Cheshire-based heating and plumbing company, Aquila, have revealed how many homes aren’t making the best of a piece of equipment that, when used appropriately, could save them 18% on their energy bills.
Cheshire-based heating and plumbing company, Aquila, have revealed how many homes aren’t making the best of a piece of equipment that, when used appropriately, could save them 18% on their energy bills. Which comes as Jeremy Hunt delivers his sobering Autumn Statement projecting that energy bills will once again rise in April.
Thermostatic radiator valves, or TRVs, allow people to have more control over their home’s temperature while also saving up to 18% on energy costs. TRVs automatically adjust how much heat is released into a room from the radiator by sensing the temperature of the environment. Thousands of households in the UK already have TRVs installed, but are failing to use them properly.
The Warrington firm, who have implemented a series of initiatives to support homeowners and tenants across Cheshire, are offering free installation of up to six TRVs when fitting a new boiler in houses that do not have them. Their engineers are also offering to educate and train all customers that they visit on how to use thermostatic radiator valves. For customers they aren’t able to train in person, they have published a step by step guide on how to adjust their thermostatic radiator valves.
Jon Matthews, Managing Director, said: “There’s been times our engineers have gone into large properties where people have spent £600 having all these valves installed, and we’ve gone back the following year and they’ve set all the valves to 5.
“There’s a misconception that the higher you turn the valves, the quicker the room will heat up,” he continued.
“But that’s not the case – it’s a thermostat, so it will keep that radiator open and pumping out heat until it reaches the set desired temperature. Having them all on 5 means you may as well not have them installed at all because they’ll never turn off.”
Thermostatic radiator valves are individual dials, usually numbered 0 – 6, which can be manually twisted and are fitted to all the separate radiators in a property. The valve adjusts the flow of water from the boiler to the radiator and therefore controls the air temperature of each individual room in the home. This allows residents to avoid wasting money heating less-used spaces such as hallways, or in kitchens which are often organically heated by cooking appliances.
Jon continued “it is genuinely shocking that with all the advice out there, so few people are aware of just how much they could save using these valves properly. If the average household fuel bill is now £2,500, that’s an immediate saving of almost £500 a year, and this will only rise given today’s announcement. At a time when so many are at risk of descending into fuel poverty, this could be crucial.”
Aquila Heating and Plumbing are also freezing all their boiler installation and care plan prices this winter to help locals keep their boilers energy efficient and combat the cost of living crisis.
