I'm so glad this channel exists. I followed some of your advice from pervious videos and managed to reduce my hot water gas usage by quite a bit so I thought I'd share those tips in my own video a few weeks ago. It's became somewhat more popular than I expected though, and then I started getting loads of people complaining about my flow temperature and legionella advice! I'm very glad that I can point them to videos like this from true professionals to confirm what I say in my own video. A lot of them still don't believe me though and they get really angry! Oh well. Modern internet, eh? Keep up the excellent work.

Just looked back on an older video of yours - you have come a long way! It’s so much easier to take in what you are saying now that the flashing lights and distracting background music has gone. Great tips. Thanks for being so clear.

Great video to see the lagging clips mentioned. My local merchant laughed at me for ages when I mentioned them and lagging glue! Defo get insulating those airing cupboard pipes.

The production quality and editing is amazing. Feels like this is 1m+ sub channel.

Dishwasher and thermocouples aren’t what most people struggling to heat or eat have. Great, engaging content, for those that don’t need space heating yet and have had years to electrify their hot water. Best of luck!

Great video. Excellent information as always..I tell everyone to watch your channel and what you are trying to acheive in terms of your Heat Geek network of installers.

Heating engineer and plumber here ….well done for what you are doing 👍 Every house I go into I’m doing the same. Shouldn’t be down to us though as many people needed this stuff from April and government should have been helping improve education around easy efficiency savings years ago ( if thats what they truly cared about 🤔)

Good advice but also insulation is good. I topped up the loft insulation several years ago from 4" when I bought the house to 12", had double glazing fitted, both while I was working and a new condensing boiler after taking early retirement. Bought pipe insulation for underneath the floorboards where the central heating pipes run in the downstairs front room. I put a new roof on the extension and put loft insulation in with tongue and groove board ceiling. I plan to do the rear kitchen wall like this. I put in a new bath and altered the plasterboard layout so filled the cavity with loft insulation. 15°C in this bedroom with no heating and Sun streaming through the window making a nice almost 21°C in the Sun. Wearing a T shirt, jumper, jeans, socks and bedroom slippers. 3 LED bulbs and some CFL lamps when they were going cheap at 10p each, I guess to get LED ones in stock.

Fantastic video this buddy! Plenty of very useful tips and also explanations of what to do if the alterations dont suit the user! 👏👏👏

We have no central heating and have an open fire. I have thermally lined the curtains and draught curtains, draught sealed doors and windows ( no double glazing). I have made blankets for every chair and have a strap on hot water bottle over thick jumper. Any plug in heater is only used if washing is also being dried on rainy days- always has to do two jobs. We sit in whichever room washing is being dried! We are old and remember surviving such times in the 50s. Have in the past put newspaper between blankets but it gets a bit noisy!

I went up to 55C on the flow temp at the start of October. I base that change from 45C on when the 1 or 2 C lift required in the office in the morning starts to take longer than an hour radiator time. I currently just eye-ball the graphs, but I intend to start recording the actual delta for rooms and at least factor in "demand time per degree delta". What I really need is a gas flow sensor installed to actually monitor the gas usage as runtime doesn't account for the boiler trickery.

Cheap win win tip put the reflective/Mirror film on you Windows where you spend most time, living Room ect. I get the Sun blazing for about 8 hours straight direct on my Living Room Windows in the Summer and it does help to keep the room a little cooler by reflecting some of the Heat away and i swear it helps some with heat loss in the Winter months too.

Thanks Adam….for these helpful videos! 💪

great video. will act on these tips right away. now subbed! 👍

I followed all your advice and now I’m spending 1% of what i did before! Thanks Heat Geek!

IF you can get under your floor floor, buy some insulation for between the joists. To hold it up, simply get some plastic netting , and staple it up to the joists as you unroll it . ( messy job though, but worth it .) You might also want to put a reflective foil insulating layer under your carpets , when replacing them. Buy a roll of insulated foil and slot it behind radiators on outside walls particularly , but also on the room you heat the most , to stop heat transferring to other cooler rooms . Use Pot Lids when cooking, you will be amazed how much you can turn down the heat and still keep a pot boiling you put on a pot lid. Otherwise that extra heat is just heating your kitchen . Turn the heat down on a boiling pot until it just stops boiling, then put on a pot lid, it will start to boil again, then turn it down again until it is just boiling and no more . Remember, the water does NOT get any hotter once it has boiled, it just evaporates quicker ( and so does your bank balance:( Test it with a glass pot lid, it’s easier to see the water boiling . As was stated, put on layers , if you have cold feet , buy better insulating socks, or just wear several pairs. Good luck this winter , we might get lucky and get a mild one .

Excellent tips! Definitely makes all the difference

Hi great video. I have a Santon Premier Plus and cannot find the hot water thermostat anywhere? I did lower the temperature for flow on the boiler though.

Great Video. Thanks guys.

Thankyou . I'm going to share this video big time

Hi, great video as always. BAXI 836 Combi 1 year old. When I turn the hot water temp down to 43° on my Nest thermostat the boiler reading always shows around 10°higher. Why.? Called Baxi technical who stated the combi will struggle to maintain a low temp. Do other boilers have this temperature difference?

Thank you, great resource and tips.

Public service. Thank you for another great video and content.

Some interesting guides but I'd question the hot water thermo being set at 50 degrees due to storage versus distribution times.

It is at least once in a week recommended to push the heat to over 65°C because of legionella, it is dangerous to keep the temperature at 50°C. Thats why seperate heat pumps for your warm water have the legionella mode to heat the water once in a week over 65°.

The government should be sending professionals out to every home to run these checks and set up peoples houses properly. It would cause a significant reduction in energy usage and cost over winter.

Super advice, Thank you

I tried to turn off the pre-heat function on the combi, as mentioned in tip 3. I followed the user manual. A P shows on the digital screen to indicate it’s off, but it still fires up a few times a day including waking me up at midnight 🤦‍♀️ I’ll try it again!

At 1:41: you mention to beware as mixer taps can play up here. Does this also apply thermostatic mixer showers?

In the media, there's a lot of advice about turning off radiators in unused rooms (which on a side note is bad advice because they never state to leave the rad on in the room where the stat is!). Is there a point where this becomes inefficient? Maybe you could do a video on this, for example, turning off all upstairs rads and only heating downstairs (obviously with room stat downstairs)? Love your channel, best I've ever seen regarding home heating. Thanks

Nice video 👍 My combi hot water has been set at 40° permanently for years ✔️ I turn my boiler off unless I need hot water so it's not running all the time, this may be a mistake? Off all night, I rarely use central heating. Electric shower, no gas hot water required ✔️ I tried turning down radiators in empty rooms, they're stuck.

I want part 2 with only complicated ways to reduce your energy bills like undervolting your CPUs and GPUs, linking your heat pump to your fridge and freezer to utilise the cold, putting vanta black rugs in front of south facing windows etc

Regarding adjusting your boiler flow temperature to the minimum you can get away with throughout the year, I noticed afterwards you mentioned if you have a weather compensation control boiler “it does all that for you”. I have a Baxi 400 combo boiler with Tado smart thermostat which has a weather compensation feature. What option is most efficient: Should I be adjusting the flow rate manually to the minimum I can get away with (60) with the Tado modulating between a smaller range of flow rates or leave the flow rate at max (80) and allow my Tado to modulate with the full range of flow rates available to it?

How does range rating apply (or have a beneficial effect)when you have a modulating condensing boiler (say V200) when weather compensated?

Havent a clue what that contraption was that you were measuring temperature on! We just have a boiler in the utility that is a box, with a digital temp setting for the water to the rads & immersion. What temp should it be set to?

How do I know if my combinboiler is condensing properly. As I’ve just had flue tilt adjusted

Hi I have a Protterton Promax Combi HE plus boiler which are the best money saving settings to have, I live in a HMO and only have three rads, Living room, bedroom and bathroom (towel rail) Bath with tap shower and bathroom sink My current settings are… This Radiators 55 Hot water 56 Could I possibly get more efficient, changing my settings. I only have 3 double glazed windows and sandwich between ground floor and second floor with 2 external walls in living room and bedroom. Any advice would be great Thanks 🙏

I have a regular condensing boiler coupled with a boiler mate 2000 - any recommendations for people like me who don't really have access to all the control stuff you stated. Many thanks :)

I have a question, our entire roof is insulated but the floor between the first floor and the storage area above it isn`t insulated.. Will this have an large effect if I put rockwool between that? The storage area / loft isn`t heated

I have a modern WB condensing boiler and I can set the flow temperature of the CH, however, the service engineer said setting it low would cause too much cycling?

There was no mention of the heating curve for a combi boiler, or did I miss it. Mine is set to 2.8. Would reducing it save money?

For people with PV, it's possible to install measuring devices that run the boiler to higher temps as long as there is un used PV energy. Saves electricity and most important the tax and transport costs.

The only issue with this is the ACOPL8 states that stored water (water tank), should be stored at 60°C or above to prevent Legionella bacteria growth. Obviously, most domestic properties have enough turnover of water daily to prevent any growth buildup. But, if you leave your home empty for any particular length of time, I would fully recommend pasteurising your system (turning up the boiler and cylinder thermostat to maximum to ramp the temperature right up to kill any potential growth in the system). I will be following the advice given here and hopefully saving myself a small fortune over the winter months, I am even building some terracotta room heaters to place strategically around the house to get some cheap off-grid heat 👍🏻

UK council's made a massive mistake in loads of homes by putting thermostats in passage's, the coldest part of the house so the other rooms are like ovens. Also, some council's say you CANNOT fit draught excluders? I've opened my chimney and using that this winter, £30 for a fire grate, £40 for some fire bricks, £18 for chimney sweeping rods from Argos, and loads of free wood everywhere.

Brilliant video!

Before you put jumper on think about getting bass layer thermals. I have some of those skin tight sport ones they work really well to keep drafts away from waist and sleeves, then if you put a slightly bigger set thicker set over that and then a slightly bigger one again ect, you get 2 or 3 layers in under a normal shirt. Putting larger items like jumper sweater or hoodies on should be later resort as they start getting more in the way of what your doing day to day like the sleeves when you're doing stuff in the kitchen or doing some stretches or exercises maybe. Bass layers feel a lot more casual. Just important to find a material mix that feels comfortable for that first layer and stretches on right.

At 6:25 with a condensing boiler how do you no what heating flow temperature rate is at if you do not have a dial?

Should also look into Nebia showerheads. Those things really do make a big difference, I love mine.

Can all combination boilers manage to reach condensation mode? I've turned the flow temp. down as low as 45 degrees and I still get plumes of smoke from the boiler exterior vent. I have seen it said that no smoke means that it is condensing. Any advice guys?

Thank you for this! Genuine public service! I have a question if anyone is able to answer : With an underfloor heating system a combination of underfloor and radiators like Heatmiser, is there any way (assuming the front end hot water supply discussed in this great video) to improve on the hysteresis behaviour of the thermostat calls for heat?

I’ve got an old Ideal Logic + Heat 18, it seems to have an e-function on the hot water boiler temperature. Would you go by this or would you reduce it closer towards the min setting? It seems very basic as there’s no other adjustments. 13-year-old condenser boiler!

Have a standard boiler and hw cylinder. Do you set thermostat on boiler and hw cylinder to same temperature? Why 2 thermostats?

BG getting skunked. Love it.

I have an Intergas Rapid 32 (condensing combi with no water tank). Set the flow to 55 deg and water to 50 deg. The room thermostat/programmer is halfway up the stairs and set to 18 degrees when called for... programmed to come on at this temp for 45 minutes as we are waking up, 15 minutes when 5he kids are about tobet home from school and an hour after dinner when we relax a bit. We might flick it up to 18 as a manual overide if we are in and feeling chilly. Is there anything else we can do to cut gas use? The loft is insulated well, the house is double glazed, we wear jumpers, slippers etc. Would smart room stats and programmer/thermostat help? Was looking at Drayton Wiser multi-zone. It's just me and the dog at home during the day so only need one or two rooms topping up heat wise on cold days.

I am watching this video in the winter with no heating on and wearing several jumpers on top of each other plus blanket. Because the house we just moved into has a 20+ year old boiler that we can't afford to run due to the shocking inefficiency 😂

Great video. Thanks

At 7.20 is says do not fit a hive but doesn't say why .... any idea what the problem with hive is

What is your view concerning legionella in the pipes? I'm from the Netherlands and everyone here advices to leave the warm tap water setting on at least 55, but mostly on 60 to prevent legionella in the pipes in the house or other buildings. Also without a storage unit where the water is stored in.

When we cook, we put the stove off as soon as possible, then serve the meal and draw the heat from the remnants of the cooking pan or frying pan and feed it into our central heating through a custom build system. Fully cooked food contains an enourmous amount of heat and Joules that can be drained.. The suction system, we actually catch that heat to use again and circulate it..

If your combi also runs your shower , turning the water temperature down may make your shower cool rather than hot. But , a SHORT cool shower is good enough , and saves money.

I have an electric cooker and turn it off early as there is still much heat in the rings and the same when baking bread etc. Lids on pans of course.

1:30 I know you wouldn't normally consume water from hot tap but it's safe practice to keep water temp at 50 or above to prevent Legionnaires disease

If you don't happen to have a "Chimney Balloon" handy , old pillow/rags in a plastic sack does the trick. Draft seal round the loft hatch too, often missed out. Thin Reflective insulation stuck to the wall behind radiators if they are on outside walls. ( can be done with rad in position with stick & double sided tape)

I turn my boiler stat so that after the boiler has struck up for CH and has reached a steady state, the temp of the return pipe is about 53° as if it's above 54° then it's not condensing fully efficiently

That's weird, In the Netherlands they advice to not lower the hot tap water to below 60 degrees Celsius due to Legionella. So what is it? 50 or 60 degrees?

Im looking to change the digital time switch to a wifi enabled time switch. I have a Boiler that is For heating only - it heats a Tenenmant Building. Right now we use the Drayton Time Switch Lp722 7-day Programmer, which every week we have to go manually and adjust depending on the weather or if the building is occupied. I'm Looking to replace this with something that i can control with my phone through WIFI - So if I need to put the heating on or off or set times I can do this from wherever I am. We don't require a thermostat as this building is old and draughty and we have several floors and many rooms (B and B). question is do I need and electrician or plumber? and where can i find a new switch?

Just moved into a new house. Somehow it has a combi boiler AND a hot water tank. Looks like half of the house is connected directly on to the boiler and bath/shower + radiators are connected to the tank. Why can't it be easy?

Thanks for the video. Do you do virtual consultations via FaceTime or Zoom (for a fee of course) as I can't work out what I have and therefore what I should be doing to decrease my gas use. I have a wet underfloor heating system downstairs and wet radiators upstairs. I have a boiler and a hot water tank. A digital device which controls when the radiators and hot water comes on, an analogy thermostat upstairs on the landing and meross smart thermostatic radiator valves on the upstairs radiators!

I don't know what kind of boiler we've got, no hot water cylinder, but also no central heating either. We tried flow restrictors but nothing worked the water flow was so low all we got was a dribble. We've ended up heating water in the kettle to wash up. My mum who's nearly 80 is always cold where I'm always hot. We live in the same house, I have to have my window wide open so that I can breathe, this loses heat for mum even though I keep my door shut. Any solutions would be greatly appreciated as we're both in the venerable category

If I want a higher flow on my shower, there is a point in blending 60C water with cold, isn't there?

Amazing vidoe mate

Another great video Quick question on timing hot water. I have always told my customer that if they had a well insulated hot water cylinder that they would be better off leaving the hot water on permanently. As this stops the cooling affect of cold water coming in when the hot isn’t on and cooling down the remaining hot water left in the cylinder. I have a combi at home, so can’t test this. But I had asked some of my customer with unvented well insulated cylinder and smart meter to try it in the summer when the heating wouldn’t affect the gas bill and all have said there gas usage is less when it not timed. Maybe you guy could look in to this one Thanks Andy

Hi all. See here for updates. ----------------- Do NOT block working chimneys ------‐---------- Join 'Heat Geeks Heating Help for Homeowners" on Facebook for bespoke advice on YOUR specific system. ------------- If you have a Worcester. Central heating control dial/settings give; 1 = approx 35⁰c 2 = approx 43⁰c 3 = approx 50⁰c 4 = approx 60⁰c 5 = approx 67⁰c 6 = approx 75⁰c Max = approx 90⁰c Hot water Min = approx 40⁰c e = approx 50⁰c Max = approx 60⁰c ----------------- If you don't have or can't afford a chimney balloon use an old duvet. ----------------- Turn eco-mode ON to turn off hot water preheat on combis ---------------- If you have electric heating or oil please follow the non condensing boiler advice.

Watching from Canada so very little applies but I am interested in the temperatures that you recommend for the boiler (I think that's what we call a hot water tank) and the reference to legionella. Never heard of that. New tanks automatically have a default setting at 60 C, but we are encouraged to lower the temperature by about 10 C for cost savings and efficiency.

Any different advice for oil fueled boilers?

Tip no.4 flow restrictors...it's a no no for combi boilers,if you have low flow,and non condensing boiler(and even on condensing boiler sometime).the control of hot water will be difficult the boiler will shut off and on,and the water will be too hot then too cold.taking a shower in this condition....

most thermostatic mixing valves, showers etc. Require hot water to be supplied 5 degrees c above the desired supply temperature

Thanks for the video, you’ll be increasing the number of call outs for “ my x y and z doesn’t work” after customers have been fiddling 🙃

Worcester Bosch boiler installed in 2021. Which smart thermostat should I buy (obviously not hive)……….

Get rid of subscriptions services as to save money i.e. sky, Bt etc...broadband, tether instead, works great and saves money. Buy candles in case electricity is turned off.

It's important to keep your feet warm. You will be much more comfortable at lower temperatures with warm feet. Have a look at 'tent mules'

Nice tips.

Great video. Quick question I adjusted my DHW temp on my vaillant boiler to 40 c Now when I run my hot taps, the temp isn't constant it's fluctuates between 40 and 55. Shouldn't the boiler be able to maintain a constant 40 degrees? I can here it starting and stopping as the temp fluctuates. Is this exspected behaviour. Thansk

Seen a cup with your logo on it in local builders merchants yesterday 😂👍🏻 the good word is spreading! What’s the reason you say don’t install a hive? Just curious. Thanks mate.

Very important to bump up the temperature from time to time if you reduce it below 60C...and run through the pipes as well. He only mentions legionella in passing, but it can hurt your health and in serious cases actually kill you!

I have 280mm loft insulation in about 75% of the space and need to lift boards to raise the 25%. What is the maximum safe depth for loft insulation? I also have cold spots where I have fire hoods over the downlighting. Is there a 60 minute rated downlight I can use without the fire hoods? Which I have 26.

Why not install a hive? I have it and it works great?

What’s wrong with the hive? I’m looking to get a smart thermostat

Not sure what you mean by 'range rating' as I have not heard of that before. I do not have a boiler with a menu so I might not be able to do anything with that. However, I did wonder if the boiler I have was overrated for my small house. Sometimes it seems like it can only just heat the water to fill a bath when it is winter time, but that could be because it is just designed for a fixed 55 degree temperature for the hot water - it is a Worcester Bosch Greenstar and I think it was the 28i junior not the 24i junior. There is no setting for the hot water (tap) temperature, only for the radiator temperature. Maybe newer boilers have some extra settings for the tap water, and what you are saying about the 'range rating'?

What type of boiler do you have? You could have a Combi boiler with hot water cylinder via Hot Water priority setup too..(its uncommon but not impossible)

I'm lucky I got solar panels and twice what I needed so the pay in cheques u get pay for the coal I use in my stove ... Years ago people thought I was daft for getting both.... They now have a £££ burning fire. !!!! Iv several ways to keep warm!

I have an old cast iron floor standing heat only boiler. I need to upgrade as its probably less than 60% efficient. Would you recommend removing the cylinder and installing a viessmann 111-w combi?

I have a question about the Eco mode on my combi boiler. In other videos is says turn ON the Eco mode because without it the boiler intermittently comes on. I noticed that was the case with mine - that when the button was off the boiler randomly came on at different times, now I've pressed the button, it doesn't. Please can you clarify. Thanks.

At 4:00 you say to turn OFF the Eco mode as it will keep the temp up but that is at odds with what the manual says. ECONOMY MODE, ECO BUTTON LIT • The water is not heated up until a hot water tap is turned on The alternative is something called comfort mode which does what you say and keeps it topped up: COMFORT MODE, ECO BUTTON IS NOT LIT (DEFAULT SETTING) The appliance is held constantly at the set temperature. This means that hot water is available almost instantaneously at the tap. Consequently the appliance will switch on at intervals, even if no hot water is being drawn. This is form the Worcester Greenstar manual

Excellent video I saved 120 percent ,😃👍

You mentioned not to get a Hive. What’s the story there? I got a free Nest that I never got around to installing from my electricity supplier. Is Nest better? Thanks.

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If by setting your boiler flow temp to low temperatures (below 45c) the boiler spends a lot of the time cycling on/off the lowest modulation rate (small house installed with a fat combi boiler for hot water), is this more efficient than just running your flow temp around the min modulation rate (~45-50c flow temp... small rads).

The Testo pipe thermometers are accurate to within + or -1.3 degrees Celsius. Says it inside the box.

Followed all the steps and I've saved so much money that the energy companies are paying me to use the energy