Posted on 09/07/2022 5:09:58 PM PDT by nickcarraway
All you need is a simple device, and to know how to use it 'properly'
A plumber has shared his advice on how to save money on your gas bill.
Tiktok user djmatrix101, a plumbing and heating engineer who shares tips on how to save money on household bills, shared his best "top tip" to save money on your gas bill. All that is required is a simple device called a thermostatic radiator valve.
He said that the device can then be installed on every single radiator in the home, and can be used to turn off, or limit, the flow of gas into the radiator while the central heating is on. This means that you can stop gas being wasted on rooms that are not being used, or which don't require heating.
Speaking to his thousands of followers, the engineer said: "This device will save you money, if you know how to use it properly.
"Effectively a lot of people, when the switch the central heating on, they heat the entire house - so that's every room in the house that has a radiator they are heating using their boiler. The vast majority of people don't spend all day in bed, or in the bedroom.
"They get up, they go downstairs, they spend the day downstairs then they go upstairs, but the heating's on all day.
"My advice is to go around every single room and [after installing thermostatic radiator valves] to switch them off if you're not using the radiator.
"If you can turn of 50% of your volume of radiators, you will save 50% on your gas bill - it is that straight forward. If you're not using your bedroom radiator, turn it off.
He then spoke about one common problem with the valves, which means they will still allow gas to pass through. He said: "[They have a] metal ring at the bottom. Turn the radiator valve to fully open then hand tighten the metal rings down.
"They come loose and if you don't tighten them down when you switch the valve off the gas will still pass.
"Switch it on about an hour before you want to use the room. A bit of forward planning, a bit of thinking about it, and you will save yourself a fortune in gas.
"A lot of people make this mistake [but] these things are regulation to be fitted on any new central heating system and we have to advise when we're changing boilers now that these be fitted, if they're not there.
"If you don't have them, they're a good investment. Get them fitted."
Well, that is the problem. The least-used area is the furnace room and the 2 adjoining rooms. We close the louvers but it still gets really cool in that area; thus, the magnetic covers in the attempt to shoot more cool air upstairs, where it gets really hot!
We keep those doors open in the hope that some of that cool air will move out into the other room.
The problem is that the main public rooms are not closable—they run into each other and are linked by an open stairway.
Thanks, TexasGator.
After all this, I may call and ask the guy who works on it about all this information as I am now kinda confused!
:D very kind of you!
The problem with that is the design of the systems. Central A/C systems are designed for the flow achieved when all the vents are open. Tamping down vents can cause problems. Although there are some modern high end systems with variable air flow/compressor speed.
Some of those babies run steam, which is a gas.
Steam is a gas. Those radiators do not run hot water. That would require the use of pumps, which are not used.
In my house, the vents are up near the ceiling so they are basically making the hot air near the ceiling hotter. Going around to close/open vents as I move from room to room requires a ladder.
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