How to Save Money on Heating Bills with a New Boiler
Let’s be honest for a second. When the gas bill lands and it’s higher than you expected, you don’t sit there with a calculator. You swear at the letter, turn the thermostat down a bit, maybe put another jumper on, and hope next month looks better. We see this all the time.
What actually makes a difference, though, is how the boiler and the rest of the system are set up. At ARA Services Ltd we’re in people’s houses all week. Some systems are brand new, some are older than the apprentice. Most of them can be made cheaper to run without ripping everything out.
If you’re still at the “do I just get a new boiler?” stage, we’ve put real prices and examples in our 2025 boiler installation cost guide. This page is more about: “while you’re thinking about it, what can we do right now to bring those bills down?”
Stuff We Change First When Bills Look Silly
When we get called out and someone says “the boiler’s rinsing me”, we don’t start with sales talk. We start with the simple things that move the needle:
- Flow temperature. Half the boilers we see are set like it’s 1995. We nudge the temperature down so the boiler can actually condense instead of blasting at full whack.
- Controls. Old dial stat in the hallway? Heating on from 5am ‘just in case’? That’s money walking out of the door. Smarter controls or even just better timings help a lot.
- Radiator balance. If the front room is roasting and the back bedroom never warms up, the boiler keeps running when it doesn’t need to. Balancing spreads the heat out so you can run the system cooler.
- TRVs. Little heads on the side of radiators that quietly stop spare rooms turning into saunas. Cheap bit of kit, decent payback.
- Basic health check. Dirty filters, stuck valves and thick system water all make the boiler work harder than it should.
What Sort of Savings Are We Talking About?
Nobody can promise an exact number without seeing your place. But to give you a rough idea, this is the kind of change we see once things are set up sensibly:
| Change | What It Actually Does | Typical Result |
|---|---|---|
| Turn boiler flow temperature down | Lets a condensing boiler run the way it was designed to | 5–15% less gas in many homes |
| Sort out the controls | Stops heating an empty house for hours | Quite often 5–10% off |
| Service + clean filter | Keeps efficiency from sliding year after year | A few percent saved, plus fewer breakdowns |
| Balance rads and add TRVs | Less overheating in the “warm rooms” | Up to 5% and better comfort |
| Top up insulation | Heat stays in instead of vanishing through the roof | Depends on the house, but often the biggest win |
A Real Job: 3-Bed Terrace in Leyton
Quick story. We were called to a terraced place in Leyton. Family of four, older combi, nothing special. Their words: “boiler’s rinsing us and the back room is always freezing”.
- We dropped the flow temperature and watched the return temp behave itself for once.
- Balanced the worst radiators, bled everything properly, fitted TRVs in the rooms that were always empty.
- Set up a simple weekday / weekend schedule instead of “on from 5am to midnight, just in case”.
Next year’s gas usage was about 14% lower. No magic tech, no brand new boiler. Just a bit of attention and sensible settings.
Numbers We Like to Start With
We don’t treat these as strict rules, more like starting points we adjust by eye and by feel:
- Radiators: we usually aim somewhere around 55–60°C on the flow.
- Underfloor heating: more like 35–45°C.
- Hot water cylinder: around 55–60°C but on a timer so it’s not heating all day.
- Heating times: short bursts that match when you’re home, rather than “on low all day”.
Looking After the System, Not Just the Box on the Wall
People talk about boilers, but a lot of the trouble sits in the pipework and radiators:
- Sludge in rads makes the boiler run longer to push the same heat round.
- Filters full of black goo stop water flowing properly.
- Old water with no inhibitor slowly chews the system from the inside.
A clean-through and some inhibitor isn’t glamorous work, but it stops a lot of issues before they start.
When a New Boiler Starts to Make Sense
There is a point where we look at a boiler and think, “we can keep nursing this… but should we?”. If it’s over 10–12 years old, noisy, and you’re on first-name terms with the repair engineer, a new A-rated boiler with good controls can work out cheaper than limping the old one along.
If you want to see real-world prices rather than guesses, it’s all laid out in our new boiler cost guide.
More Boiler Help from Us
Questions We Get All the Time
Does turning the boiler down really make a difference?
On modern condensing boilers, yes. They’re happier and cheaper to run when they’re not set to “max” all the time.
Is it cheaper to leave the heating on low all day?
We’ve never seen a house where that works out better. Heat when you need it, off when you don’t.
What number should I aim for on the boiler?
For radiators, mid-50s is where we often start. If the house struggles, we creep it up a bit.
Are smart thermostats actually worth it?
Used properly, yes. The big win is stopping the heating running when nobody’s home.
Do TRVs really help or are they a gimmick?
They help. Not having the spare room at 24°C saves more than people think.
Should I sort insulation before replacing the boiler?
If the house leaks heat badly, we’ll usually say yes. No boiler can keep up with a roof that’s acting like a chimney.
How do I know if my old boiler is past it?
If we’re out every few months, or parts are getting hard to find, we’ll have an honest chat about replacement.
Can you fit smart controls to an older boiler?
Most of the time, yes. We’ll tell you straight if your model is one of the awkward ones.
Do I have to change all my radiators too?
Not usually. As long as they’re sound and sized sensibly, a clean and balance is normally enough.
Roughly how much can people save in a year?
Every house is different, but getting the system set up right plus a newer boiler can easily push savings into double digits.
What simple maintenance should I actually remember?
Annual service, clean the filter, keep inhibitor levels up. Those three things quietly save you a fortune.
What’s the best way to get us to take a look?
Drop us a message or give us a ring. We’ll talk through what you’ve got and what’s realistic.