Benefits to support people with heating costs over the winter are paid automatically to those who are eligible during the qualifying week.
People will get a letter to confirm they are entitled to the payment and will be paid automatically.
Read more at http://bit.ly/WinterHeatingBenefits2425
WHICH? consumer research found that in August 2022, 65% of households cut back, dipped into savings or borrowed money in order to cover essential spending. And with most people’s gas boilers whirring into action this month as the temperature drops, outgoing expenses are only increasing.
Our experts have identified a variety of ways to reduce your heating energy bills this winter.
The big things can drastically change how much energy you use every year, while the small things can cheaply make an immediate dent in your bills during a time where a bit of help goes a long way.
Sometimes it’s simply a matter of using a new boiler setting or spending 15 minutes plugging a gap in your home that provided a welcome breeze during the summer heatwave. We’ve also listed a few more expensive, longer-term fixes. If you do feel able to, it’s worth thinking about whether any of these could suit your home.
Read on for our top tips for getting ahead this winter.
Emily Seymour, Which? Energy and Sustainability Editor, said: “Many people will be looking to save money by reducing their energy use this winter. Some easy ways to cut your bills include using radiator valves to make sure each room of your house is only ever as warm as you need it to be.
“If your home has a single room thermostat, it should be set at the lowest comfortable temperature as heating bills will rise by about 10 per cent for every additional degree you turn it up.
“Combi boiler owners can try turning its flow temperature down and the preheat setting off. Tap water will initially come out cool before it heats up, but you’ll be wasting less energy.
“If you have a hot water cylinder, you can’t make use of low flow temperatures. Instead, insulate your hot water tank with a jacket no less than 75mm thick and make sure you’ve got lagging on pipes.
“Simple steps like placing weatherproofing tape over gaps or putting down a draught excluder can guard against heat loss.”
Get our latest cost of living news and advice to support you through the colder months.
Boilers are easy to cast as a cost-of-living villain. They’re big, sometimes noisy, most of them run on fossil fuels, and they can have a big impact on your energy bills – in fact, in most homes the boiler is the one single thing that uses up the biggest portion of your annual energy bill.
But a central heating system that’s working efficiently and using energy proportionate to your home’s heating need is still the best way to heat your home during the coldest months of the year.
For most people, the priority should be making your boiler cost less to use, and not deferring to replacements like portable heaters.
There’s a lot you can do to make your heating run more efficiently:
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Combi boiler owners should look at their flow temperature. You can save up to 8% on your heating bill by turning down the temperature of the water that gets circulated around your radiators. If your boiler heats this water to its max, your boiler won’t even condense, which means it’s running inefficiently.
Head to our full guide on how to adjust your boiler to lower your heating bill to find out more.
The Heating & Hot Water Industry Council (HHIC) recommends that people adapt their boiler settings with the advice of a boiler engineer. This is particularly true if you have a system or regular boiler that keeps water stored in a tank. Because stored water needs to be heated a certain amount to avoid Legionnella bacteria, you should only change settings with professional advice if you have one of these.
However, if you have a combi boiler, you’ve made sure it’s safe and you’ve checked your boiler’s technical manual, you can adjust these settings yourself.
This setting is accessible to anyone and it can be changed using your boiler controls. The flow temperature for heating is generally symbolised by a little picture of a radiator, and for hot water, a picture of a tap. Up and down arrows will change the temperature settings.
Nesta has created a free step-by-step boiler temperature tool to walk combi boiler owners through the process of changing flow temperature settings for your heating.
It recommends a 55°C setting, but we suggest starting a bit higher initially to see if you’re comfortable with the change.
if you have a boiler with a hot water tank, the advice above doesn’t apply. That’s because boilers that store water in a tank usually can’t manage the efficiency gains of combis as they’re not well suited to running low flow temperatures without modification.
You shouldn’t change the flow temperature of a regular or system boiler with a hot water cylinder without consulting an engineer, because your boiler must be able to pasteurise stored water effectively to avoid bacteria such as Legionella developing.
However, that doesn’t mean there’s nothing you can do to improve your boiler’s efficiency. You’ll be using a lot of energy to heat up the water in your storage cylinder, and you don’t want to lose out on any of that. So make sure the cylinder itself is well insulated. This can be as easy as buying a jacket for about £20. It should be no less than 75mm thick according to industry standards.
You can also lag the pipes that carry water around your home for around £5 a metre. Water loses a lot of heat in transit, so it’s a small expenditure for a good long-term saving. It’s particularly useful to do it for the pipes coming in and out of the cylinder.
Lagging pipes will also reduce the risk of them freezing in a cold spell, which can be costly to repair.
Find out what to do if external pipes freeze over with our guidance on how to thaw a frozen boiler condensate pipe.
Smart technology isn’t for everyone, but if you do like using your phone, tablet or voice assistant for managing your home, then a smart thermostat will give you easy and precise control over your central heating.
They’re designed to provide automation to help you use your heating at the best times. Whether it’s toggling your boiler when you’re nearby to benefit from it, learning your routine so it can predict the optimal times to run or even checking the weather forecast to anticipate increases and decreases in heating need, smart home heating is becoming increasingly clever.
While many of these features are designed for your comfort, rather than your wallet, smart thermostats really come into their own when it comes to making savings if you set up zonal heating with compatible radiator valves.This means you can vary the routine and temperature of different rooms so you’re not wasting energy by heating rooms at the wrong times.
For example, you might want to programme your kitchen to get a burst of heating in the morning before you put the kettle on and your living room to be warmest in the early evening, while you’re happy for your bedroom to stay cold all day until you’re about to go to bed. All of these adjustments mean you’re saving crucial kilowatts by never heating a room you’re not actually using.
Since the introduction of new legislation in 2018, new gas boilers need to come with one of four energy-saving add-ons. Smart heating controls are one of them. But if you have an older boiler you can still buy and install a smart thermostat separately.
Read our smart thermostat and smart radiator valve reviews to find models that will suit your needs.
If smart tech isn’t for you, you can still make significant improvements by installing manually operated thermostatic radiator valves, or TRVs. They control the heat of your home by adjusting how much hot water flows through the radiator they’re fitted to, so you can make sure each room of your house is only ever as warm as you need it to be.
It works by sensing the room temperature and opening or closing the valve as appropriate.
The numbers on TRVs determine how much a radiator is allowed to heat up. They correspond more to a level of comfort than a specific temperature, but as a rough guide the following applies:
| 0 | Off |
| * (the maintenance setting) | The radiator will turn on as a protective measure when the temperature nears 0°C. |
| 1 | Approximately 12°C, a low room temperature for an unoccupied room |
| 2 | Approximately 16°C, a lukewarm heat for an occupied room. |
| 3 | Approximately 20°C, a comfortable heat for an occupied room. |
| 4 | Approximately 24°C, a warm heat for an occupied room. |
| 5 | The valve is fully open. |
Use trial and error. We recommend using settings two and three to try and cut heating use, knowing that you can go higher if you’re feeling chilly.
If you’ve also turned down your boiler’s central heating flow temperature, you might find you need to open your TRVs to higher settings to reach comfortable temperatures.
Smart radiator valves can work with smart thermostats to do this automatically. Some of them also take temperature readings to fine-tune your thermostatic system.
It’s age-old advice, and for people who are already frugal with their heating it may not apply. But each degree you turn your thermostat down is energy saved. According to the NHS, temperatures as low as 18°C are healthy for most people.
The Energy Saving Trust claims that turning your thermostat down by one degree can save you up to 10% off your heating bill. Realistically, a lot of variables affect this, but even one degree lower will move your bills in the right trajectory.
For older people, Age UK reminds that very low temperatures can increase your risk of flu or other breathing problems, and can raise your blood pressure. When you’re older, your blood pressure takes longer to return to normal once you get cold. Try to make sure you’re keeping at least one room at a comfortable temperature for you, and keep the doors closed as much as you can to keep that room as warm as possible.
We’re often asked whether people should turn off their heating completely and replace it with electric heaters. Unfortunately, it’s unlikely to be cost effective over long periods of time.
Portable electric heaters use electricity to warm the air by convection, either with an exposed heating element, or with a radiator design that transfers heat from the element through a system of fins.
They are great at providing a quick heating fix for a short period of time, such as for a 10-minute blast on a particularly freezing morning. And if your central heating system isn’t working, they’re reliable back-ups.
It’ll take a portable heater between 15 – 30 minutes to raise the temperature of a medium-sized room by 10ºC at full blast. After that it will toggle on and off as needed to maintain temperature, based on its thermostat.
Remember that you pay for energy by the unit. With the current price cap, electricity is much more expensive than gas. So be prudent when you use your electric heater in place of gas.
They usually have rated outputs of 2 or 3kW – that’s how many they’d get through in an hour on full blast. For reference, that’s about the same amount of energy as a kettle. Heaters do generally have settings that let them run at lower outputs too.
If you’re on a standard variable tariff, the average unit price for dual fuel customers is 34p per/kWh for electricity and 10.3p per/kWh for gas. That means that a 2kW portable heater at its full output would use 34p of electricity every half an hour.
Read our electric heater reviews to find a model that provides good value.
If you’re short on cash, there are things you can do right now to plug in gaps in your home and hold onto your heat.
You can draught proof any gaps in your home, whether that’s keyholes, postboxes, door cracks, cavities near doors and windows, or gaps around electrical outlets and pipes. Just remember that homes do need some ventilation, so make sure you leave any purpose-built vents clear, such as window trickle vents or grills in wodden flooring.
Draught-proofing may involve putting down tape or a draught excluder where there’s a draft. Even something basic like a door snake is a help in the war against heat loss. Many of these solutions cost less than a tenner, or can be homemade.
Other tools include:
One visit to a DIY shop can provide you with several small solutions that don’t break the bank and can be installed yourself.
While individual draught-proofing measures are unlikely to save huge sums from your energy bills in isolation, collectively they will make your home feel more pleasant and cosy to be in. You might even find you can comfortably turn your thermostat down a degree.
Read our guidance on draught-proofing your home for more detail about small steps to seal your home.
In the long run, the key way to keep energy bills low is to trap as much as possible of the heat we generate inside our homes.
If you have the money to do it, insulation is a very good long-term investment. As energy bills go up, the time it takes to see a return on your investment becomes shorter. The Energy Saving Trust estimates that having a professional install loft insulation in a typical semi-detached home would cost around £480 in October 2022, but once it’s done you’d save £355 a year on your energy bills. So in less than 18 months you’d be making a saving.
Professional installation in a detached home would cost more – around £630 – but the savings are as much as £590 a year. And you’ll be saving around 1,000kg CO2 emissions from being released.
So it’s a win-win: you’ll waste less energy and be able to run central heating more cheaply – and break even relatively quickly.
Plus, you’ll be ready for whatever comes next. The central heating options of the future will operate more cheaply if homes can retain heat. Technology like heat pumps are able to operate efficiently because they’re designed for well insulated properties.
Types of insulation include:
The energy efficiency of your home or of the home you’re renting is quantified by an EPC certificate. Find out how to get assessed and what the ratings mean here.
Windows are a source of heat loss in any home. But if you have single glazing, you’ll notice you need much more energy to heat your home sufficiently. Double or even triple-glazing windows will reduce your heating needs dramatically.
Installing A-rated double glazing could save between £95 and £115 a year on the heating bill of a typical home. However, it doesn’t come cheaply.
We ask Which? members to rate the double glazing companies they’ve actually used.
Find out the best and worst double glazing companies for 2022 and more on how to buy double glazing.
If you need a quick fix and don’t have the money to spend, window foam seal, foam sealant or metallic brush strips can all help.
We’ve tested secondary glazing film in the past, like clingfilm for your windows, but we thought it wasn’t very resilient. It also needed re-stretching with a hair dryer periodically.
Thick curtains across windows can make a big difference too. Drawing them creates a barrier between your room and the elements and keeps your heat inside.
If you’re replacing your heating system, the government’s Boiler Upgrade Scheme helps you to decarbonise with a heat pump if your home has no outstanding insulation recommendations.
With the latest price cap, a heat pump needs to run at an efficiency of 280% to have parity with a gas boiler’s running costs. Heat pumps can run at 300-400% efficiency, so they can prove cheaper to run.
Other grants can help if you’re in a vulnerable situation, such as:
Read our advice on home grants to find out what you’re entitled to.
The government’s 2022 Energy Price Guarantee and Energy Bill Support Scheme will both provide households in the UK with a bit of extra help this winter.
Find out everything you need to know about the government’s winter 2022 cost of living support and how it will be paid to you.
If you are struggling to afford your energy bills and feel you need urgent support, head to our guide to what to do if you can’t pay your energy bills.
An additional £18 million will be available this year to help householders install energy efficient measures and reduce their heating bills, bringing the total support available through Home Energy Scotland to £50 million in 2021-2022.
People in Edinburgh and across the country are being urged to seek support and advice from Home Energy Scotland to help make their homes warmer and reduce their heating bills, on average by up to £300 per year.
Financial support worth up to £5,000 is also available to make homes more energy efficient through improvements like home insulation or a new heating system.
Home Energy Scotland also supports households with practical advice and, where appropriate, install energy efficient measures – making homes more energy efficient and saving householders money.
Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings Patrick Harvie, said: “As the colder weather returns and given the concern around rising energy bills, we want to ensure people living in Edinburgh and around Scotland are aware of the support available to keep their homes warm this winter.
“Home Energy Scotland offers advice, support and funding to help people make energy saving improvements, helping them reduce their energy costs.
“The free impartial advice and support is available for anyone concerned about paying their energy bills and we would urge people struggling with their fuel bills to get in touch with Home Energy Scotland.”
Recent research by Home Energy Scotland shows that 70% of people in Scotland feel concerned about energy bills rising, with almost two thirds using more energy than usual during the first 12 months of the pandemic. The research also found that 59% of Scots have noticed a worrying rise in their energy bills already.
Harry Mayers, Head of Home Energy Scotland said: “24,000 households across the country including Edinburgh have already benefited from new energy efficient measures, like a new heating system or insulation, by getting in contact with Home Energy Scotland.
“But with people spending more time at home over the past 18 months due to coronavirus, energy usage has been greater than ever. We therefore want to be able to help even more people to make energy saving improvements to their home.
“A home that isn’t well insulated can lose more than 50% of its heat through its roof and walls so making improvements can help your finances and make your home more energy efficient, comfortable and cheaper to heat while helping lower emissions in Scotland”.
With the combination of more people working from home and the current colder temperatures, heating bills for most people across the UK are rocketing.
Energy bills will rise further for millions more after the regulator, Ofgem, lifted the price cap on standard tariffs back to pre-pandemic levels but there are lots of simple things you can do to keep cosy and reduce your fuel bills during the current chilly period.
Here are some top tips from NHBC, the UK’s leading warranty and insurance provider for new build homes, to help you save on your winter bills:
· Reduce draughts – an important job as winter approaches is to make sure that your house does not have any unintended draughts. Floorboards and skirtings usually go ignored but cold air can easily filter through, so check for gaps and fill them in. Check to see if your letterbox is draughty, which can lead to cold hallways – installing a letter box draught excluder that fits onto the inside of your front door is an inexpensive easy DIY job. If you have an open fireplace and chimney which is not used, this can be draught proofed to stop warm air escaping and cold air entering your property. Remember that openings for ventilation should not be blocked.
· Bleed your radiators – trapped air or gas prevents hot water from heating your radiators fully so, if you have a radiator that is warm at the bottom but cool at the top, this may well mean there is air in the system, which may require bleeding to ensure maximum efficiency of the heating system.
· Loft insulation – insulating your loft is a simple, inexpensive and effective way to reduce energy waste and lower your heating bills. All new houses are fitted with loft insulation that meets the latest building regulations but, if you are in an older property, you may want to think about renewing it or topping it up.
· Thick curtains – they can help to protect your home from losing heat through windows. It’s important to try to get as much sunlight into your home during the day as possible but, as soon as dusk falls, remember to close curtains to reduce the need for additional heating.
· Keep radiators free – a common mistake we often make is to place our sofas in front of the radiators which can absorb the heat.
· Cavity wall insulation – around a third of all the heat lost in an uninsulated home escapes through walls so, if you live in an older property, considering thermal insulation of cavity walls could save you lots of money.
· Loft hatches – energy loss through the loft hatch is often overlooked. Insulating the hatch and ensuring that an effective draught seal is in place will help to keep heat energy in and your home warm.
· Windows – energy-efficient glazing keeps your home warmer, allowing less heat to be lost. Double glazing is fitted as standard to new-build homes but, if your house is older, replacing windows could be a good investment as they help to keep warmth in and reduce external noise.
· Service your heating system – all central heating boilers should be serviced and safety checked at least once a year by a Gas Safe Registered engineer. If your boiler is old, then consider an upgrade. According to the Energy Saving Trust, a new A-rated condensing boiler can save up to £315 a year on heating bills – most new homes have this type of boiler.
· Room temperature controls – your thermostat should typically be set between 18°C and 21°C, but by installing thermostatic radiator valves you can set different temperatures in different rooms (turn down the radiators in unoccupied rooms), according to individual preference. These will be standard in new homes but are easily fitted to existing radiators.
· Floor insulation – insulating your ground floor or floors above any unheated spaces e.g. integral garages will assist in keeping your home warm.
· Insulating tanks, pipes and radiators – Lagging water tanks and pipes and insulating behind radiators reduces the amount of heat lost, so you spend less money heating water up, and hot water stays hotter for longer.
Standards and Policy Manager at NHBC Giles Willson, said: “People living in new homes typically benefit from lower energy bills because their properties are built in line with the latest Government regulations for energy efficiency.
“However, whether you live in a newly-built home or an older property, there are a lot of ways that could save money on utility bills during the coldest part of the year when many millions of us are also working from the kitchen table and home-schooling our children.”
Many of us have been working from home since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Research from June 2020 (PDF) showed most Scots felt their energy use increased during lockdown, and almost 60% of households were worried about their bills going up as a result.
As lockdown measures continue and cold weather means the heating is on for longer, you and your workmates might need some help to manage your energy costs while keeping warm at home.
Learn simple ways to stay warm at home
The good news is, we can help. As well as impartial advice to householders, we also offer fun and interactive online workshops for employers across Scotland.
Workshops are completely free and can be tailored to suit your workplace. And they’re a great way to connect with and support your colleagues, especially when many may be concerned about rising bills.
You and your workmates will pick up practical tips to reduce your bills and keep your home warm, like:
We’d love to help you and your colleagues stay warm this winter – email us to book your workshop. We also offer workshops on travelling sustainably (for essential journeys of course!), and saving water in partnership with Scottish Water. If getting everyone together for an online workshop will be tricky, our home energy e-learning is also full of useful advice on saving energy and money at home
Pick up tips to make the food shop go further
While we’re all cutting down on supermarket trips and many household budgets are getting tighter, it helps to make the food shop go further. Love Food Hate Waste workshops, delivered by Energy Saving Trust on behalf of Zero Waste Scotland, can help attendees save up to £437 a year by reducing food waste, through simple tips like:
Interested? Get in touch to book a workshop.
Support for communities as well as workplaces
We also offer free online workshops for community groups on saving energy and water at home, travelling sustainably, and cutting food waste.
These are a great way to get your community group together remotely.
Find out more about our support for communities, and drop us an email if you’d like to book a workshop.
Scots are being urged to seek support and advice from Home Energy Scotland to reduce heating bills and make their homes warmer and more energy efficient, as increasing numbers of households seek advice on ways to cut energy bills.
A recent survey shows that with more people working from home since the start of the pandemic, almost half of those (44%) worry this will lead to an increase in unaffordable energy bills.
The Scottish Government-funded Home Energy Scotland advice service has seen a significant increase in demand since July 2020. The average number of calls to the free advice service has risen by 95% compared with the same six-month period last year. In its busiest weeks, calls were up more than 200% on the same dates in 2019.
Through Home Energy Scotland, the Scottish Government offers support and funding to help reduce bills and save energy. This includes help worth up to £5,000 to make homes more energy efficient through the Warmer Homes Scotland programme.
Help is still available for householders throughout lockdown, with strict safety protocols in place for installation of essential home heating measures under this programme.
People are also encouraged to contact Home Energy Scotland to find out how they can make their home more energy efficient. Interest-free loans with cashback of up to 75% are available for a variety of measures such as solid wall insulation, double glazing or a new renewable heating system.
Loan offers are valid for a year so householders in mainland Scotland can prepare now for installations when lockdown is lifted.
Minister for Local Government, Housing and Planning, Kevin Stewart, said: “We want to ensure that people are able to get all the help and support available to them to keep warm and safe in their home especially during the winter.
“That is why we acted quickly and have taken action to ensure that appropriate support is available for those struggling with increased household energy bills as a result of the pandemic.
“I am really pleased that our award winning Home Energy Scotland service has adapted its approach during the pandemic and has continued to provide a range of free impartial advice and support for anyone concerned about paying their energy bills. I would urge anyone struggling with their fuel bills to get in touch with Home Energy Scotland.”
Harry Mayers, Head of Home Energy Scotland, said: “Home Energy Scotland helps householders with both practical and financial support. This year calls to our helpline have risen sharply, with more than 2,000 people turning to us each week for advice on how to reduce their heating bills, save money and keep their household warm.
“As well as financial support, our advisors help customers identify practical savings they can make at home, either by changing the way they use energy or carrying out energy-saving home improvements. We can also help people access further support through our network of partners across health, social care and other areas of advice.”
Home Energy Scotland from the Scottish Government provides clear and impartial advice on reducing bills and saving energy – call 0808 808 2282 or visit www.homeenergyscotland.org
