Checking that people know this energy saving tip

[JollyHostess]

Putting it in AIBU for traffic, it has saved me some money off my gas bill so far so I hope it can help others.

You may already know this, in which case ignore and move on.

You can use less gas by checking your flow settings on your boiler. Mine was set to 80 degrees by default which meant I was spending huge amounts on heating up water that then has to be cooled down with cold water. In the case of heating it just takes a little longer to warm up.

This advice comes from Octopus: for combi boiler set your flow temperature to 50 degrees for water and 55 heating.

There is advice for boilers with hot water cylinders attached.

I'm taking part in the Octopus Winter Workout and according yo them I have saved £95 since the beginning of December and this is the only substantial change I have made!

I assumed everyone knew about this except me but my sister hadn't heard of it and she's very hot on money saving so I thought there must be others out there.

Seems worth a try since we're all crippled with ridiculous energy bills at the moment.

@JollyHostess I've actually just remembered our landlord briefly mentioning a few months ago to DH that he plans to arrange a new boiler for us, so it's probably no biggie! Good to know this tip for when we get it sorted.

@Flippydip

I hadn't thought about this. Our water comes out scolding sometimes and we do have to add a lot of cold! Can you adjust the temperature on all boilers? I think ours is about 40 years old so I'm not sure what's possible.

have you got a hot water cylinder? What colour?

@Pluvia

Legionnaire's disease isn't common in the UK: only around 250 reported cases most years and apparently half of those are contracted abroad. Not meaning to minimise the effects on those who develop it, but it's fairly rare and it's useful to know the stats to be able to put it into perspective.

There's no danger to anyone with a combi-boiler of turning the hot water temperature down as low as they want. Combis are constantly supplied with fresh water from the mains and Legionnaires develops in standing water.

People with water tanks do need to be careful but most modern systems are programmed to heat up once a week or so to a temperature that will kill off any bugs. It should be safe for someone with a water tank to do likewise — set the temperature to 50 and once a week put it up to 60 for a few hours.

FYI, in households with children or elderly people (whose skin is less robust than the average adult) the advice is to heat water to only 50C. More than that and there can be a danger of scalding.

Thank you, that's really helpful

Thanks ill give it a go

If you turn your water down you will probably be able to shower without adding cold & that’s when you realise you had the stat too high so you’ve made the supplier very happy. 40 yrs old boiler should possibly be changed by now as it will just haemorrhage money plus spares are going to be non existent or very expensive. Trouble is boilers are a panic buy

All really useful info this
Thankyou :)

I'm sure we were told to keep ours at 55 degrees by the HV when DS was a baby. (He's now nearly 30).

Is this the same thing.

Thanks OP just done mine :)

@Cuck00soup

I'm sure we were told to keep ours at 55 degrees by the HV when DS was a baby. (He's now nearly 30).

Is this the same thing.

Possibly?

@Cuck00soup

I'm sure we were told to keep ours at 55 degrees by the HV when DS was a baby. (He's now nearly 30).

Is this the same thing.

I've been looking (don't have much time) for the UK advice to keep hot water to 50C if there are young children around and all I can find swiftly is this advice from an Australian agency: raisingchildren.net.au/toddlers/safety/burns-scalds-fire/scalds-prevention

This link from the Child Burns trust offers useful advice on ensuring that children (and old people) aren't burned on hot pipes, too. Obviously the lower the hot water temperature the less hot any pipes and radiators get — so if your elderly relative has a fall and gets a limb trapped against a pipe or radiator they are less likely to be burned.

It advises 50C, which won't feel very hot to you.

I can't quite understand why your HV would talk to you about limiting the hot water temperature for a tiny baby. When you're bathing a baby I think the recommended temperature is skin temp, somewhere around 37C.

Are you sure you're not thinking of the temperature you were advised to keep the baby's room at? 55 degrees would be like an oven so perhaps that's not right either.

Whoops:

www.cbtrust.org.uk/2016/11/14/hot-water-safety-six-ways-prevent-burns-scalds-children/

Ours has a setting where you can heat the water to 60 once a week only (we do this on a Sunday night) to combat Legionnaires Disease

Legionaries will multiply under 60 but as I stated a long time ago it’s really only found in air con & dump towers, not likely to start in a combi

I had this explained to me recently by the boiler service man. I have a hot water tank...there is a temperature gauge down at the bottom of the tank and you have to turn it to turn it up or down. He explained about the legionnaires thing too.

At 45C or above, it will not grow or multiply. The risk is mostly from stored, tepid water, for example in a cooling tower or some air conditioning, expecially if the water is sprayed in fine droplets that can be inhaled.

at 50C, most of it will be killed within a couple of hours. If it's in a hot water cylinder, where water is preheated and stored, this is probably adequate.

At 60C, most of it will be killed within a few minutes. A combi boiler may commonly be around this temperature.

However, the clean, chlorinated water direct from the watermain will be too cold for legionella to grow, so there is probably none in your plumbing anyway.

The place most at risk in an ordinary domestic house is warm, stored water. In a sunny summer, the sun beating on the roof makes lofts very hot, and so a cold water storage cistern (tank) is supposed to have a tight fitting lid, and an insulating jacket. The jacket is not, as often thought, to prevent the tank freezing in winter, but to prevent it getting warm in summer.

Due to its size, a tank will not freeze until long after all the pipes have burst.

It is possible to clean and chlorinate a loft tank if you think it is contaminated, for example if it had no close-fitting lid and a pigeon has fallen in.

@PigletJohn

At 45C or above, it will not grow or multiply. The risk is mostly from stored, tepid water, for example in a cooling tower or some air conditioning, expecially if the water is sprayed in fine droplets that can be inhaled.

at 50C, most of it will be killed within a couple of hours. If it's in a hot water cylinder, where water is preheated and stored, this is probably adequate.

At 60C, most of it will be killed within a few minutes. A combi boiler may commonly be around this temperature.

However, the clean, chlorinated water direct from the watermain will be too cold for legionella to grow, so there is probably none in your plumbing anyway.

The place most at risk in an ordinary domestic house is warm, stored water. In a sunny summer, the sun beating on the roof makes lofts very hot, and so a cold water storage cistern (tank) is supposed to have a tight fitting lid, and an insulating jacket. The jacket is not, as often thought, to prevent the tank freezing in winter, but to prevent it getting warm in summer.

Due to its size, a tank will not freeze until long after all the pipes have burst.

It is possible to clean and chlorinate a loft tank if you think it is contaminated, for example if it had no close-fitting lid and a pigeon has fallen in.

Thank you for dropping into the thread!

Bumping this for today

I’ve always done this , set to the perfect bath temp so no need to add cold

@mrsbyers

I’ve always done this , set to the perfect bath temp so no need to add cold

So smart...I don't think it ever even occurred to me that I could change the temperature!

I am really surprised that so many are saying they didn’t know this or that, all boilers come with a handbook, try reading it or download the instructions if you haven’t got on3

@mogsrus

I am really surprised that so many are saying they didn’t know this or that, all boilers come with a handbook, try reading it or download the instructions if you haven’t got on3

🤷🏻‍♀️

I have never in my life sat down to read a boiler manual. Hats off to those who do.

If it's not working, BG comes to fix it.

I didn’t mean the whole book, just the settings would have been sufficient,like when you buy another car for example

Thanks! Mine was cranked right up so I’ve put it down to 50z

50

I keep my water at 40 so I don't inadvertently burn dd.

It's hot enough for my shower, and her bath, and both washer and dishwasher are cold fill so I rarely need it hotter. The boiler is in the kitchen, so if I do want hotter water for hand washing a greasy pan, or the mop bucket, I crank it up, get my water, and turn it back down.