Turning off the heating in the warm summer months is automatic for most people, but what about turning off your boiler all together?
Depending on your home and lifestyle, you might be able to cut your energy bills by switching off your boiler and relying on another source for your hot water. Read on to find out if this turning off your boiler for the summer is an option for you.
Is turning off the boiler the right choice?
If you have an old boiler, especially one with a continuously burning pilot light, it may well be worth turning off the boiler in the months when it's not used for heating the home.
Even if you have a more modern boiler, you may want to switch it off, if the water cistern is not a modern one, coated with polystyrene.
If you have an electric shower (and don't take baths or can do without them for the summer) and a dishwasher, this will mean only water used at the kitchen sink and in a bathroom hand-basin would need to be heated. In the kitchen, it may be worth just boiling the kettle to get hot water for dishwashing or other occasional similar needs.
And if you've got an old washing machine or dishwasher with hot fill (where the machine uses water heated by your boiler), don't forget that it will still be able to heat up cold water to the appropriate temperature for internal use. Modern machines which are cold fill only will not need any external hot water.
This just leaves the bathroom handbasin. Some will be happy to wash their hands and face in cold water. Many people end up doing that anyway, because they don't have the patience to wait for the hot water to start coming through! It's also not unheard of for people to stretch the hose and shower head of their shower over to the handbasin, if it's appropriately positioned.
It is always best to run your central heating and hot water occasionally during the summer, as the pump and diverter valve that circulates the fluid round the radiators and to the hot water cistern can become seized up. They are most likely to fail when you finally turn the heating back on in the autumn.
Find out more about energy-efficient heating.