Worcester Bosch
Greenstar 2000 System
Customer score
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A poorly balanced heating system can add a significant amount of cash to your annual bills.
Many people aren't aware of the impact that a poorly balanced system can have, chiefly that it can drive up your bills during the colder months.
The same goes for radiators that need bleeding. They don't heat up fully so you have to leave your radiators on for longer, driving your heating bills up.
Read on to find out the best why to diagnose unbalanced heating systems and how to balance and bleed your radiators.
If you're planning on giving your heating system an overhaul, make sure you read our five tips to reduce your heating bills before you do
In an unbalanced system the temperature your home reaches may not match the one you set. For example, when you set the thermostat to 20°C you would expect the whole home to heat to, and stay at, 20ºC.
However, with an unbalanced system, the upstairs might actually reach 23°C, while the downstairs remains relatively cool at 17°C. You may then be tempted to turn up the thermostat (in this example to 23°C), which will create a comfortable temperature of 20°C downstairs, but superheat the upstairs to 26°C.
The Energy Saving Trust estimates that turning up the thermostat by just one degree costs an additional £75 a year in heating costs. So turning up the thermostat will just increase your bills, whereas getting your radiator rebalanced will save you money in the long run.
Another clear sign is if certain parts of your house (such as upstairs) get uncomfortably hot, while other parts stay cool.
It's easy to tell if you have inadvertently unbalanced your own heating system with TRVs:
If they don’t, the system is not balanced properly and we would recommend that you call a Which? Trusted trader to assist with what will be a much more technical method of balancing your heating system.
If the flow differential is less than 20°C, or the return temperature is higher than 55°C, then the system is either unbalanced or the radiators are too small. Either way, you will need a heating engineer to fix it.
A heating engineer will first completely drain the system and remove any air pockets by bleeding the radiators. They will then refill the system with all of the radiator valves fully open. The next step will be to adjust the valves on the radiators that get hottest the fastest. This it to restrict the flow of water to the radiator and even out the spread of heat to the rest of your home.
Costs for this will vary between £100 and £200, but expect the heating engineer to take at least half a day to complete the work.
If you're ready to call in a heating engineer to balance your radiator, you can use our Which? Trusted Traders search tool below to find an accredited trader near you. All of our traders have been vetted so you can trust them to do a great job.
If you decide it's time for a new boiler, make sure you buy from the best gas and oil boiler brands
Radiators need bleeding every few years to get rid of trapped air bubbles. The air bubbles rise to the top of a radiator so place your hand on the top each radiator while the heating is on. If the top of the radiator is cool, or much colder than the bottom of the radiator, it's a sign your radiators need bleeding.
Bleeding a radiator is a task you can carry out yourself. All you need is your radiator bleed key, and a spare cloth or towel and container to catch any water that could potentially leave your radiator when you start bleeding it.
Read our guide on getting the best boiler service to get your boiler running as efficiently as possible