A BOILER expert has revealed a little-known change you can make to help slash energy bills.
Energy prices are sky high at the minute, so now is a good time to look for ways to cut back on costs and unnecessary spending.
The energy price guarantee, brought in by the government, means the average household is paying on average of £2,500 for gas and electricity.
And this will go up to £3,000 from next April for a year.
But since you pay more for your energy, households are looking out for easily-made mistakes that could see their costs shoot up.
Now, Rebecca Davies, an energy expert at RD Heat, has shared one simple way you can cut back on costs.
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And all it involves is turning off your boiler's pre-heat settings.
Boilers often come with them and involve the system retaining a small amount of hot water for whenever you need to use a shower or the sink.
But, while this means running water will quickly heat up when using it, the boiler still has to retain the hot water even after use.
And this drives up your energy bills.
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Rebecca told The Daily Record: "To counteract this, simply switch off the pre-heat option on your boiler; this way, your boiler will no longer be storing hot water that is not being used.
“Although this means you will have to wait a short while for the water to heat up when using the shower or other utilities, you will be able to save between five to 10 percent on your heating bill."
That means if you pay around £600 for your heating bill every year, you'd be looking at a £60 saving by turning off the pre-heat setting.
That's enough to bag a couple of Christmas presents.
What other ways can I save on my energy bills?
If you're looking for extra ways to save on your energy bills via your boiler, there are a few to take note of.
Check if your boiler is on eco-mode
If you've got an eco-mode on your boiler, make sure you flick it on to stop your water from overheating and driving up costs.
If it doesn't have this setting, you have to check the two dials on the boiler.
One controls your central heating, which you can leave, and the other sets your hot water tap temperature.
You need to turn this second dial down to 50C.
Households with system or regular boilers can still turn down the temperature, but every control panel will vary.
The best thing to do is check your operator's manual.
Go for combi-boilers before heat-only
If you've got a heat-only boiler and not got a combi boiler it might be worth investing in one.
Heat-only boilers are old designs and draw water from a cylinder rather than from the mains.
But this means you'll run out of water more often.
Old heat-only boilers might only reach 60% efficiency, which effectively means that 40% of the money you spend heating your home is unnecessary.
Combi-boilers, on the other hand, are typically 90% efficient or more.
You might even be eligible for a grant to replace your old boiler.
Or opt for a system boiler
System boilers are a middle ground between a combi and heat-only.
A system boiler stores the hot water in a cylinder and they can determine the exact output of water needed based on demand and the size of the property.
Rebecca said they extract over 90% of the heat from the fuel that they burn to heat water and are therefore highly cost-effective.
But bear in mind extra costs. Checkatrade.com says the average cost of a new system boiler is around £1,300.
And installation is another £1,500 on top.
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In other news, an electrician has revealed why you should never turn off the heating completely.
Plus, hard-up water bill payers are only just realising they could get up to 90% off.
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