Maintaining Your Central Heating For Energy Efficiency

Your central heating is the lifeblood of your home, especially in the winter months when the holiday season often comes hand-in-hand with spending more time at home. It’s often taken for granted that you can simply turn on the heating and your home will soon warm up, though behind this simple action is quite a complex system that needs to be maintained to work at its best.

How Your Central Heating System Works

In a central heating system, radiators, a boiler and all the connecting pipes are filled with water. This is called a “closed system” because the same water cycles through the system, instead of new water being introduced and draining from your home. Your boiler heats the water and a pump pushes the heated water to your radiators. Once the boiler is switched off, the cooled water returns to the boiler to be heated again.

Radiator Maintenance

You should make sure that your radiators are maintained at least once a year to make sure they are working efficiently. With plumbers costing around £50 an hour, you’ll be glad to know that radiator maintenance is relatively easy and you can carry it out yourself. Essentially, you need to make sure that you ‘bleed’ your radiators, to get rid of any air that has worked its way into your central heating system. Any air in your system can reduce the efficiency of your heating, so it’s essential to carry out bleeding to make sure you’re doing your best to save on energy bills.

The first step is to turn your system off and allow the water to cool down for an hour or two. Then look for a small bleed nipple or valve at the end of your radiator, near the top. Using a bleed key, slightly turn the nipple or valve, and you should hear a hiss as air escapes. Some water will come out too, so make sure you have a bowl and towel handy to catch it. When the air has come out and it’s just water flowing, close the valve by turning the bleed key clockwise.

Boiler Maintenance

Your boiler is at the heart of your central heating but maintaining it is a little more complex than that of radiators. Because of this, you’ll need to have it looked at once a year by a Corgi Qualified Heating Engineer. They’ll service your boiler to make sure that it is running as well as possible, which will be sure to give you peace of mind.

With both your radiators and your boiler working as efficiently as possible, there’s another step to improve the capability of your heating system, by installing our Cast Iron Radiators.

The Benefits of Cast Iron Radiators

Cast Iron is an excellent material to make radiators from. As it is quite a dense metal, Cast Iron has a high thermal mass, meaning the radiators emit a great deal of heat. They also retain heat well, so they remain hot even after you’ve switched your central heating off.

With Cast Iron Radiators from Renaissance At Home, you can have energy-efficient radiators in a variety of models to suit your taste and style of home. Our Victorian range of radiators is very popular and for good reason. With a choice of heights, columns and section lengths they provide timeless and classic looks with excellent heat output.

If you’d like ornate radiators, we stock a large number. For example, our Daisy model is just one of them. Each of this Cast Iron Radiator’s sections is beautifully embellished with an elegant floral motif flowing from both top and bottom, providing a focal point in any room while adding to the efficiency of your central heating.

The Narrow Eton’s slim depth means it will be sure to fit in a room where space may be at a premium, such as a hallway. This elegant and classic radiator comes in a single height of 765 mm and is available in lengths up to 1534mm.

All our Cast Iron Radiators come with free UK mainland kerbside delivery (T&Cs apply) and they are available in over 10,000 colours, including those from Farrow & Ball, Little Greene, and Roberson Liquid Metal. They also all carry a lifetime guarantee.

Contact Us

Are you ready to improve your central heating with Cast Iron Radiators from Renaissance At Home?

If you’d like any help or if you have any questions, please get in touch with the Renaissance At Home team on 01400 263309 or by emailing sales@renaissanceathome.co.uk today.