Nearly two thirds of the heat lost in a building will be through the fabric (walls, roofs, floors, windows and doors), whilst the other third is lost through ventilation, such as poorly fitting draughty windows.
- Check insulation levels and increase them wherever practical to reduce the need for heating. This also reduces the possibility of the building overheating in the summer.
- Look out for draughts especially around poorly fitting windows and doors. Installing draught proofing reduces heat losses and increases staff comfort.
Reducing the heat losses will make it easier for your heating system to provide adequate heat into the space.
- Turn heating down rather than opening doors and windows. Reduce room temperatures by 1ºC and you can cut heating bills by around 8%.
- Investigate area temperatures. Investigate areas that appear cold or too hot and consider localised thermostatic controls. This could be as simple as installing thermostatic radiator valves (TRVs) on all the radiators, or it may require the system to be ‘rebalanced’. It is a good idea to speak to a heating engineer once you have identified the problem areas.
- Encourage staff involvement and ask people to report any heating problems so they can be resolved.
Hot water systems
A few simple measures can help to provide hot water, whether it’s distributed centrally or locally, using less energy and therefore reducing costs:
- Stop heating the air – check and repair any damaged insulation around pipework and water tanks.
- Keep control – install time controllers to hot water boilers, immersion heaters and any circulating pumps. You can safely set thermostats to store water at 60ºC and deliver it at around 56ºC.
- Don’t pay twice - if you have a centralised system and a boiler which already provides hot water, turn off any immersion heaters.
- Separate your water heating – if you have a single boiler that provides hot water and heating, consider a separate, smaller boiler for the hot water. This will allow you to switch off the heating boiler in the summer.
- Consider ‘point of use’ – use electric point-of-use heaters locally when you need a small amount of hot water a long way from the central water storage. Ensure adequate temperature and time controls are used.
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