Winter Tips from a Heating Engineer: How to Keep Your Home Efficient This Winter

Terry Matthews
Oct 21, 2024
3 min read

Updated: Oct 6

Winter in Haywards Heath can hit hard, and so can the gas bills. At Smart Heat Experts, we’re often asked:

“Should I switch the heating off completely when I’m out, or just turn it down?”

The answer? For most homes with gas or LPG boilers, a setback temperature works best. It keeps your home warm enough to avoid freezing pipes and stops your boiler from wasting gas reheating a stone-cold house later. Let’s break down exactly why this approach saves energy and money.

What Is a Setback Temperature?

A setback temperature is a lower thermostat setting you use when you don’t need full warmth, for example overnight or when the house is empty during the day.Typical range: 12–14 °C if your comfort temperature is around 20 °C.

That slight background warmth stops the structure of your home (walls, floors, furniture) from fully cooling, so when the heating comes back on, your boiler doesn’t have to work as hard.

Why Not Just Turn the Heating Off?

Turning the heating off completely seems logical but often backfires:

Frozen pipes risk: once indoor temperatures drop near 0 °C, standing water in pipes can freeze, expand, and burst.
Condensation & damp: cold walls attract moisture, leading to mould or damage in older Sussex homes.
Energy spikes: reheating a cold house requires longer boiler run-times at maximum output, using more gas overall.

By maintaining a setback, you keep the fabric of the house gently warm, cutting reheating losses and protecting the system.

The Modern View: Setback + Low Flow = Maximum Efficiency

Recent testing by Energy Saving Trust and Salford University Energy House confirms what engineers have seen for years:

Boilers running with flow temperatures between 50 °C and 60 °C condense properly and waste less gas.
Combining this with a 6–8 °C setback can cut annual gas use by 8–12 %.

When you run a boiler too hot (70–80 °C), flue gases don’t condense and you lose the heat up the chimney.Lowering the flow and keeping a mild background temperature lets your boiler run longer, steadier, and cooler, exactly how it was designed to save fuel.

Example Daily Schedule - Winter tips from Terry, heating engineer in Haywards Heath

Time	Temperature	Why
6 am – 8 am	19–20 °C	Comfortable wake-up temperature
8 am – 4 pm	12–14 °C setback	Saves gas while maintaining structure warmth
4 pm – 10:30 pm	19–20 °C	Even warmth for evenings
10:30 pm – 6 am	12–14 °C setback	Ideal sleeping temperature, prevents freezing

Smart thermostats like Hive, Drayton Wiser or Worcester Smart make this automatic and can learn how long your home takes to re-heat, trimming waste even further.

When to Go Lower (and When Not To)

Go deeper (10–12 °C) if:

You live in a well-insulated or modern EPC B/C home.
The house is empty for most of the day.
You have smart controls with load or weather compensation.

Keep it higher (min 18 °C) if:

Someone vulnerable is at home.
You live in an older, draughty or solid-wall property.
Rooms have exposed pipes or loft runs.

Always make sure loft and garage pipework is insulated, even if your main thermostat is on setback.

What About Heat Pumps and Electric Boilers?

Heat pumps prefer steady running — use a small setback of 1–2 °C, not a full off period.
Electric boilers benefit from short off-peak setbacks for cost control but keep at least 10–12 °C to prevent freezing.

If in doubt, ask us to check your system setup — we can tune the control strategy for each heating type.

Top Tips to Maximise Efficiency

✅ Lower your boiler flow temperature to ~55 °C for radiators and ~45 °C for underfloor.✅ Bleed radiators and check pressure each month.✅ Don’t block radiators with furniture or long curtains.✅ Lag external pipes and fit insulation jackets on hot-water cylinders.✅ Service your boiler annually, it keeps efficiency high and warranty valid.

A well-maintained, low-temperature system with sensible setbacks typically saves £90–£150 per year on an average West Sussex gas bill.

Peace of Mind in Winter

A small tweak to your thermostat settings can save money, cut carbon, and protect your home.You don’t need to sit in the cold, just let your heating work smarter, not harder.

At Smart Heat Experts our Heating Engineer Terry Matthews, we help homeowners with winter tips across Haywards Heath, Lindfield, Burgess Hill, Cuckfield, Hassocks and beyond optimise their heating systems for comfort and efficiency