Energy Savers Week 19-25 Jan 2026. Stay warm, spend less.
The annual Energy Savers Week from Citizens Advice and The Energy Saving Trust returns in January and is a great reminder to us all to look for opportunities to save money on your heating and wider energy use. Read on to find out more, but first, if you want to understand more about how energy is used in the home, this article from Nesta provides great insight from their extensive research:
How different households use energy and how much it costs them | Nesta
Energy saving advice
Energy Savers Week helps individuals access advice and take action to save energy. Follow these links to see some of the advice available and take action yourself:
https://energysavingtrust.org.uk/campaign/energysaversweek
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/energy/energy-supply/save-energy-at-home
How do heat pumps save money?
Heat pumps are typically 3-4 x as efficient as a gas or oil boiler at providing space heating and hot water. However, electricity currently costs around 3 x as much as gas per unit (kWh). Nonetheless, heat pumps can definitely reduce your running costs, even compared to a mains gas-fired boiler, and there are several ways to ensure this:
Good system design:
Firstly, ensure that your heat pump system is properly designed, installed and commissioned by an experienced MCS accredited installer like Xpert Energy. Designing your heat pump system to operate at lower temperature than conventional fossil fuelled boilers delivers higher efficiency performance. For retrofit projects where a boiler is replaced with a heat pump, the temperature of radiators generally reduces to a maximum of 45-50C compared to perhaps 65-75C for the existing system. This means that some radiators and pipework are usually upgraded as part of the installation to ensure they deliver the right amount of heat to keep your home cosy.
Understand the controls:
We are used to running higher temperature heating systems intermittently as they are quick to respond and deliver heat, but running a heat pump “low and slow” for longer periods is more efficient and will help keep your home at a more constant and comfortable temperature. Don’t just take our word for it, the Energy Saving Trust provides a lot more detail here:
The most efficient way to run a heat pump – Energy Saving Trust
Consider switching to a “time of use” electricity tariff instead of a fixed rate tariff:
The Energy Saving Trust also provides useful information for those who have moved into a house and have no previous experience of operating a heat pump system. This article also notes that switching tariffs may provide opportunities to run your heat pump more economically. This is particularly true when paired with a battery storage system which can be charged up using cheaper tariff periods, and then used to run the heat pump during more expensive tariff periods.
What to do if you’re inheriting a heat pump – Energy Saving Trust
Maintenance:
Heat pump systems should not have significant maintenance requirements. However, they do need periodic inspection during which the engineer will ensure the system settings are correct for efficient operation, visually inspect condition of unit casing, secure and replace covers to reduce noise, check sensors are in the correct position and reading correctly, ensure the heat exchanger coil is not obstructed or excessively fouled with debris, and a range of other checks. They will also instruct the user on correct operation of the system and controls if required, and advise if any further maintenance is recommended.
Xpert Energy undertake servicing on a wide range of heat pump and MVHR (mechanical ventilation with heat recovery) ventilation systems. We don’t just service systems that we installed ourselves, so if your heat pump needs repair or you want to put in place a service plan, please give us a call on 0118 930 3600 and select Option 2 for our Service & Maintenance team.
See how much energy you can save during Energy Savers Week, and beyond.
If you would like to explore how a heat pump could reduce your heating costs, please call 0118 930 3600 Option 1, or email installs@xpertenergy.co.uk
We will be attending Baughurst Repair Café at Heath End Hall, Baughurst on 18th January so please take the opportunity to come an chat with us there about your heating.