Mum shares clever boiler hack that can save you hundreds of pounds on your energy bills

A MUM has shared a clever boiler hack that can save you money on your energy bills.

The Mumsnet user, who posts under the name JollyHostess, says the tip has saved her £95 since the beginning of December, meaning she should save hundreds by the end of the year.

It was sent to her in an email by Octopus Energy as part of the provider's Winter Warmer scheme.

Even better, anyone who has a boiler can do it, and it only takes minutes to make the quick change.

It has to do with the flow settings on your boiler, which controls the temperature that hot water is heated to before it comes out the taps.

Typically boilers come pre-set to a temperature that is far higher than needed, this doesn't make your home warmer, but it can add massively to your bills and emissions.

Octopus says it’s like putting your foot flat to the floor when driving – it’s hugely wasteful but doesn’t really affect your journey time.

Reducing the flow temperature can bring your gas bill down and save you some serious cash. Here's what Octopus Energy says you need to do.

• If you have a combi boiler, it recommends setting your flow temperature to 50c for heating and 55c for hot water – it’ll take a little longer to heat up, but the gas and CO2 savings make it more than worthwhile.
• If you have a boiler and a hot water cylinder, it recommends setting the flow temperature on your boiler to a few degrees over 60c for heating and hot water, and setting your hot water cylinder to 60c also (you’ll usually find the control for your cylinder ⅓ of the way up the tank.)

One thing worth noting is that you shouldn't turn the temperatures any lower than this or you could cause other problems.

This is because hot water should be stored at a high enough temperature to stop bacteria like legionella from multiplying.

If you have a combi boiler, you don't need to worry, legionella only breeds in standing water and combis keep it flowing.

But if you have a hot water cylinder, you should keep the dial on 60 degrees or more.

Legionella bacteria flourishes between 20-45 degrees, so it’s important to store water at a higher temperature.

Posting on Mumsnet, Jolly Hostess said she hadn't know about the tip before, and she wanted to share it as it had saved her a decent amount of money.

She said: "You can use less gas by checking your flow settings on your boiler. Mine was set to 80 degrees by default which meant I was spending huge amounts on heating up water that then has to be cooled down with cold water.

"I'm taking part in the Octopus Winter Workout and according to them I have saved £95 since the beginning of December and this is the only substantial change I have made!

I assumed everyone knew about this except me, but my sister hadn't heard of it and she's very hot on money saving so I thought there must be others out there. Seems worth a try since we're all crippled with ridiculous energy bills at the moment."

Other Mumsnetters were impressed by the hack. One said: "Good call. I’ve worked in the energy sector for 10 years and didn’t know this."

Another added: "Yes it's great I do that too… our boiler water is set to 55/60 as I don't need scalding hot water especially with kids."

She's not the only person to save money either. Over on Twitter, one user had saved 37% on his energy bills by changing the water flow temperature and turning his thermostat down a notch.

He said: "Loving the winter workout. No complaints from family on dropping thermostat down. Reduced water temp without them knowing and no one has noticed. 37% saved."

He's also pledged to donate any savings to Macmillan Cancer Research.

The amount you'll save will vary depending on how much you typically pay on your energy bills.

The Mumsnet user is up to £95 in just three months, but some households will have more modest savings.

Octopus estimates that on average, turning the water flow temperature down will save you 8% on your gas bills.

This means a customer on the government’s price cap of 4.07p a kWh using 12,000 kWh of gas a year (considered ‘medium consumption by Ofgem), could save £39 a year without feeling any colder.

Customers using 17,000 kWh a year (a family of 5 in a bigger house for example, according to Ofgem) could be saving £55 a year.

Customers currently on an uncapped fixed tariff paying 8 or 9p a kWh depending on which supplier you are with, could save well over £100 a year.

As energy prices are skyrocketing and experts are predicting 50% rises from April, this little hack could make a huge difference.

A spokesperson for Octopus Energy said: "While there’s plenty of arguments over thermostats, few people ever change the settings on their boiler itself.

"109,000 of [our customers] have told us that they’ve used this tip - which could mean with this one tip alone they are saving over £4 million pounds a year on their gas bills.

";Two-thirds of Workout customers are using less gas, those that have cut back have made a 12% saving on their gas bill on average

"Collectively we’ve so far saved £1.2m in energy costs and 5.8m kilograms of CO2 from entering the atmosphere. If we continue along the same lines, we expect customers to have saved £3.6m in energy costs and 17.4. kilograms of CO2 by the end of the scheme in March."