Boiler efficiency refers to the percentage of the total energy used by the boiler to provide heating. For example, a 92% efficient boiler will use 92% of the supplied energy for heating your home but the remaining 8% of energy will be lost. To put this into context, for every £1 you spend on heating your home, only 8p is wasted. It should be noted though that a 92% efficient boiler is very good and much more efficient than the older non-condensing boilers that are still being used every day in households across the UK.
A typical non-condensing boiler could be running at 70% efficiency, meaning 30% of the energy you pay for is being lost and not being used to heat your home.
In the same way as other domestic appliances sold in the UK such as fridges, freezers and washing machines, boilers are rated using an energy efficiency rating scheme from A-G. However, all condensing boilers sold in the UK are required to be A-rated by law and must conform to Boiler Plus regulations.
Since 2018, all gas boilers must be installed with a thermostat and a programme timer. We include the following on all boiler installations to comply with boiler plus.
This is a thermostat that adjusts the temperature of the radiators based on the actual room. To ensure efficiency, this thermostat will increase the temperature of your radiators when the room is cold and decrease the temperature of the radiators when the room is reaching the required temperature.
Smart thermostats are internet-enabled systems that enable you to control your heating system remotely by using your smartphone or tablet.
Regardless of the boiler that you choose, by choosing a condensing boiler to replace your existing non-condensing boiler, you will immediately be making savings on your energy bills. The reason for this is the way that condensing boilers work compared to the way that non-condensing boilers work.
Condensing boilers work to recover heat that a non-condensing boiler would have lost via the flue. This is called a flue gas heat recovery system and works by recovering heat by recycling exhaust gases (mostly hot steam with some acidic content) that older non-condensing used to waste. In condensing boilers, the hot flue gases go through a heat exchanger first before they exit through the flue outside.
