Standard content for Members only
To continue reading this article, please login to your Utility Week account, Start 14 day trial or Become a member.
If your organisation already has a corporate membership and you haven’t activated it simply follow the register link below. Check here.
An online tool launched by charity Nesta has resulted in more than 178,000 households saving around £18 million on their energy bills by reducing their boiler flow temperature.
The social innovation charity’s Money Saving Boiler Challenge, launched in October last year, provides participants with an online tool that advises them on turning down their combi boiler flow temperature to the more optimal 60°C.
Nesta said the tool can help people save around £112 on average per year on their bills. Additionally the charity said the challenge has resulted in the Treasury, which currently subsidises bills through the Energy Price Guarantee, saving £9 million.
It comes as an online experiment involving more than 2,000 UK adults revealed a lack of understanding about how effective certain energy saving measures are.
Last year Nesta commissioned Cambridge Architectural Research (CAR) to model the savings that can be made through lesser-known, free or low-cost measures. This work was supported by the Energy House Labs Team at the University of Salford.
The experiment, run by the Behavioural Insights Team (which has been part of Nesta since 2021), asked participants to rate 11 energy saving measures by how much they save and compared the findings to the CAR data from 2022, as well as its 2012 report for the UK government.
Overall people believed there was relatively little difference in how much energy different actions saved, with the highest average score being only 1.4 times that of the lowest, despite the difference in savings ranging from £16 to £309.
It found that taking showers instead of baths and turning off lights when they are not in use were rated the joint fifth highest, despite saving the least of those listed (approximately £16 and £25 a year respectively).
Air drying laundry was the highest rated measure, even though it is actually one of the least effective.
Meanwhile turning down boiler flow temperature was the third lowest rated despite being one of the most effective measures householders can take to cut bills.
| Energy-saving measure | What people scored on believed potential energy savings 1-10 (lowest to higher) | Actual potential energy savings 1-10 (lowest to higher) | Annual energy saving (kWh) | Approximate £ saving on typical annual energy bill |
| Air drying laundry instead of using the tumble dryer | 7.1 | 4 | 360 (full year) | £70 (based on 206 kWh, assuming can only be done in warmest months) |
| Wear warmer clothes at home and set the thermostat lower than usual | 6.9 | 9 | 1,530 | £153 |
| Delay the time of year that you turn on the heating until necessary | 6.8 | 7 | 670 | £67 |
| Turn down the thermostat (by 2°C) | 6.6 | 10 | 3,090 | £309 |
| Turn off lights when they are not in use | 6.5 | 1 | 74 | £25 |
| Take showers instead of baths | 6.5 | 2 | 160 | £16 |
| Turn down radiators in unused rooms | 6.4 | 6 | 530 | £68 |
| Service and maintain your heating system (eg, bleed radiators) | 6.2 | 5 | 390 | £39 |
| Turn down the boiler flow temperature on your combi boiler | 5.8 | 7 | 1,089 | £112 |
| Insulate hot water pipes in your house | 5.8 | 3 | 260 | £26 |
| Install a water-efficient shower head | 5.2 | 8 | 810 | £83 |
Additionally the Behavioural Insights Team surveyed participants about the energy crisis.
It found that 98% of people in the UK have taken at least one energy-saving measure this winter, while 40% do not think energy bills will ever return to prices seen in 2020.
Furthermore, among those who knew about the Energy Price Guarantee, 41% incorrectly believed that the £2,500 that a typical household would pay was a maximum threshold.
Madeleine Gabriel, director of sustainable future at Nesta, said: “Energy prices have caused seismic shocks to people’s finances over the last year and many now think high prices are the new normal.
“Most people are already taking action to cut their bills but they don’t necessarily know which measures will save the most. While every little helps, it makes sense to focus first on the most effective actions. Many of these are free and just need to be done once, rather than things you need to remember to do every day, such as turning off lights.”
“We estimate 10 million homes with combi boilers could lower their flow temperatures and if all did so, annual savings could be as high as £1.5 billion,” she added.
Energy and business minister Lord Callanan said: “The government’s ‘It All Adds Up’ energy saving campaign is getting important messaging out to millions of households across the country, showing them low and no-cost tips to cut their energy use and bills this winter.
“Simple steps like turning down the flow temperature on a boiler, switching appliances off at the plug and putting draught excluders around doors can help to cut energy bills by hundreds of pounds a year, while keeping homes warm and safe.”
Please login or Register to leave a comment.