Overview
- Reporting on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026, stresses immediate, practical steps households can take to lower heating use before winter begins.
- A hydraulic balance and an optimized heating curve can each reduce energy use by up to about 15 percent but those savings should not be simply added together.
- Simple maintenance and behaviour changes such as bleeding and cleaning radiators, clearing obstructions, fixing drafts, and correct thermostat placement provide reliable savings and better room comfort.
- Night setbacks and smart thermostats usually save energy—roughly 5–12 percent for night setbacks and about 10 percent for programmable units—but large setbacks can backfire on heat pumps with slow underfloor systems by triggering costly electric backup heating.
- Regulatory checks and market pressure make action urgent: the GEG has required hydraulic balancing for larger new systems since October 2024 and rising wholesale oil and gas prices linked to a Persian Gulf supply crisis and low storage levels are already pushing consumer costs higher.