The team at Scott Findlay always wants to give the best heating and plumbing advice to their customers through our articles. Today we want to discuss how to improve the energy efficiency of your central heating system and how to get the most from it whilst saving money.
Put simply, boiler efficiency is about how much usable heat you get from your boiler for every unit of energy you put in it. Most customers would probably think that installing a new A–rated boiler would go a long way to becoming more energy efficient but the boiler is only part of the story.
Currently, all new boilers must be A-rated, with a minimum 92% ErP but in a real-life home situation, this level often isn’t reached. Although modern condensing boilers are designed to be very efficient, they rely on a well-maintained system to truly deliver those savings. Installing a brand new A-rated boiler into an old, inefficient system might not give you the energy savings you expect. Nor will the boiler be providing the energy efficiency that you want. There are two important factors to consider alongside your new boiler to ensure that you get the most efficient performance out of it:
Old, noisy radiators with hot and cool spots may not be the ideal recipients for the water flowing through a new boiler since they might be full of sludge or need to be bled. Sludge is a black substance comprised of dissolved, rusted metal from the pipework in your heating system. It is commonly found in old radiators and can cause the radiators to heat up poorly and left untreated can affect the boiler’s water-carrying components, resulting in costly breakdown. To improve the efficiency of your new boiler your radiators must be efficient too. So consider power flushing to remove the sludge.
Apart from the central heating system, the insulation of your home is very important too. The heat that is being created through your system will leak out through draughty windows and floors. This will make homeowners crank up the thermostat to keep the house moderately warm and lead to an overall inefficient system with extra associated energy costs.
So there are several things to consider when you buy a new boiler for installation. The whole system needs to be assessed so that your new A-rated boiler is doing what it says on the tin. Get in touch with the team at Scott Findlay if you are considering changing your boiler so that you get the best information on how to improve the efficiency of your heating system.
