UK households could be wasting money with radiator valve mistake this winter

As winter takes hold, many of us will be turning up our thermostats - but without adjusting your radiators accordingly, you could be wasting money.

However, if you synchronise your radiator valves and boiler settings, you'll get more bang for your buck when heating your rooms. It's crucial to understand that the role of your thermostat is to signal your boiler when to  start and stop working, according to Mr Central Heating.

Thermostatic radiator valves (TRVs), typically white dials at the base of your radiators, tell your boiler when to stop pumping hot water into a specific room, allowing for precise temperature control on a room-by-room basis. So, if your thermostat is instructing your boiler to work hard, but your radiator valves are off, you're squandering energy and your house will remain chilly. Which? emphasises the importance of considering your boiler, valves and thermostat as a team.

Radiator valves prevent hot water from entering the radiator once a certain room temperature is reached, indicated by the numbers one to five on the dial.

What they don't do, however, is determine whether your boiler is on and how hard it's working - that's the job of the thermostat. As long as the thermostat is on and instructing the boiler to operate, it will do so, sending a flow of hot water into your radiators.

For instance, if you've set your thermostat at 20C but haven't adjusted the valves on your radiators to match this temperature, your boiler will continue to consume energy needlessly as your radiators won't be letting any hot water in.

Therefore, it's crucial to ensure your thermostat only prompts the boiler to switch on when necessary. The thermostat will also instruct the boiler to turn off once your desired temperature is achieved.

Most people set this between 18C and 21C. Ensure radiator valves near the thermostat are fully open. In other rooms, you can adjust your radiators to lower valve settings.

The boiler will switch off when your main thermostat reaches the set temperature, but unoccupied or lesser-used rooms won't have heated up as much since their radiators will have remained cool.

If you have a smart thermostat, try to position it in an area of your house with good air circulation for the most accurate reading, as recommended by Best Heating. This way, it can accurately tell the boiler when to shut off, saving you money.

The advantage of Thermostatic Radiator Valves (TRVs) is that you can choose to turn some off, preventing unnecessary heating of radiators in empty rooms, thus avoiding excessive heat.

However, any water circulated around the home will eventually return to the boiler in a cooled state. Therefore, it's desirable for the returning water to have lost heat along its journey, enabling the boiler to condense it.

According to Which?, this suggests that maintaining some radiators at a low setting could enhance your boiler's efficiency.

Ensuring a minimal flow of water through less frequently used rooms can also prevent radiator damage caused by dampness and freezing.

Nevertheless, the bulk of your energy consumption will be dedicated to heating the room housing the thermostat, allowing the boiler to switch off swiftly and cease gas burning entirely.

Boiler engineers can assist you in optimising your boiler's efficiency. However, the most effective tool at your disposal is the on and off button.

The thermostat activates the boiler when it senses that the surrounding air temperature is below the set temperature, and deactivates it once this temperature is achieved.

New gas boiler installations should incorporate one of the following: load compensation, which enables boilers to determine a home's heat requirement; weather compensation, which adjusts heating based on outdoor conditions; or smart technology, facilitating automated scheduling.

If these features aren't proposed, query your installer as they are mandated under the 2018 Boiler Plus regulation, according to GOV UK.