation where your expensive warm air hits colder glass, cools, drops to the floor and drags more warm air onto the window. Try sitting in a window-bottom on a cold day to experience this circulation first-hand.
This is an excellent tip. I am amazed by how many people do not do this and let expensive heat leak out into space. And ‘into space’ is exactly what happens. A TV documentary explained that if you do not insulate your windows - double glazed or not, by closing your blinds/ curtains - whatever, then your expensive heat is radiating directly into the rest of the Universe! A lot of properties abroad have shutters, we should copy them, it saves a fortune in heat.
Thats's a good suggestion! When the sun starts to set I close all my shutters, it gives you a sort of "air pillow" between windows and shutters and if guarantees a better insulation of the house! - TheHandyman Italy
Also a good idea to tuck curtains on the sill and around the sides if they're long. Stops that cold air coming in and you're also not heating the curtains.
In the Winter months, in addition to shutting off the oven 10 minutes early I also leave the door open after removing the food so that the residual heat warms the house.
@@monikaw1179 I know right? I just keep my heat on all the time everything is warm from my furniture to the clothing inside the drawers it's nice and even. I'm not the type of person who opens the front door and it suddenly chilly in the place because only the air was warm. No. My house is Thoroughly warm
@@monikaw1179 Without opening the door, there will be more percentage of the heat absorbed by the walls and top of the oven and cupboard whatsoever rather than directly into the room I guess
@@jessicalovescakes9544 Heat energy can be transferred but cannot disappear by being 'absorbed'. It always goes somewhere. If it goes into the general thermal mass of your nearby kitchen furniture, it is still in your home. You may not feel like you're feeling the heat very much because it will be literally stored and released over time. Physics lol.
@@monikaw1179 Well it does dissipate once the heat source stops and it gradually dissipates into areas that are cooler - including eventually passing out through things as small as your keyholes and the sink plugs and parts of the home which will suck up heat and pass it to outside. I don't think Jessica said it 'disappears', but that it is absorbed by the closest objects and of course the very point of the oven door and cabinet is to retain its heat! So obviously opening the door speeds up that dissipation! Physics lol.
If you refill the kettle just after boiling you can preheat the water with the residual heat ready for your next cup. I just leave the oven door open once I’ve finished with it to heat the room. Also the oven cooling fan doesn’t need to run for some long either 😝 Some good tips. Forward planning and forethought do wonders for one’s wallet 😃
Excellent! I am going to propose you as an Honorary Yorkshireman! (I do something similar to your 'oven-tip': I turn off my kettle about 20 seconds before it turns itself off! The thermometer on the side continues to rise and I get 20 seconds of continued free water-heating! It works out at about £50 saved per year - I drink a lot of Yorkshire Tea!)
Good tips, regrettably in our household we are already implemented these cost savings measures prior any energy and cost of living crisis. Our home is between 16-18C with 1-2 radiators turned on only for couple hours a day, run cold washes. In the shower, we turn off the running water to lather soap before a quick rinse off. Turning off appliances and the hob/oven are the best savings (and also the iron as you finish off the last clothing items). It is becoming increasingly impossible to save further for our household, I don't know how others are managing - never rely on the Government who got us in this place to begin with.
blame putin for shutting down gas supplies and driving up the costs as a result....the government are trying to help you with some cash aid but as one ex primeminister said theres no magic money tree
“..so if you know someone who has a thermal imaging camera, ask to borrow it for a couple of days….” Stuart, may I please borrow your thermal imager for a couple of days? Great informative video as always - with such a high level of production, moderately sprinkled with humour that we all appreciate. Thank you!
Good idea if your property is well insulated etc, but for a lot of properties, including mine, I require a temp on the thermostat of 22-23 degrees to feel comfortable. You have to balance savings against comfort. It is no use saving £50-100 and being miserable. Most people can afford their energy bills with the help the government are giving. I feel deep sympathy for those who are genuinely struggling.
@@petercollins7848 we tryied to put it around 18 and 19 wearing more cloths but Wife Daughter and me styarted getting a cold constantly , now we put it back to 21
@@iqbalmahmoodsheikh7741 Fit vertical blinds, these act like another layer of insulation. Obviously they only work at night, but it will save money and keep the rooms warmer.
Top Tip with Combi Boilers, make sure you check where the pressure is at or check the manufacturers recommended pressure (it’s usually on a sticker of the boiler). As when you bleed the radiators you are effectively depressurising your central heating system. The pressure can be brought back up by adjusting the valves at the bottom of the boiler to let in more water and bring the pressure back up, and if you take it too far you can bleed a little to drop it back down. 1.5bar (about 22psi) is usually where it should be, but most can be between 1 (14.50psi) and 2 bar (29psi) in my experience. If your not sure check with someone who is or even pay a Plumber.
Thanks for this! :D One thing we do since our kitchen opens to our lounge (or vice versa) is that when we're done with the oven, upon turning it off, we keep the door half-open, just to let all that heat that would otherwise sit inside, just seep out into the rest of the kitchen and lounge, also not half bad if the food you've cooked smells awesome!
Some great tips here. That said, we used to have quite high moisture content in the house which can be very bad for health and the one thing that immediately cured it was to stop drying washing indoors and stick it in the dryer. Yes it uses more energy, but the house is now much dryer.
Excellent tips. I already do all of them around the kitchen, as well as the laundry. A few other tips: - in general, boil only the required amount of water, as boiling water is *very* energy hungry, - always cover your pans with a lid, it helps increasing temperature and thus cook faster for free, also learn to use a pressure cooker (with only the minimum amount of water) especially to cook veggies, - induction stoves are more efficient and practical than other types of stoves. However they are usually overpowered. Not much need to use more than 2kW, so if a stove is above that, don't use it at full power (too much power can crack cast iron vessels), - invest in LED light bulbs. Not only they last much longer, but they are also vastly more efficient than the rest. - my kitchen is usually cooler than the other rooms. Because there is not much reason to heat it anyway, the fridge has to work less hard if the kitchen is 3-5°C cooler, and lower temps are better for food conservation, - close doors to trap heat in living rooms (very effective one in my experience), - take showers rather than use the bath tub, you economise on water and therefore on hot water.
Whilst setting radiators in unused rooms to frost setting will save money it could lead to damp for some properties (old houses more likely than your new build). Could be better to set to low temperature - say position 1 rather than frost setting. Another point - worth cleaning the fins inside the radiator (between the two panels) to improve airflow
Yup - and, making a room cold inside the barrier of external insulation is going to drag heat from surrounding spaces though uninsulated internal walls dragging down the temperature of the house as a whole. Turn down, but don't turn off.
@@nigel4425 I keep rooms at 15c when they're not in use & also ventilate them. This temperature has meant I've avoided any costly repair work due to humidity for 8 winters & counting. Also; the room can be heated to 21c within an hour if it's being used.
New builds tend to get damp much easier than older houses, they’re built to be very airtight, meaning that a cold room without any ventilation in a new build will get much more damp than a draughty older house. I know this from experience haha
@@mattsanders5372 That's not true to say. Most well built new homes include cavity ventilation, cavity trays, weep vents & trickle vents. So they're NOT "airtight". A current of cool air is incorporated into the build, to (perhaps) replicate a draughty old house, yet with control over the circulation of the air in interior enclosed spaces & the overall breathing of the build.
Damp won’t be that bad because it will dry out in spring summer. I have had cold rooms now for a couple of winters, I paint bad areas with anti mould paint and use a window vacuum to remove condensation.
30 degree washing won't kill bacteria. Your "clean" clothes will start smelling within 30 mins of wearing as the bacteria reacts to your body heat. Either higher temperature or use something like dettol bacteria wash.
The washing powder or liquid kills bacteria and viruses. You could use completely cold water, people have done that for millennia. They washed their clothes down by the river and kept perfectly clean. Dettol bacteria wash is just a ‘con’ to get you to spend more money!
Great tips. Another use of the camera would be to search for thermal bridges, mostly in older buildings. This is where a structural element is bare inside and outside and conducts heat from higher temps to lower, or better put, the heat leaks outs.
I’m surprised that you’ve taught me a few things here. Thanks for sharing. I grew up in Texas and radiators are not existent. Your house has some nice features too. 😃 Thanks again mate!
In Victorian houses you get draughts from chimneys not blocked off properly the draught comes from under skirting boards, cracks in the lime plaster around window frames inside and cracks in mortar outside.
@@RogerHolden works for me though. With the taxpayer discount, my energy bill for warm October was the lowest I’ve ever had to pay. Seems like the government is laundering cash. There’s been one laundering scam after another since Bojo “Got Brexit Done”. The £64m to the French is the latest. I won’t mention the big C or Ukraine scams….. let alone the climate ones. Makes one wonder how many £trillions were actually skimmed through the EU gravy train to be recycled before being exposed.
Currently trying not to have a thermostat war with my sister-in-law. She likes it very warm and frequently has it set to either 23 or 24, and then she leaves to college and I'm home alone while my fiancé's at work and the niece and nephew are at school and I'm sweating, and trying not to change the thermostat. Lol My room is the coldest in the house, and even with the vent closed, I still often have the fan on high because of how well insulated the place actually is. 😑 My fiancé and I are moving out soon, though. I just have to train him to be ok with a lower temperature house. 😂
For old houses like mine that have natural movement (not subsidence), cut existing cracked sealant out with a flat head screw driver, re-seal with a low modulus sealant that allows for say 25% movement. Replace internal hollowcore doors with solidcore doors (engineered wood) from Wickes etc, and use v-seal weather strips around the door. A Chimney Sheep from Amazon will keep warm air in the room but still allow 5% ventilation to stop damp forming.
Old post but still think my response is valuable. It all depends on humidity levels. As long as you keep the humidity between 45 and 60 percent you won't get mold grow. The benefit of higher humidity levels is that with lower heat it still feels comfortable, dryer air tends to feel colder.
Put a torch underneath your radiator and look down each of the internal ribs. One of mine was completely blocked by the previous neighbours' cats and dogs fur and and all the dust and fluff it then collected.
I am learning that keeping the heat on a low setting is probably not the best use of my central h/a, at least for me. Having it cutting on all the time just because it has reached the temp setting doesn't mean it needs to be on if I am not chilly. So one might say, "So, set it lower." The same rule applies. Our body "feel" is different every day. Some days I can't get cool, and others I can get warm. What we eat, what we are wearing, where we are sitting, how much we move, whether we left a door open by accident or are in and out of the house more - all mean that our personal comfort will change from hour to hour. So I am experimenting with intermittent heat. I use a dehumidifier and it sends heat out the top as it removes moisture from the air. Oddly, it will heat up my space where I am in the LR to about 12 degrees warmer than the outside temp. That helps, but also if the temp drops and it feels chilly, I will cut the heat on for maybe five/ten minutes and then shut it back off if the room is comfortable. An hour, two hours later, I will do it again if I need to until I go to bed. Because I have pets, I want to keep them comfortable, so will set it on lowest heat around 68 degrees, and because of the dehumidifier, it won't be clicking on much. The constant automatic on and off of the a/c (heat pump) constantly just doesn't seem necessary, and I am not sure, but it seems an a/c guy told me one time that every time it clicks on it pulls more power in the initial surge. So it stands to reason that the less "surging" it does, the lower my bill will be. My bill has dropped from $156 to $125 to $106 these past three months. I am also doing other things like turning off the cooking burner after the food heats after it is cooking temp for a couple of minutes and putting a lid on it for the next half hour and it will continue to cook, but slower. There are a million ways to outfox the electric company, and UA-cam is full of suggestions. LED bulbs in the home (soft white), passive cookers, not using the oven (stovetop baking), slow cookers, cold laundry wash/clothesline, wash/shower in off-peak hours only, etc. Some people shut off their hot water tanks for a few days or at least lower the temp. Thanks for letting me share.
Any recommendations for a 70 quid thermal imaging camera as mentioned in the video? I think I could get some use from one around my house. Thanks for the channel btw
After washing a load of laundry, if you have to use the dryer, then wait at least half an hour before placing the laundry into the dryer. This will allow the excess water to run off and give some time for the clothes to dry, thus cutting the drying time down.
We rarely use the oven now, slow cooker and air fryer or microwave does most of our cooking. Benefit of the slow cooker for us we have solar panels so it sits there all day long cooking for free. I personally think that perhaps here in the UK we should move to triple glazing as the norm but that’s only my personal opinion.
Great video as always. If you live in ROI you can borrow a home energy kit from your local library to assess where you can improve on your energy losses.
Hi, ref. the thermal camera that the chap is using. He seems reticent to share so I have looked myself (V. closely/freeze framing etc!). It appears to be a lookalike of the Hikmicro E1L Handheld Thermal Imaging Camera (which is approx. £300 - £350 depending where you look). Hope that helps.
Interesting to see the infrared imaging of your boiler room and that the painted pipes are putting out more heat than the cylinder. Suggest some pipe insulation would really help there. I find it also is invaluable in reducing the amount of time you have to wait for a shower or tap to warm up, something that wastes energy as well. A few years ago when we replumbed a lot of our house I did some calcations and found that the thicker 'byelaw 49' pipe insulation would not pay for itself over 30 years however no doubt with our heating oil price as it is now it would not be justifiable. Would well be worth you considering when you have all of that pipework in one space.
Hi, ref. the thermal camera that the chap is using. He seems reticent to share so I have looked myself (V. closely/freeze framing etc!). It appears to be a lookalike of the Hikmicro E1L Handheld Thermal Imaging Camera (which is approx. £300 - £350 depending where you look). Hope that helps.
Good tips:- I've got a massive double set of patio doors so I've added supplementary tripple glazing in the form of 4mm solid polyarbonate sheet on the inside of the fixed panels (stood off by about 6mm) attached with small aluminium clips. That helped a lot, so I've just done the outside of the sliding panels in a similar way with an added desicant bar... seems to be working so far... I'll know more when winter kicks in. I did want to have them replaced with tripple glazed units, but no company would supply and fit... cost was astronomical and they couldn't even supply for 6 months (I'm too old to fit 'em myself)
Add vertical blinds as well. When closed they act like another layer of insulation. It is amazing how well they work. When I open them in the morning you can feel the cold immediately. Also wear a gilet in the house. It is amazing how much more comfortable you feel, and your arms are not restricted when doing jobs.
Loft boarding 'legs' are available in Toolstation and probably Screwfix. They're a great way to increase storage without compromising on insulation. Sterling board or 'OSB' (Oriented Strand Board) in 18mm thickness is probably your most cost-effective boarding type to use.
it would be worth mentioning OpenTherm boilers and a compatible smart thermostat like nest with outside temperature compensation. OpenTherm regulates the boiler just like you would operate a car throttle rather than the traditional full on / full off with wide temperature swings in between. My radiators are just warm to the touch and never get hot and the boiler just idles away in the background yet the house is a comfortable constant 22deg with no temperature swing. The nest also switches off the heating when we are away from home and switches it back on when we are coming back using geofencing
The boiler shown is a Viessmann .. leading efficient brand, biggest selling domestic brand in Germany, also sell v large commercial boilers, very competent company.. This one has weather compensation control [it modulates the gas flame up or down according to outside temperature.. so that you are cost efficiently not too hot on a mild night, not too cold on a cold night.. clever] made by Viessmann .. highly integrated system, all support from the family German company, no shareholders involved to get in the way of doing the technology right. I’d trust it far more than combining third party controls from Google with any boiler at all.. The Veissmann system can also be Internet connected for remote adjustments, or set up, calibrate, and forget.
it gets a bit more difficult now building regs are specifying 19 degrees optimum temperature. I don't have mine set up via smart app as there is too much BS in the middle to go wrong. Basic stuff like heating needs to be as dumb as posible,and certainly not reliant on a comms link from an IP provider or energy company.....it needs to be totally bullet proof in case of an outage.
Another great and informative Video Stuart although you have not included your normally very useful links to kit used, which I always find very useful. Thermal camera link would be great! If possible.
Hi, ref. the thermal camera that the chap is using. He seems reticent to share so I have looked myself (V. closely/freeze framing etc!). It appears to be a lookalike of the Hikmicro E1L Handheld Thermal Imaging Camera (which is approx. £300 - £350 depending where you look). Hope that helps.
@@Bradleyguy22 Thanks perhaps the price is off putting hence no link. It's all very well with these projects but the investment in tools can be more than some projects are costing.
biggest house tip yet is to massively oversize your bathroom radiator.Change it for the most monstrous towel rail you can get hold of. It doubles up as a laundry airer and you don't ever need to use the tumble dryer ever again!!! As long as you are patient with your laundry you can save an absolute stack as the heating would be on in any case.....I would say this is one situation where you do not necessarily need good insulation as you want the excess steam to transport away. that is my life hack, monstrous towel rail is the best £100 i ever spent.
Exactly. I have a radiator in my bathroom above it is a glass Shelf with my lotions and creams and a hanging bar to keep my towels and washcloths warm and toasty for when I get out of the bath oh it's wonderful. The only time I move the towel is after I've done laundry I hang my tiny things like underwear and bras they are dry in 2 seconds along with handkerchief
I'm debating putting thermal pads over all my velux windows. It may as well be an open window to the main road outside. Bloody freezing and damn expensive to heat :(( at least I've got heating unlike the flat prior.
@@ltipst2962 I bought foam insulation boards from B&Q and I place them in my windows. It's dark when I leave for work and dark already when I get home, so I don't miss the daylight or the view outside.
This is a very useful video, which has spawned many useful in-depth comments that go beyond a concise '20 Tips' video. Like many others, I'd really like to know where a £70 - £80 thermal imaging camera can be bought!
Hi, ref. the thermal camera that the chap is using. He seems reticent to share so I have looked myself (V. closely/freeze framing etc!). It appears to be a lookalike of the Hikmicro E1L Handheld Thermal Imaging Camera (which is approx. £300 - £350 depending where you look). Hope that helps.
Great advice about windows , mine are 26 yrs old and badly need replacing so I put bubble wrap in the air vents to seal it of cos I haven’t got vent locks
Remeber if you're going to wash at a lower temperature that you should still do a hot wash every once in a while to keep the machine clean and stop mould buildup.
To save money doing a hot wash, as energy is so expensive these days, I put a small cup of bleach into the machine along with an old white towel or something and put it on a short low temp wash once every couple of months. This seems to keep the machine mould free and smelling sweet. Also I never close the machine door so it can dry out between washes. Even if you use the machine every day, it is still good practice to leave the door ajar.
I do a "service wash" on ours every so often. Our machine (and I'm guessing this applies to most modern machines too) has a setting to clean the machine, so I whack that on with a bit of bicarbonate of soda in- sometimes vinegar too but I'm aware of the risk of corrosion if you use it too often. I avoid bleach now after I had an issue with an old machine years ago that stopped working after I used it. We also leave the door ajar for a period of time after a wash.
I use the sanitising laundry additive to kill bugs. I use launderettes cos I live on a boat! Some of the newer machines really spin well, some of the older machines leave clothes almost wringing wet. I have a coal and log fire which is very drying , if drying laundry I make sure ventilation removes moisture to the exterior.
we spent £2700/2 bed end of terrace a few months ago and extracted old cavity wall insulation (35 years old) and replaced with polystyrene beads. it is better, keeps the warmth for longer.
Great tips Stuart. Here's a few of mine too: 1) Use a smart plug on all your tv equipment, e.g connect all equipmentto a multi-plug strip, and plug that single plug into the smart plug into your wall. Set the plug to go off at night and only come on in the day e.g. off at midnight and back on at 4pm before you come home from work. It's amazing how much you save by having the tv, sky box etc all totally turned off. 2) fit cheap pir motion sensors to passageway lights and perhaps also plinth or top of cupboard lights in your kitchen. Even though the sensors pull current, doing this far outweighs the cost of having the passage lights on or turning on kitchen lights at night, e.g. if you just need to pop in and grab a glass of water for example, you can get decent motion sensors which also have a manual override when/if you want the lights in the passage to always be in temporarily, 3) use a smart plug to ration things like dysons or other large home battery chargers, so you only charge them for 2-3 hours a day rather than always on always charging 4) Make sure any integrated fridges/freezer with exposed coils on the back are fitted in a cupboard with a vent at the bottom AND at the top to let cold air in and hot air out 5) led light bulbs ( switching to these must be cheaper than switching your boiler!)
@@mojofilter96 Bonus Bonus tips 1) - get smart meters for gas and electricity. Being able to see the electricity reading 'now' for your house is an amazing way to find out which circuits of your house or areas are pulling the energy. E.g. turn off the fuses in your main home consumer board, then switch each one back on, let the house settle and then monitor which added the most load. Important to let them settle, because things like tv equip, freezers etc will pull a small burst of high current while turning back on, before settling to normal after a minute it so 2) The short 29 or 45 min dishwasher cycle meant only for glasses is often as effective and always cheaper to run than the full wash on non glass items too, I user it for all my cycles. I know because I've tested the load using my smart plugs. Just occasionally run one cycle at top temp (even the washing machine too) as they aren't designed to run at cold temps all the time and occasionally need hot water cycles to flush out gunk in the plumbing.
@@the_judge_8262 we have a smart meter for both electricity and gas. Also use the eco setting on dishwasher. I'll try the fuses tip tomorrow. Brilliant
THANK YOU A MILLION. This video was so helpful. Could you share if it's cheaper to run your heating on a much lower temperature for longer hours or is it better to heat up one's accommodation on a higher temperature for and hour or so and switch off afterwards to allow the heat stay gradually dispense. I've never been able to work that out. Please advice 🙏 thanks
The real answer is you have to work it out for your property. Because only you know how you like to live and your property has it's own warmth performace profile. What I can tell you for the simple answer is , by virtue of reading hundreds of discussions on this, the higher your unheated room temps are (say because of new build or high insulation) then you can choose the low all day option and you won't be hit hard with costs - say your unheated rooms are 16.5 and you like 18 or 19 then its much of a muchness. However, if you have a poorer insulated house where the unheated rooms are say 13, then to avoid being bankrupted , please choose the on when you need it option .
Hi, ref. the thermal camera that the chap is using. He seems reticent to share so I have looked myself (V. closely/freeze framing etc!). It appears to be a lookalike of the Hikmicro E1L Handheld Thermal Imaging Camera (which is approx. £300 - £350 depending where you look). Hope that helps.
I have had some incredibly heated debates over the last top regarding turning the oven off early. I hold that as long as you have a separate, dedicated oven thermometer you’ll have a stable reading on the temp and know that it is safe.
Check all your internet devices and see which you could put on a timer, the fibre termination, internet router, wifi repeater, TV box etc can use as much as 5% of your electricity as they are on 7x24.
Another great video, thank you Stuart. I have a question on tip number 10 - vents. A lot of conflicting info out there as some say keeping the house ventilated is important to ensure the moisture doesn't build up, especially in winter and cause damp/mould. On the other hand having ventilation means heat is inevitably lost. My own house is a 1940s build and each room has a 6" square vent on the external wall that vents through the cavity wall to an external vent brick. Should I close this vent on the inside? I suspect heat loss is significant through this.
Those vents were put there for a reason. Yes during cold spells some heat escapes through those vents but ask yourself this. Do I want a warmer house Full of damp and mould or do I want a comfortable heat and no damp and mould. If you're in doubt then buy a good quality dehumidifier such as Meaco. Me? I have my windows partially open all the time I'm not in the house and the heating off and when I'm home I shut the windows an hour before I go to bed. I have a Meaco and once a week I have it on for half a day and almost 2 litres of water is drawn from the air.
No, the cost of mould damage and the additional cost to heat higher humidity air, will outweigh the cost of having this vent open. Cold air holds less water so mixing it with inside air will lower the humidity even if the outside air has a higher humidity index. As an additional thing, the amount of nasty crap in the air inside a house is poor for your health, so you want to be refreshing this air frequently, some houses may benefit from a MEV fan, especially the heat recovery type. What I can recommend is instead reducing the size of the vent, six inches is quite large.
@@sydsnott5042 Thank you Syd, totally makes sense and why I haven't closed them up in all the years I've been here. This year however the bills have shot up for us all and hence me wondering again. I have an Ebac dehumidifier and it removes a quite scary amount of water from the house air.
@@AndrewStrydomBRP Thank you Andrew. I read this point about humid air needing much more energy to heat. I've bought a room thermometer with a humidity sensor and monitor how humid the air is inside the house. I also use a dehumidifier and this works very well at dropping the levels to around 60%. Thanks again for your reply.
Get a proper assessment on things. Bedrooms had 6x6 vents, usually at higher level, for open fires. These are not needed for building function anymore. Your windows may have trickle vents, should you need a fresh air source.
I have a radiator cover...should I remove this as although it is purpose designed,the top of the radiator is technically covered. Would removing it be better for the circulation?
Hi, ref. the thermal camera that the chap is using. He seems reticent to share so I have looked myself (V. closely/freeze framing etc!). It appears to be a lookalike of the Hikmicro E1L Handheld Thermal Imaging Camera (which is approx. £300 - £350 depending where you look). Hope that helps.
Not sure replacing a working boiler is financial sense, you say it could save up to £350pa (when I last changed mine the bill didn't drop at all), I just did a quote to change my combi and its about £3,500 so it would take 10 years to recoup the cost of the boiler and at that point the combi is probably on its last legs, my Worcester combi only lasted 8 years until the heat exchanger failed and it was scrap, surely its best to wait until the boiler needs replacing.
One thing I did was insulate outlets and light switches. Very easy and inexpensive. You can feel cold air blowing in after you remove the covers. It really does make a difference.
Great tips. Another use of the camera would be to search for thermal bridges, mostly in older buildings. This is where a structural element is bare inside and outside and conducts heat from higher temps to lower, or better put, the heat leaks outs.
If you can afford triple glazed windows instead of double they are much better. I live Sweden I had them installed but make sure one glass envelope has argon gas and the is vacuum. Some winters I might have 30cm of snow against the glass, it will stay there if it’s below zero, which shows me that there is very little heat loss through the glass. Also if you can encourage your wife to wear some of the warm cloths in her wardrobe you can turn down the room thermostat one or two degrees you could save up to 5%/1c. 😊
Hi, ref. the thermal camera that the chap is using. He seems reticent to share so I have looked myself (V. closely/freeze framing etc!). It appears to be a lookalike of the Hikmicro E1L Handheld Thermal Imaging Camera (which is approx. £300 - £350 depending where you look). Hope that helps.
If you have a reasonably modern oven and set the cooking timer it will automatically stop heating towards the end of the cooking time and use the residual heat, so no need to do it manually. Also, when you take your food out to rest on the side, pop your plates in the oven with the door ajar to warm them. Finally, for general cooking there is no need to pre-heat a fan oven.
You do have to pre-heat an oven. Not trying to be rude, but I have no idea why anyone would think you don't. The food has to cook at that temp for that long, like, say, for 35 minutes at 425 degrees. You can't start cooking it at 0 degrees. Then it won't cook for 35 minutes at 425. That's a good way to get food poisoning.
Great video as usual. On the drying clothes front I wonder if something could be designed with solar or wind driving either fans or heaters in some kind of enclosure outside that your washing could be hung to dry in. After initial build costs it could be free to run other than if some part of it breaks. Maybe between all the electronic people and diy people on UA-cam some kind of solution could be found?
If you are fortunate enough to have a glass roof conservatory (we inherited one when we moved into this house). The room is a great place to dry clothes in winter 👍🏼 Otherwise, the electric dryer racks, while not perfect are certainly more economical than a tumble dryer. More so if you drop a big towel or blanket over the rack to keep the heat trapped in.
I have old windows ..I live in Canada..the old window and storm window are much warmer than the one new window I got put in a bedroom..it is positively cold around it and it was a double pane window from a reputable dealer..I wouldn't change my old windows for anything or I'd freeze during our very harsh winters with 3 or 4 feet of snow.
That is true if you have a combi. You must check post "bleeding" that the pressure is still in the correct range else it may not fire up until recharged.
I’ve heard that point 5 whilst valid, the heat creep from the rooms with active radiators is an increased cost, as the hot air heats the cold walls of the rooms with no radiator switched on.
This is true. When calculating the capacity of the heating system required (at least when I did it in the 70's) you calculate the heat loss from each room to it's adjoining spaces eg, walls, ceilings, floors and windows and this takes into account the temperature differential between these surfaces and the adjoining ones so if the iving room is being heated to say 20C and the bedroom is being heated to 17C the heat from the living room will heat the bedroom to a certain degree. If you then drop the temperature in the bedroom significantly, the heat loss from the living room will increase and therefore feel cooler.
We still have a cast iron sewer pipe going to the toilet that is conducting cold into the house, the toilet tank has an overflow with no u bend so that lets cold air in the house. Electric fittings seem to have draughts, sockets, switches and light fittings you can buy and fit gaskets.
Unless you really need the space I'd avoid doing so. It complicates doing the insulation, and anything you store up there will be exposed to sub zero to 40c temps (so won't keep very well amongst the spiders, wasps etc...)
What is that Thermal imaging camera? Looks like HikVision, thus likely £300-400 - good piece of kit. The low end on price could come from Uni-T brand, eg. model UTi260B - at below £100
Hi, ref. the thermal camera that the chap is using. He seems reticent to share so I have looked myself (V. closely/freeze framing etc!). It appears to be a lookalike of the Hikmicro E1L Handheld Thermal Imaging Camera (which is approx. £300 - £350 depending where you look). Hope that helps.
Good tips. Across the pond most newer homes use central air, with an electric or natural gas furnace in either the basement or crawl space, it heats air which is forced through vents to every room in the house. Heating varies by the homes age and location. Some houses built in the 70s have electric base board heaters, terrible, homes built in the north of country sometimes use steam boilers heated by oil or kerosene. Water heaters are a mix between natural gas or electric powered tanks between 150 - 300 liters in size, some folks are now opting for heat on demand or tankless water heaters. The tankless systems are more energy efficient than tanks, but are less useful if there is a loss of central power. Checking and sealing gaps around doors and windows is critical. Additional batting in the loft is very useful. The loft door upgrade is a very good tip.
We went through a period in the UK where some local councils built homes with warm air heating (in the 70s). Like most times when public money is given to private builders, some unscrupulous companies took the cash and used bad methods. Net result was the home I lived in this was a really really really great way to heat some of the rooms in my house but not all. Unfortunately they fed all rooms from one single vent and poorly planned it, so many rooms just never ever got hot, it was impossible to get balanced heat across the house from one vent only. Effectively many people blamed hot air systems and so they never saw the light of day after that in The UK after that 🤷♀️ Shame really
@@the_judge_8262 Sounds a right mess. The central air HVAC systems in the US / Canada have multiple feeds off of the furnace to each room, the system provides cooling in summer and heat in winter. The entire house, all rooms should be the same temp, unless you have a dual system typically found in multi-story homes, where there are two separate systems, one for the lower floor and one for the lower.
Stuart, no mentioning of lagging those hot pipes from the boiler or even feeds to hot taps? Just the same way that on a hot summers day the cold water feed to taps match the ambient room temperature and need to be run for a few moments before becoming cold, to opposite can happen in winter with the hot water side, especially in a large house.
Big one you gotta watch which happened in my house, our entire upstairs is unheated, we only really go up there to sleep, blankets etc will keep you warm, but it allows the place to get humid much more quickly, this certainly enhanced my damp situation in my house, so I had to get a dehumidifier to sort out an existing problem, but switching heating off can cause damp issues to become much more noticeable.
Like the idea of using the thermal camera to locate under floor pipes and aid balancing. DHW thermostats should always be set to slightly above 60 c , anything below this creates the perfect legionella breading environment. Even in cold weather, trickle vents should be slightly open and definitely not 'sealed up' add you advise. They are there to allow some air circulation which well sealed double glazed windows prevent. Before people arrange for a new boiler to be installed they should check the efficiency of their existing boiler. If it's around 90% they are better off just getting it serviced because they will not see any really reduction in running costs.
Thanks for the tips! Mine are : have thermostat temp less during day when folks are moving about more then increase a little in the evening, fill kettle from a bottle that’s been allowed to get to room temp( I even warm on radiator soMetimes) , boils faster! I did get a travel kettle as couldn’t get hubby to boil just a cup full. And let food get to room temp before cooking, a burger/joint of meat cooks so much quicker that way, especially good when combined with turning off heat and letting cook with residual heat from stove/pan. If someone in your house really feels the cold get a small propagation heat mat for them to either sit on or put feet on , they’ll feel toasty even with heating quite low. And another… cuddle up to a menopausal woman 😂thanks again !! Lx
If you have room between the radiator and an outside wall, install a board, cardboard, foamboard covered with radiant barrier (shiny stuff) which reflects the radiant portion of the heat that was going outside back into the room. I found it made a notable difference both in energy use and comfort. Comfort is complex; radiant heat is high comfort.
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Hi, ref. the thermal camera that the chap is using. He seems reticent to share so I have looked myself (V. closely/freeze framing etc!). It appears to be a lookalike of the Hikmicro E1L Handheld Thermal Imaging Camera (which is approx. £300 - £350 depending where you look). Hope that helps.
Boiler flow temperature is a good saving, it looked like yours was set to 71 deg which it too hot for a condensing boiler. If you’ve got steam out of the flue then it’s probably too hot. Also foil on the walls behind the radiators will help reflect any heat that’s going to heat up the walls. The vents you shut, while that will save some heat escaping they are there to let some of the warm moist air out and some cooler less humid air out. If you seal up tight and get little airflow in the house your humidity will likely increase and you have the making of a problem with damp and mould. Remember interstitial condensation can’t be seen until it’s already a problem. Cover pots when boiling Monitor humidity in the house, if it gets too high ventilate or consider a dehumidifier.
I've just cleaned and bled, my landlord was impressed that I thought of doing these things my radiators ready to put on my radiators are all set on one or two I'm in an old two bedroom flat one of the bedrooms is set up as a sewing room so only need minimal heat in there unless I'm in the sewing my landlord has the service done on or as near to the first of February without fail I pay him along gas, electric,water rates and rent he knows I've not put the heating on as yet apart from to show him it was working and has adjusted my bill accordingly and it will be more layers first I've put bubble wrap on my windows surprising how much difference it makes all you need to do is spray the water on the windows then stick the bubble wrap on
It annoys me so much when my parents turn on the heating to 25 degrees. For me 22 is just about fine for our flat, it's bearable if you continur to wear winter clothes and socks aswell. I'm the middle child and also the only one that is careful with bills, turning on and off switches, price comparisons on food and so on.. Is anyone else like this? Just the opposite to everyone in their family lol
I can definitely relate! My big thing is reducing what I need, in every area - size of living quarters, less material goods, simpler foods - and my family is about going out to get more - get more money, bigger home, bigger car, more things, etc. It drives me mad 😅
I need to buy one of those thermal imaging cameras if I can buy one for about £80. I've moved into an early (1988) self-built dormer bungalow 'Eco' house built in a Swedish style which has 50mm Styrofoam above the plasterboard ceilings but no other fibreglass in the loft. The upper floor gets hot in summer so I need to decide how much (and type of) insulation to add to the 1st floor ceiling and possibly 1st floor level roof construction for the best effect.
Hi, ref. the thermal camera that the chap is using. He seems reticent to share so I have looked myself (V. closely/freeze framing etc!). It appears to be a lookalike of the Hikmicro E1L Handheld Thermal Imaging Camera (which is approx. £300 - £350 depending where you look). Hope that helps.
Worth being mindful that turning off rads doesn't necessarily save any energy. Adjacent room radiators will have to work harder to compensate. Reducing the boiler flow rate for condensing boilers to as low as possible (ideally 50-55c but may need to be higher depending on your rads output at a lower temp, and if you store hot water). By reducing it, you'll reduce the boilers return temp and it can go into condensing mode.
I think that the advice about turning rads off is in rooms that you are not using and keeping the doors closed. Of course you would have to monitor that no damp or mould was produced. Personally I have had my rad turned off in my bedroom for about 4 years now, and the window slightly opened all year round. Sleeping in a cold bedroom is better for your health, as long as you have adequate warm bedding of course.
My top tips, If you have a hot water cylinder, only heat when your going to use it. Saved 250 a year If you have a uninsulated hot water cylinder, buy a jacket for it or upgrade to an insulated one. Buy an air fryer- not wasting extra electric heating a large oven to cook smaller items. Schedule heating only in morning and evening and boost heating if needed. If you can heat your water with electric or gas/oil, heat with Gas/oil as cheaper. Insulate coper pipes in your boiler room Change to LED lights as pays for themselves in about 4-6 months. Use curtains Clean radiators of dust
Some really good points. I did notice you could have added 'Lagging' to the boiler as the flow and return did look exposed. Also when you bled the boiler I have been told to turn the 'pump off' during that process? excellent video though, I love it
The Heat Geek on here said not to turn off your TRVs completely as you still need the water in your system to circulate. He recommends turning a room that's unused down to 2 on the TRV. Comments appreciated.
I think the Heat Geek says that condensing boilers are more efficient when running at moderate temperatures supplying all your radiators, rather than running flat out to heat just the living room radiator, which in turn has to try and heat the rest of the house. A boiler running flat out pumps out hot exhaust gases, which warm the planet but not your house. My heating engineer advised the same, saying that unheated upstairs bedrooms are a pools of cold air that cause drafts and make the house feel colder than it really is.
The oven one is one bit many people think of. Makes a world of difference and as some one else has said, I leave the oven open for a bit to let the heat into the room
I'd also add that if the oven is insulated well enough that it holds it's temperature, then it's also not using very much energy at all in that last 10 minutes
Another basic tip: close all the curtains and blinds as soon as the sun sets each day. This reduces the circulation where your expensive warm air hits colder glass, cools, drops to the floor and drags more warm air onto the window. Try sitting in a window-bottom on a cold day to experience this circulation first-hand.
This is an excellent tip. I am amazed by how many people do not do this and let expensive heat leak out into space. And ‘into space’ is exactly what happens. A TV documentary explained that if you do not insulate your windows - double glazed or not, by closing your blinds/ curtains - whatever, then your expensive heat is radiating directly into the rest of the Universe! A lot of properties abroad have shutters, we should copy them, it saves a fortune in heat.
Thats's a good suggestion! When the sun starts to set I close all my shutters, it gives you a sort of "air pillow" between windows and shutters and if guarantees a better insulation of the house! - TheHandyman Italy
Also a good idea to tuck curtains on the sill and around the sides if they're long. Stops that cold air coming in and you're also not heating the curtains.
In the Winter months, in addition to shutting off the oven 10 minutes early I also leave the door open after removing the food so that the residual heat warms the house.
The residual heat will still warm the house without leaving the door open, just much more gradually.
@@monikaw1179 I know right? I just keep my heat on all the time everything is warm from my furniture to the clothing inside the drawers it's nice and even. I'm not the type of person who opens the front door and it suddenly chilly in the place because only the air was warm. No.
My house is Thoroughly warm
@@monikaw1179 Without opening the door, there will be more percentage of the heat absorbed by the walls and top of the oven and cupboard whatsoever rather than directly into the room I guess
@@jessicalovescakes9544 Heat energy can be transferred but cannot disappear by being 'absorbed'. It always goes somewhere. If it goes into the general thermal mass of your nearby kitchen furniture, it is still in your home. You may not feel like you're feeling the heat very much because it will be literally stored and released over time. Physics lol.
@@monikaw1179 Well it does dissipate once the heat source stops and it gradually dissipates into areas that are cooler - including eventually passing out through things as small as your keyholes and the sink plugs and parts of the home which will suck up heat and pass it to outside. I don't think Jessica said it 'disappears', but that it is absorbed by the closest objects and of course the very point of the oven door and cabinet is to retain its heat! So obviously opening the door speeds up that dissipation!
Physics lol.
If you refill the kettle just after boiling you can preheat the water with the residual heat ready for your next cup. I just leave the oven door open once I’ve finished with it to heat the room. Also the oven cooling fan doesn’t need to run for some long either 😝
Some good tips. Forward planning and forethought do wonders for one’s wallet 😃
Use a thermos flask for excess boiled water
Why leave the door open. The heat will make it into the room anyway
@@TrickyTree84 try it and see
That ruined my oven. Lol
@@davyarthurs my point is where do you think the heat goes even with the doo shut?
Excellent! I am going to propose you as an Honorary Yorkshireman! (I do something similar to your 'oven-tip': I turn off my kettle about 20 seconds before it turns itself off! The thermometer on the side continues to rise and I get 20 seconds of continued free water-heating! It works out at about £50 saved per year - I drink a lot of Yorkshire Tea!)
Skipping and jogging on the spot helps keep you warm
Good tips, regrettably in our household we are already implemented these cost savings measures prior any energy and cost of living crisis. Our home is between 16-18C with 1-2 radiators turned on only for couple hours a day, run cold washes. In the shower, we turn off the running water to lather soap before a quick rinse off. Turning off appliances and the hob/oven are the best savings (and also the iron as you finish off the last clothing items). It is becoming increasingly impossible to save further for our household, I don't know how others are managing - never rely on the Government who got us in this place to begin with.
It's not the Government at all that has got you in to this , it Mr Putin in the Kremlin. You can thank him
I just dont think you work all your life to turn the shower off the lather up...
16-18 is really cold 🥶
blame putin for shutting down gas supplies and driving up the costs as a result....the government are trying to help you with some cash aid but as one ex primeminister said theres no magic money tree
@@formgeben how about 12? That’s what I’m currently enjoying albeit with about 4 layers on! 😆
“..so if you know someone who has a thermal imaging camera, ask to borrow it for a couple of days….”
Stuart, may I please borrow your thermal imager for a couple of days?
Great informative video as always - with such a high level of production, moderately sprinkled with humour that we all appreciate. Thank you!
I got one from banggood and it's not half bad tbf. It's obviously not something professionals would use but it's good enough for the home
@stewarttomkins5761 You made me laugh out loud with your comment. 😆
After you with Stuart's thermal camera please ;-)
Can't even express by words how useful this vide actually is
Thank you
Great tips. I turned our central heating down from 21/22 to 18/19, it's made a huge difference in cost.
Good idea if your property is well insulated etc, but for a lot of properties, including mine, I require a temp on the thermostat of 22-23 degrees to feel comfortable. You have to balance savings against comfort. It is no use saving £50-100 and being miserable. Most people can afford their energy bills with the help the government are giving. I feel deep sympathy for those who are genuinely struggling.
@@petercollins7848 of course it depends on the individual property. One size does not fit all 😉
We are old can not function below 21 .. previously we had at 18
@@petercollins7848 we tryied to put it around 18 and 19 wearing more cloths but Wife Daughter and me styarted getting a cold constantly , now we put it back to 21
@@iqbalmahmoodsheikh7741
Fit vertical blinds, these act like another layer of insulation. Obviously they only work at night, but it will save money and keep the rooms warmer.
Double Glazing, what a novel concept to heat saving
Top Tip with Combi Boilers, make sure you check where the pressure is at or check the manufacturers recommended pressure (it’s usually on a sticker of the boiler). As when you bleed the radiators you are effectively depressurising your central heating system.
The pressure can be brought back up by adjusting the valves at the bottom of the boiler to let in more water and bring the pressure back up, and if you take it too far you can bleed a little to drop it back down.
1.5bar (about 22psi) is usually where it should be, but most can be between 1 (14.50psi) and 2 bar (29psi) in my experience.
If your not sure check with someone who is or even pay a Plumber.
Mine was set on Eco then it altered on a service i
Thanks for this! :D One thing we do since our kitchen opens to our lounge (or vice versa) is that when we're done with the oven, upon turning it off, we keep the door half-open, just to let all that heat that would otherwise sit inside, just seep out into the rest of the kitchen and lounge, also not half bad if the food you've cooked smells awesome!
I'm a first time homeowner and didn't know these tips. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for the tips. Can you please tell us the make and model of the Thermal Imaging camera that you were using.
Some great tips here. That said, we used to have quite high moisture content in the house which can be very bad for health and the one thing that immediately cured it was to stop drying washing indoors and stick it in the dryer. Yes it uses more energy, but the house is now much dryer.
Excellent tips. I already do all of them around the kitchen, as well as the laundry.
A few other tips:
- in general, boil only the required amount of water, as boiling water is *very* energy hungry,
- always cover your pans with a lid, it helps increasing temperature and thus cook faster for free, also learn to use a pressure cooker (with only the minimum amount of water) especially to cook veggies,
- induction stoves are more efficient and practical than other types of stoves. However they are usually overpowered. Not much need to use more than 2kW, so if a stove is above that, don't use it at full power (too much power can crack cast iron vessels),
- invest in LED light bulbs. Not only they last much longer, but they are also vastly more efficient than the rest.
- my kitchen is usually cooler than the other rooms. Because there is not much reason to heat it anyway, the fridge has to work less hard if the kitchen is 3-5°C cooler, and lower temps are better for food conservation,
- close doors to trap heat in living rooms (very effective one in my experience),
- take showers rather than use the bath tub, you economise on water and therefore on hot water.
Whilst setting radiators in unused rooms to frost setting will save money it could lead to damp for some properties (old houses more likely than your new build). Could be better to set to low temperature - say position 1 rather than frost setting.
Another point - worth cleaning the fins inside the radiator (between the two panels) to improve airflow
Yup - and, making a room cold inside the barrier of external insulation is going to drag heat from surrounding spaces though uninsulated internal walls dragging down the temperature of the house as a whole. Turn down, but don't turn off.
@@nigel4425 I keep rooms at 15c when they're not in use & also ventilate them. This temperature has meant I've avoided any costly repair work due to humidity for 8 winters & counting. Also; the room can be heated to 21c within an hour if it's being used.
New builds tend to get damp much easier than older houses, they’re built to be very airtight, meaning that a cold room without any ventilation in a new build will get much more damp than a draughty older house. I know this from experience haha
@@mattsanders5372 That's not true to say. Most well built new homes include cavity ventilation, cavity trays, weep vents & trickle vents. So they're NOT "airtight". A current of cool air is incorporated into the build, to (perhaps) replicate a draughty old house, yet with control over the circulation of the air in interior enclosed spaces & the overall breathing of the build.
Damp won’t be that bad because it will dry out in spring summer.
I have had cold rooms now for a couple of winters, I paint bad areas with anti mould paint and use a window vacuum to remove condensation.
30 degree washing won't kill bacteria. Your "clean" clothes will start smelling within 30 mins of wearing as the bacteria reacts to your body heat. Either higher temperature or use something like dettol bacteria wash.
The washing powder or liquid kills bacteria and viruses. You could use completely cold water, people have done that for millennia. They washed their clothes down by the river and kept perfectly clean. Dettol bacteria wash is just a ‘con’ to get you to spend more money!
Great tips. Another use of the camera would be to search for thermal bridges, mostly in older buildings. This is where a structural element is bare inside and outside and conducts heat from higher temps to lower, or better put, the heat leaks outs.
I’m surprised that you’ve taught me a few things here. Thanks for sharing. I grew up in Texas and radiators are not existent. Your house has some nice features too. 😃 Thanks again mate!
In Victorian houses you get draughts from chimneys not blocked off properly the draught comes from under skirting boards, cracks in the lime plaster around window frames inside and cracks in mortar outside.
It’s basically a strainer of a house 😂
@@pistopit7142 Not to mention cast iron cold conducting sewer down pipes
22 degrees? 😮 That’s shorts and t-shirt temperature. I wondered why the national average energy bills were so high.
Exactly what I was thinking! ours is usually 18 or 19, perhaps 20 on the odd day when you come back from a cold winter walk!
@@RogerHolden works for me though. With the taxpayer discount, my energy bill for warm October was the lowest I’ve ever had to pay. Seems like the government is laundering cash. There’s been one laundering scam after another since Bojo “Got Brexit Done”. The £64m to the French is the latest. I won’t mention the big C or Ukraine scams….. let alone the climate ones.
Makes one wonder how many £trillions were actually skimmed through the EU gravy train to be recycled before being exposed.
22 on a windowsill where it's naturally colder as well
Bahamas
Currently trying not to have a thermostat war with my sister-in-law. She likes it very warm and frequently has it set to either 23 or 24, and then she leaves to college and I'm home alone while my fiancé's at work and the niece and nephew are at school and I'm sweating, and trying not to change the thermostat. Lol My room is the coldest in the house, and even with the vent closed, I still often have the fan on high because of how well insulated the place actually is. 😑 My fiancé and I are moving out soon, though. I just have to train him to be ok with a lower temperature house. 😂
For old houses like mine that have natural movement (not subsidence), cut existing cracked sealant out with a flat head screw driver, re-seal with a low modulus sealant that allows for say 25% movement. Replace internal hollowcore doors with solidcore doors (engineered wood) from Wickes etc, and use v-seal weather strips around the door. A Chimney Sheep from Amazon will keep warm air in the room but still allow 5% ventilation to stop damp forming.
All useful tips but won’t closing vents and drying wet clothes increase humidity and encourage mould growth?
Yes. As will someone else's suggestion of leaving in the hot bath water.
Old post but still think my response is valuable. It all depends on humidity levels. As long as you keep the humidity between 45 and 60 percent you won't get mold grow. The benefit of higher humidity levels is that with lower heat it still feels comfortable, dryer air tends to feel colder.
Put a torch underneath your radiator and look down each of the internal ribs. One of mine was completely blocked by the previous neighbours' cats and dogs fur and and all the dust and fluff it then collected.
I am learning that keeping the heat on a low setting is probably not the best use of my central h/a, at least for me. Having it cutting on all the time just because it has reached the temp setting doesn't mean it needs to be on if I am not chilly. So one might say, "So, set it lower." The same rule applies. Our body "feel" is different every day. Some days I can't get cool, and others I can get warm. What we eat, what we are wearing, where we are sitting, how much we move, whether we left a door open by accident or are in and out of the house more - all mean that our personal comfort will change from hour to hour. So I am experimenting with intermittent heat.
I use a dehumidifier and it sends heat out the top as it removes moisture from the air. Oddly, it will heat up my space where I am in the LR to about 12 degrees warmer than the outside temp. That helps, but also if the temp drops and it feels chilly, I will cut the heat on for maybe five/ten minutes and then shut it back off if the room is comfortable. An hour, two hours later, I will do it again if I need to until I go to bed. Because I have pets, I want to keep them comfortable, so will set it on lowest heat around 68 degrees, and because of the dehumidifier, it won't be clicking on much. The constant automatic on and off of the a/c (heat pump) constantly just doesn't seem necessary, and I am not sure, but it seems an a/c guy told me one time that every time it clicks on it pulls more power in the initial surge. So it stands to reason that the less "surging" it does, the lower my bill will be. My bill has dropped from $156 to $125 to $106 these past three months.
I am also doing other things like turning off the cooking burner after the food heats after it is cooking temp for a couple of minutes and putting a lid on it for the next half hour and it will continue to cook, but slower. There are a million ways to outfox the electric company, and UA-cam is full of suggestions. LED bulbs in the home (soft white), passive cookers, not using the oven (stovetop baking), slow cookers, cold laundry wash/clothesline, wash/shower in off-peak hours only, etc. Some people shut off their hot water tanks for a few days or at least lower the temp. Thanks for letting me share.
Any recommendations for a 70 quid thermal imaging camera as mentioned in the video? I think I could get some use from one around my house. Thanks for the channel btw
I had the same question
FLIR makes great IR camera's. They have been around forever.
Wow. FLIR may make great cameras but definitely out of my price range
After washing a load of laundry, if you have to use the dryer, then wait at least half an hour before placing the laundry into the dryer. This will allow the excess water to run off and give some time for the clothes to dry, thus cutting the drying time down.
We rarely use the oven now, slow cooker and air fryer or microwave does most of our cooking. Benefit of the slow cooker for us we have solar panels so it sits there all day long cooking for free.
I personally think that perhaps here in the UK we should move to triple glazing as the norm but that’s only my personal opinion.
Great video as always.
If you live in ROI you can borrow a home energy kit from your local library to assess where you can improve on your energy losses.
Hi Stewart another very interesting video. Can you tell me the make/model of the thermal imagning camera you used?
Hi, ref. the thermal camera that the chap is using. He seems reticent to share so I have looked myself (V. closely/freeze framing etc!). It appears to be a lookalike of the Hikmicro E1L Handheld Thermal Imaging Camera (which is approx. £300 - £350 depending where you look). Hope that helps.
Interesting to see the infrared imaging of your boiler room and that the painted pipes are putting out more heat than the cylinder. Suggest some pipe insulation would really help there. I find it also is invaluable in reducing the amount of time you have to wait for a shower or tap to warm up, something that wastes energy as well. A few years ago when we replumbed a lot of our house I did some calcations and found that the thicker 'byelaw 49' pipe insulation would not pay for itself over 30 years however no doubt with our heating oil price as it is now it would not be justifiable. Would well be worth you considering when you have all of that pipework in one space.
Very useful tips, thank you. Are you able to share a link for the thermal imaging camera you were using please?
Hi, ref. the thermal camera that the chap is using. He seems reticent to share so I have looked myself (V. closely/freeze framing etc!). It appears to be a lookalike of the Hikmicro E1L Handheld Thermal Imaging Camera (which is approx. £300 - £350 depending where you look). Hope that helps.
I need me one of those thermal imaging guns for the under-floor heating!
Good tips:-
I've got a massive double set of patio doors so I've added supplementary tripple glazing in the form of 4mm solid polyarbonate sheet on the inside of the fixed panels (stood off by about 6mm) attached with small aluminium clips. That helped a lot, so I've just done the outside of the sliding panels in a similar way with an added desicant bar... seems to be working so far... I'll know more when winter kicks in. I did want to have them replaced with tripple glazed units, but no company would supply and fit... cost was astronomical and they couldn't even supply for 6 months (I'm too old to fit 'em myself)
Nice one del
Would love to see how this was done. I'm confused about how to attach with the clips. Our sliding doors are not doing our heating bill any favor!
Add vertical blinds as well. When closed they act like another layer of insulation. It is amazing how well they work. When I open them in the morning you can feel the cold immediately. Also wear a gilet in the house. It is amazing how much more comfortable you feel, and your arms are not restricted when doing jobs.
Any plans on boarding the loft anytime soon? Would like to see how you personally would raise flooring above insulation.
Loft boarding 'legs' are available in Toolstation and probably Screwfix.
They're a great way to increase storage without compromising on insulation. Sterling board or 'OSB' (Oriented Strand Board) in 18mm thickness is probably your most cost-effective boarding type to use.
it would be worth mentioning OpenTherm boilers and a compatible smart thermostat like nest with outside temperature compensation. OpenTherm regulates the boiler just like you would operate a car throttle rather than the traditional full on / full off with wide temperature swings in between. My radiators are just warm to the touch and never get hot and the boiler just idles away in the background yet the house is a comfortable constant 22deg with no temperature swing. The nest also switches off the heating when we are away from home and switches it back on when we are coming back using geofencing
The boiler shown is a Viessmann .. leading efficient brand, biggest selling domestic brand in Germany, also sell v large commercial boilers, very competent company.. This one has weather compensation control [it modulates the gas flame up or down according to outside temperature.. so that you are cost efficiently not too hot on a mild night, not too cold on a cold night.. clever] made by Viessmann .. highly integrated system, all support from the family German company, no shareholders involved to get in the way of doing the technology right. I’d trust it far more than combining third party controls from Google with any boiler at all.. The Veissmann system can also be Internet connected for remote adjustments, or set up, calibrate, and forget.
it gets a bit more difficult now building regs are specifying 19 degrees optimum temperature.
I don't have mine set up via smart app as there is too much BS in the middle to go wrong.
Basic stuff like heating needs to be as dumb as posible,and certainly not reliant on a comms link from an IP provider or energy company.....it needs to be totally bullet proof in case of an outage.
Another great and informative Video Stuart although you have not included your normally very useful links to kit used, which I always find very useful. Thermal camera link would be great! If possible.
Hi, ref. the thermal camera that the chap is using. He seems reticent to share so I have looked myself (V. closely/freeze framing etc!). It appears to be a lookalike of the Hikmicro E1L Handheld Thermal Imaging Camera (which is approx. £300 - £350 depending where you look). Hope that helps.
@@Bradleyguy22 ouch 😖
@@Bradleyguy22 Thanks perhaps the price is off putting hence no link. It's all very well with these projects but the investment in tools can be more than some projects are costing.
Great tips 👌 don't forget energy saving lighting bulbs too.
Quite some helpful tips
Where did you get your Thermal Imaging Camera from please ?
biggest house tip yet is to massively oversize your bathroom radiator.Change it for the most monstrous towel rail you can get hold of.
It doubles up as a laundry airer and you don't ever need to use the tumble dryer ever again!!!
As long as you are patient with your laundry you can save an absolute stack as the heating would be on in any case.....I would say this is one situation where you do not necessarily need good insulation as you want the excess steam to transport away.
that is my life hack, monstrous towel rail is the best £100 i ever spent.
Exactly. I have a radiator in my bathroom above it is a glass Shelf with my lotions and creams and a hanging bar to keep my towels and washcloths warm and toasty for when I get out of the bath oh it's wonderful.
The only time I move the towel is after I've done laundry I hang my tiny things like underwear and bras they are dry in 2 seconds along with handkerchief
When you cooked ribs should have left oven door open to let heat circulate good blog 👌
Very useful tips if you're a homeowner or living in a house. Do you have any tips for those of us living in rented flats relying on electric heating?
I'm debating putting thermal pads over all my velux windows. It may as well be an open window to the main road outside. Bloody freezing and damn expensive to heat :(( at least I've got heating unlike the flat prior.
@@ltipst2962 I bought foam insulation boards from B&Q and I place them in my windows. It's dark when I leave for work and dark already when I get home, so I don't miss the daylight or the view outside.
Hi Stuart. Excellent video. I can’t find a thermal imaging camera for less than £200. Any advise where I can look?
This is a very useful video, which has spawned many useful in-depth comments that go beyond a concise '20 Tips' video.
Like many others, I'd really like to know where a £70 - £80 thermal imaging camera can be bought!
Hi, ref. the thermal camera that the chap is using. He seems reticent to share so I have looked myself (V. closely/freeze framing etc!). It appears to be a lookalike of the Hikmicro E1L Handheld Thermal Imaging Camera (which is approx. £300 - £350 depending where you look). Hope that helps.
Great advice about windows , mine are 26 yrs old and badly need replacing so I put bubble wrap in the air vents to seal it of cos I haven’t got vent locks
Remeber if you're going to wash at a lower temperature that you should still do a hot wash every once in a while to keep the machine clean and stop mould buildup.
To save money doing a hot wash, as energy is so expensive these days, I put a small cup of bleach into the machine along with an old white towel or something and put it on a short low temp wash once every couple of months. This seems to keep the machine mould free and smelling sweet. Also I never close the machine door so it can dry out between washes. Even if you use the machine every day, it is still good practice to leave the door ajar.
I do a "service wash" on ours every so often. Our machine (and I'm guessing this applies to most modern machines too) has a setting to clean the machine, so I whack that on with a bit of bicarbonate of soda in- sometimes vinegar too but I'm aware of the risk of corrosion if you use it too often. I avoid bleach now after I had an issue with an old machine years ago that stopped working after I used it.
We also leave the door ajar for a period of time after a wash.
I use the sanitising laundry additive to kill bugs.
I use launderettes cos I live on a boat! Some of the newer machines really spin well, some of the older machines leave clothes almost wringing wet. I have a coal and log fire which is very drying , if drying laundry I make sure ventilation removes moisture to the exterior.
Just leave the door of the machine slightly open and it dries up. Never had any mould by doing that and I've never done any hot wash.
@@lolilollolilol7773 leaving it open is good practice, but you should still do a hot wash occasionally
we spent £2700/2 bed end of terrace a few months ago and extracted old cavity wall insulation (35 years old) and replaced with polystyrene beads. it is better, keeps the warmth for longer.
Great tips Stuart. Here's a few of mine too: 1) Use a smart plug on all your tv equipment, e.g connect all equipmentto a multi-plug strip, and plug that single plug into the smart plug into your wall. Set the plug to go off at night and only come on in the day e.g. off at midnight and back on at 4pm before you come home from work. It's amazing how much you save by having the tv, sky box etc all totally turned off. 2) fit cheap pir motion sensors to passageway lights and perhaps also plinth or top of cupboard lights in your kitchen. Even though the sensors pull current, doing this far outweighs the cost of having the passage lights on or turning on kitchen lights at night, e.g. if you just need to pop in and grab a glass of water for example, you can get decent motion sensors which also have a manual override when/if you want the lights in the passage to always be in temporarily, 3) use a smart plug to ration things like dysons or other large home battery chargers, so you only charge them for 2-3 hours a day rather than always on always charging 4) Make sure any integrated fridges/freezer with exposed coils on the back are fitted in a cupboard with a vent at the bottom AND at the top to let cold air in and hot air out 5) led light bulbs ( switching to these must be cheaper than switching your boiler!)
Awesome bonus tips
@@mojofilter96 Bonus Bonus tips 1) - get smart meters for gas and electricity. Being able to see the electricity reading 'now' for your house is an amazing way to find out which circuits of your house or areas are pulling the energy. E.g. turn off the fuses in your main home consumer board, then switch each one back on, let the house settle and then monitor which added the most load. Important to let them settle, because things like tv equip, freezers etc will pull a small burst of high current while turning back on, before settling to normal after a minute it so 2) The short 29 or 45 min dishwasher cycle meant only for glasses is often as effective and always cheaper to run than the full wash on non glass items too, I user it for all my cycles. I know because I've tested the load using my smart plugs. Just occasionally run one cycle at top temp (even the washing machine too) as they aren't designed to run at cold temps all the time and occasionally need hot water cycles to flush out gunk in the plumbing.
@@the_judge_8262 we have a smart meter for both electricity and gas. Also use the eco setting on dishwasher. I'll try the fuses tip tomorrow. Brilliant
Some good additional tips here, especially using a smart plug schedule to switch off electronic equipment during times when it's not needed.
@@mojofilter96 my eco setting on the dishwater is about saving water not energy :-(
THANK YOU A MILLION. This video was so helpful. Could you share if it's cheaper to run your heating on a much lower temperature for longer hours or is it better to heat up one's accommodation on a higher temperature for and hour or so and switch off afterwards to allow the heat stay gradually dispense. I've never been able to work that out. Please advice 🙏 thanks
The real answer is you have to work it out for your property. Because only you know how you like to live and your property has it's own warmth performace profile. What I can tell you for the simple answer is , by virtue of reading hundreds of discussions on this, the higher your unheated room temps are (say because of new build or high insulation) then you can choose the low all day option and you won't be hit hard with costs - say your unheated rooms are 16.5 and you like 18 or 19 then its much of a muchness. However, if you have a poorer insulated house where the unheated rooms are say 13, then to avoid being bankrupted , please choose the on when you need it option .
What thermal camera were you using Stuart. Would you recommend it?
Hi, ref. the thermal camera that the chap is using. He seems reticent to share so I have looked myself (V. closely/freeze framing etc!). It appears to be a lookalike of the Hikmicro E1L Handheld Thermal Imaging Camera (which is approx. £300 - £350 depending where you look). Hope that helps.
Well done Stuart very good advice ever thought about insulating the flow and return pipes as your camera was showing high heat readings.
I have had some incredibly heated debates over the last top regarding turning the oven off early. I hold that as long as you have a separate, dedicated oven thermometer you’ll have a stable reading on the temp and know that it is safe.
Check all your internet devices and see which you could put on a timer, the fibre termination, internet router, wifi repeater, TV box etc can use as much as 5% of your electricity as they are on 7x24.
Another great video, thank you Stuart. I have a question on tip number 10 - vents. A lot of conflicting info out there as some say keeping the house ventilated is important to ensure the moisture doesn't build up, especially in winter and cause damp/mould. On the other hand having ventilation means heat is inevitably lost.
My own house is a 1940s build and each room has a 6" square vent on the external wall that vents through the cavity wall to an external vent brick. Should I close this vent on the inside? I suspect heat loss is significant through this.
Those vents were put there for a reason. Yes during cold spells some heat escapes through those vents but ask yourself this. Do I want a warmer house Full of damp and mould or do I want a comfortable heat and no damp and mould. If you're in doubt then buy a good quality dehumidifier such as Meaco.
Me? I have my windows partially open all the time I'm not in the house and the heating off and when I'm home I shut the windows an hour before I go to bed. I have a Meaco and once a week I have it on for half a day and almost 2 litres of water is drawn from the air.
No, the cost of mould damage and the additional cost to heat higher humidity air, will outweigh the cost of having this vent open.
Cold air holds less water so mixing it with inside air will lower the humidity even if the outside air has a higher humidity index.
As an additional thing, the amount of nasty crap in the air inside a house is poor for your health, so you want to be refreshing this air frequently, some houses may benefit from a MEV fan, especially the heat recovery type.
What I can recommend is instead reducing the size of the vent, six inches is quite large.
@@sydsnott5042 Thank you Syd, totally makes sense and why I haven't closed them up in all the years I've been here. This year however the bills have shot up for us all and hence me wondering again. I have an Ebac dehumidifier and it removes a quite scary amount of water from the house air.
@@AndrewStrydomBRP Thank you Andrew. I read this point about humid air needing much more energy to heat. I've bought a room thermometer with a humidity sensor and monitor how humid the air is inside the house. I also use a dehumidifier and this works very well at dropping the levels to around 60%. Thanks again for your reply.
Get a proper assessment on things. Bedrooms had 6x6 vents, usually at higher level, for open fires. These are not needed for building function anymore. Your windows may have trickle vents, should you need a fresh air source.
I have a radiator cover...should I remove this as although it is purpose designed,the top of the radiator is technically covered. Would removing it be better for the circulation?
Hi could you let me know what make is the thermal imaging camera you were using please as there is an array currently on the market .
Hi, ref. the thermal camera that the chap is using. He seems reticent to share so I have looked myself (V. closely/freeze framing etc!). It appears to be a lookalike of the Hikmicro E1L Handheld Thermal Imaging Camera (which is approx. £300 - £350 depending where you look). Hope that helps.
Thanks for your ideas. Could you share a link for the thermal camera you used in the video please?
Not sure replacing a working boiler is financial sense, you say it could save up to £350pa (when I last changed mine the bill didn't drop at all), I just did a quote to change my combi and its about £3,500 so it would take 10 years to recoup the cost of the boiler and at that point the combi is probably on its last legs, my Worcester combi only lasted 8 years until the heat exchanger failed and it was scrap, surely its best to wait until the boiler needs replacing.
One thing I did was insulate outlets and light switches. Very easy and inexpensive. You can feel cold air blowing in after you remove the covers. It really does make a difference.
Great vid, also once you hear the kettle water boiling, just switch it off. Kettles boil for like 20-30 seconds after for no real difference
That must be a faulty kettle then! I believe they are supposed to keep boiling for 4 to 8 seconds to ensure any bacteria is well and truly dead.
Put excess water in a thermos keeps it hot for another cuppa
Just boil what you need. People I know will fill it up and boil it for one cup when they could’ve put one and a half cups in which would save energy.,
Great tips. Another use of the camera would be to search for thermal bridges, mostly in older buildings. This is where a structural element is bare inside and outside and conducts heat from higher temps to lower, or better put, the heat leaks outs.
If you can afford triple glazed windows instead of double they are much better. I live Sweden I had them installed but make sure one glass envelope has argon gas and the is vacuum. Some winters I might have 30cm of snow against the glass, it will stay there if it’s below zero, which shows me that there is very little heat loss through the glass. Also if you can encourage your wife to wear some of the warm cloths in her wardrobe you can turn down the room thermostat one or two degrees you could save up to 5%/1c. 😊
Whoah! Persuading your wife what clothes to wear? I hope you are wearing your PPE when you try that.
@@mikeonfreeserve2926 She appreciates that the cost of electricity here has risen by 500% so needs must when you’re a pensioner.
@@davidiand7 She's a keeper 😛
@@davidiand7 You're on a winner then!
I LOVED the 'wear PPE' comment and understand exactly THAT situation! 😂
Thanks Stuart great tips would you tell me what type of thermal image camera that is because I could use it in the workshop as well thanks 👍👨🏻🏭
Hi, ref. the thermal camera that the chap is using. He seems reticent to share so I have looked myself (V. closely/freeze framing etc!). It appears to be a lookalike of the Hikmicro E1L Handheld Thermal Imaging Camera (which is approx. £300 - £350 depending where you look). Hope that helps.
If you have a reasonably modern oven and set the cooking timer it will automatically stop heating towards the end of the cooking time and use the residual heat, so no need to do it manually. Also, when you take your food out to rest on the side, pop your plates in the oven with the door ajar to warm them.
Finally, for general cooking there is no need to pre-heat a fan oven.
You do have to pre-heat an oven. Not trying to be rude, but I have no idea why anyone would think you don't. The food has to cook at that temp for that long, like, say, for 35 minutes at 425 degrees. You can't start cooking it at 0 degrees. Then it won't cook for 35 minutes at 425. That's a good way to get food poisoning.
Another great video, love the tip about turning the oven off a few minutes early !
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great video as usual.
On the drying clothes front I wonder if something could be designed with solar or wind driving either fans or heaters in some kind of enclosure outside that your washing could be hung to dry in. After initial build costs it could be free to run other than if some part of it breaks.
Maybe between all the electronic people and diy people on UA-cam some kind of solution could be found?
If you are fortunate enough to have a glass roof conservatory (we inherited one when we moved into this house). The room is a great place to dry clothes in winter 👍🏼 Otherwise, the electric dryer racks, while not perfect are certainly more economical than a tumble dryer. More so if you drop a big towel or blanket over the rack to keep the heat trapped in.
@@the_judge_8262 Anyone with an unused greenhouse could dry clothes effectively using a drying frame. 😊
Why not simply use a drying wrack? I have two. I never dry anything. Just hang it all up. Free, easy, etc.
@@Julia-nl3gq only problem with that is the condensation.
I have old windows ..I live in Canada..the old window and storm window are much warmer than the one new window I got put in a bedroom..it is positively cold around it and it was a double pane window from a reputable dealer..I wouldn't change my old windows for anything or I'd freeze during our very harsh winters with 3 or 4 feet of snow.
If you bleed the radiators on a pressurised system then it will be necessary to pressurise the system again when finished.
That is true if you have a combi. You must check post "bleeding" that the pressure is still in the correct range else it may not fire up until recharged.
Fantastic video and production mate.
Good to see success.
I’ve heard that point 5 whilst valid, the heat creep from the rooms with active radiators is an increased cost, as the hot air heats the cold walls of the rooms with no radiator switched on.
This is true. When calculating the capacity of the heating system required (at least when I did it in the 70's) you calculate the heat loss from each room to it's adjoining spaces eg, walls, ceilings, floors and windows and this takes into account the temperature differential between these surfaces and the adjoining ones so if the iving room is being heated to say 20C and the bedroom is being heated to 17C the heat from the living room will heat the bedroom to a certain degree. If you then drop the temperature in the bedroom significantly, the heat loss from the living room will increase and therefore feel cooler.
We still have a cast iron sewer pipe going to the toilet that is conducting cold into the house, the toilet tank has an overflow with no u bend so that lets cold air in the house. Electric fittings seem to have draughts, sockets, switches and light fittings you can buy and fit gaskets.
If you do board your loft I’d be very interested into how you do it. Looking at doing mine soon and you always offer sound advice. Great vid!
Loft legs to create a raised floor. It's given me a massive insulation benefit.
Unless you really need the space I'd avoid doing so. It complicates doing the insulation, and anything you store up there will be exposed to sub zero to 40c temps (so won't keep very well amongst the spiders, wasps etc...)
What is that Thermal imaging camera? Looks like HikVision, thus likely £300-400 - good piece of kit.
The low end on price could come from Uni-T brand, eg. model UTi260B - at below £100
Hi, ref. the thermal camera that the chap is using. He seems reticent to share so I have looked myself (V. closely/freeze framing etc!). It appears to be a lookalike of the Hikmicro E1L Handheld Thermal Imaging Camera (which is approx. £300 - £350 depending where you look). Hope that helps.
I would also add the tip of getting an Air Fryer as they save money compared to using an oven.
I bought one as I was putting on a whole oven for a few chips 😮 I'm not sure if it's helping yet
Good tips. Across the pond most newer homes use central air, with an electric or natural gas furnace in either the basement or crawl space, it heats air which is forced through vents to every room in the house. Heating varies by the homes age and location. Some houses built in the 70s have electric base board heaters, terrible, homes built in the north of country sometimes use steam boilers heated by oil or kerosene. Water heaters are a mix between natural gas or electric powered tanks between 150 - 300 liters in size, some folks are now opting for heat on demand or tankless water heaters. The tankless systems are more energy efficient than tanks, but are less useful if there is a loss of central power. Checking and sealing gaps around doors and windows is critical. Additional batting in the loft is very useful. The loft door upgrade is a very good tip.
We went through a period in the UK where some local councils built homes with warm air heating (in the 70s). Like most times when public money is given to private builders, some unscrupulous companies took the cash and used bad methods. Net result was the home I lived in this was a really really really great way to heat some of the rooms in my house but not all. Unfortunately they fed all rooms from one single vent and poorly planned it, so many rooms just never ever got hot, it was impossible to get balanced heat across the house from one vent only. Effectively many people blamed hot air systems and so they never saw the light of day after that in The UK after that 🤷♀️ Shame really
@@the_judge_8262 Sounds a right mess. The central air HVAC systems in the US / Canada have multiple feeds off of the furnace to each room, the system provides cooling in summer and heat in winter. The entire house, all rooms should be the same temp, unless you have a dual system typically found in multi-story homes, where there are two separate systems, one for the lower floor and one for the lower.
Stuart, no mentioning of lagging those hot pipes from the boiler or even feeds to hot taps? Just the same way that on a hot summers day the cold water feed to taps match the ambient room temperature and need to be run for a few moments before becoming cold, to opposite can happen in winter with the hot water side, especially in a large house.
Would the hot water pipes not be helping to heat the house?
@@bluecurlygirl in the winter yes, in the summer making it hotter
Big one you gotta watch which happened in my house, our entire upstairs is unheated, we only really go up there to sleep, blankets etc will keep you warm, but it allows the place to get humid much more quickly, this certainly enhanced my damp situation in my house, so I had to get a dehumidifier to sort out an existing problem, but switching heating off can cause damp issues to become much more noticeable.
Like the idea of using the thermal camera to locate under floor pipes and aid balancing.
DHW thermostats should always be set to slightly above 60 c , anything below this creates the perfect legionella breading environment.
Even in cold weather, trickle vents should be slightly open and definitely not 'sealed up' add you advise. They are there to allow some air circulation which well sealed double glazed windows prevent.
Before people arrange for a new boiler to be installed they should check the efficiency of their existing boiler. If it's around 90% they are better off just getting it serviced because they will not see any really reduction in running costs.
Thick underlay and carpets helps as well as putting double curtains up that meet the floor and across external doorways.
Thanks for the tips! Mine are : have thermostat temp less during day when folks are moving about more then increase a little in the evening, fill kettle from a bottle that’s been allowed to get to room temp( I even warm on radiator soMetimes) , boils faster! I did get a travel kettle as couldn’t get hubby to boil just a cup full. And let food get to room temp before cooking, a burger/joint of meat cooks so much quicker that way, especially good when combined with turning off heat and letting cook with residual heat from stove/pan. If someone in your house really feels the cold get a small propagation heat mat for them to either sit on or put feet on , they’ll feel toasty even with heating quite low. And another… cuddle up to a menopausal woman 😂thanks again !! Lx
If you have room between the radiator and an outside wall, install a board, cardboard, foamboard covered with radiant barrier (shiny stuff) which reflects the radiant portion of the heat that was going outside back into the room. I found it made a notable difference both in energy use and comfort. Comfort is complex; radiant heat is high comfort.
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What’s the make and model of the thermal camera that you have? It looks like a decent one.
Hi, ref. the thermal camera that the chap is using. He seems reticent to share so I have looked myself (V. closely/freeze framing etc!). It appears to be a lookalike of the Hikmicro E1L Handheld Thermal Imaging Camera (which is approx. £300 - £350 depending where you look). Hope that helps.
Dont forget that the fridge require less power as you add frozen items to it :)
If you use a radiator brush to clean the fins on your rads then that makes them work more efficiently
Boiler flow temperature is a good saving, it looked like yours was set to 71 deg which it too hot for a condensing boiler. If you’ve got steam out of the flue then it’s probably too hot.
Also foil on the walls behind the radiators will help reflect any heat that’s going to heat up the walls.
The vents you shut, while that will save some heat escaping they are there to let some of the warm moist air out and some cooler less humid air out. If you seal up tight and get little airflow in the house your humidity will likely increase and you have the making of a problem with damp and mould. Remember interstitial condensation can’t be seen until it’s already a problem.
Cover pots when boiling
Monitor humidity in the house, if it gets too high ventilate or consider a dehumidifier.
Really good points here.
Refer to the Charlie DIYte's video on control of humidity which has excellent advice.
Once again, see Charlie DIYte's videos on controlling humidity in a house to also help reduce condensation on windows and cold walls. . . .
I've just cleaned and bled, my landlord was impressed that I thought of doing these things my radiators ready to put on my radiators are all set on one or two I'm in an old two bedroom flat one of the bedrooms is set up as a sewing room so only need minimal heat in there unless I'm in the sewing my landlord has the service done on or as near to the first of February without fail I pay him along gas, electric,water rates and rent he knows I've not put the heating on as yet apart from to show him it was working and has adjusted my bill accordingly and it will be more layers first I've put bubble wrap on my windows surprising how much difference it makes all you need to do is spray the water on the windows then stick the bubble wrap on
It annoys me so much when my parents turn on the heating to 25 degrees.
For me 22 is just about fine for our flat, it's bearable if you continur to wear winter clothes and socks aswell.
I'm the middle child and also the only one that is careful with bills, turning on and off switches, price comparisons on food and so on.. Is anyone else like this? Just the opposite to everyone in their family lol
I can definitely relate! My big thing is reducing what I need, in every area - size of living quarters, less material goods, simpler foods - and my family is about going out to get more - get more money, bigger home, bigger car, more things, etc. It drives me mad 😅
@@chicagosellout im exactly the same! it drives me nuts too hehe
25°C is waaaay too hot.
I need to buy one of those thermal imaging cameras if I can buy one for about £80.
I've moved into an early (1988) self-built dormer bungalow 'Eco' house built in a Swedish style which has 50mm Styrofoam above the plasterboard ceilings but no other fibreglass in the loft.
The upper floor gets hot in summer so I need to decide how much (and type of) insulation to add to the 1st floor ceiling and possibly 1st floor level roof construction for the best effect.
Hi, ref. the thermal camera that the chap is using. He seems reticent to share so I have looked myself (V. closely/freeze framing etc!). It appears to be a lookalike of the Hikmicro E1L Handheld Thermal Imaging Camera (which is approx. £300 - £350 depending where you look). Hope that helps.
@@Bradleyguy22 Thank you - I'll flow up on that!
Worth being mindful that turning off rads doesn't necessarily save any energy. Adjacent room radiators will have to work harder to compensate.
Reducing the boiler flow rate for condensing boilers to as low as possible (ideally 50-55c but may need to be higher depending on your rads output at a lower temp, and if you store hot water). By reducing it, you'll reduce the boilers return temp and it can go into condensing mode.
Hi Robert what's condensing mode? (I'm the wife)of Jim.
I think that the advice about turning rads off is in rooms that you are not using and keeping the doors closed. Of course you would have to monitor that no damp or mould was produced. Personally I have had my rad turned off in my bedroom for about 4 years now, and the window slightly opened all year round. Sleeping in a cold bedroom is better for your health, as long as you have adequate warm bedding of course.
Hi, our semi detached house was built mid seventies, would you recommend cavity wall insulation, thank you
My top tips,
If you have a hot water cylinder, only heat when your going to use it. Saved 250 a year
If you have a uninsulated hot water cylinder, buy a jacket for it or upgrade to an insulated one.
Buy an air fryer- not wasting extra electric heating a large oven to cook smaller items.
Schedule heating only in morning and evening and boost heating if needed.
If you can heat your water with electric or gas/oil, heat with Gas/oil as cheaper.
Insulate coper pipes in your boiler room
Change to LED lights as pays for themselves in about 4-6 months.
Use curtains
Clean radiators of dust
Some really good points. I did notice you could have added 'Lagging' to the boiler as the flow and return did look exposed. Also when you bled the boiler I have been told to turn the 'pump off' during that process? excellent video though, I love it
The Heat Geek on here said not to turn off your TRVs completely as you still need the water in your system to circulate. He recommends turning a room that's unused down to 2 on the TRV.
Comments appreciated.
I think the Heat Geek says that condensing boilers are more efficient when running at moderate temperatures supplying all your radiators, rather than running flat out to heat just the living room radiator, which in turn has to try and heat the rest of the house. A boiler running flat out pumps out hot exhaust gases, which warm the planet but not your house.
My heating engineer advised the same, saying that unheated upstairs bedrooms are a pools of cold air that cause drafts and make the house feel colder than it really is.
TRV, best unscrew them at the base and fire them in the bin. Easy adjustment. Pointless devices. Turn down your boiler
The oven one is one bit many people think of. Makes a world of difference and as some one else has said, I leave the oven open for a bit to let the heat into the room
The heat will come into the room anyway just slower. Where would it else go ?
@@migsvensurfing6310 you keep yours closed then 🤷🏼♂️
I'd also add that if the oven is insulated well enough that it holds it's temperature, then it's also not using very much energy at all in that last 10 minutes
Top tip, you don't need to defrost frozen pizza 😬🍕
I do quite a few already shall be getting some thermostat valves for rads
22! I average at 17
Loving the Barry Lewis shout out at the end :)