Turning your boiler temperature down

Redwurzel

Redwurzel

Well-known member
Just read if we turn our boilers down to 50 degrees for heating and 55 degrees for water it will save us a lot of gas. The default settings are higher.

I know we have some boiler experts on here (M123 is one).

Is the above true?

Are there any drawbacks?

Thanks
RW
 
I found this article interesting a while ago Heating Hub

Turning down the radiator temperature will mean they're on for longer to obtain same room temperature from cold, but whether that actually uses less gas over longer period? There must be a sweet spot somewhere!
 
It takes less energy per kg to heat water to a lower temperature than a higher one (specific heat capacity) so in theory if you are ok with a cooler house you benefit disproportionately more the lower you set the temperature.
 
I was told it was the temps I quoted in the OP.

HH attachement says its different for different tpes of houses.

Lower for very well insulated houses tend the post 2010 ones.

Higher for the opposite old poor insulated houses.

I am amazed some people dealing with boilers are unaware.
 
Yes, it does save gas. I did mine mid Feb this year when I did a few tests and realised I didn't need hot water that hot. So I set hot water to 45 degrees, that is , bowl of washing up is 45 degrees once I've filled it. I'm sticking with that. It works for me
Yes it's same idea/thing for the heating circuit with a caveat. 50 is too low for whole circuit heating with all your radiators as a good system is balanced to drop 15 to 20 degrees from output boiler to coming back in at the end of the loop. If you set 50 for main output on a full circuit then the last radiators in the loop are not going do anything as the temp is going to be about 35 on the water inside at that point. For for full circuit you may want to up it by 10 degrees. I have mine set 58-61 , so the manual says. However , it works fine at 50 if you just interested in having one or 2 rads on as the internal temp drop will not be much so will get heating from both.
Don't forget preheat. I usually use this feature Nov to Mar but will not be doing so this autumn/ winter. When gas was ok, it was 8p a day for my preheat so was happy having that for the benefit. Now its likely to be 32p a day , so I will scrap that use and just run the tap until it gives out warm.
 
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