I managed to save almost 2 times on heating: I’ll tell you what the master advised me to do

Instead of 7 thousand rubles, I began to pay 4 thousand rubles. At first I didn’t believe that it was possible to save so much on heating – almost twice as much! But I listened to my friends, consulted with experts, and made up my mind. That's what they told me to do first.

Reduce heat loss

Obviously, the less heat leaves the room to the street, the better and more economical its heating. Without repairing and insulating the house, any clever way to save on heating is doomed to failure. But good repairs cost a lot of money. So I decided to do the basics. To do this, I invited a technician with a thermal imager, who determined that most of my heat escapes through the roof and windows.

What I did:

• I repaired and insulated the cover with mineral wool. The first thing I did was put patches in places where there were leaks. Afterwards, I covered the entire roof along the rafters with mineral wool 15 cm thick. I laid 20 cm of mineral wool between the beams.
• I replaced the windows with energy efficient ones. The house partially had wooden and plastic windows. The last ones were already about 10 years old. They were pretty yellowed, draughty, and didn’t hold heat well (the cheapest single-chamber ones). I decided to install double-chamber plastic windows with energy-saving coating on the glass - I-glass - everywhere. They reflect up to 90% of the heat into the house, and do not let the cold in from the street even in severe -30 degrees.

Even after such minimal insulation, the house became hot, and I turned on the boiler.

Attention! I am not advocating doing exactly the same repairs.Every house and apartment has its own problem areas. Some have walls that are “through”, others have doors. Everything is individual. Ideally, you need to be completely insulated.

Install a room thermostat

The next item in my plan was to install a room thermostat for the boiler. The house has a Bosch 6000Gaz 18WH gas boiler. For heating 120 sq. m. is quite enough. But the point is that the boiler often heats the house when there is no point in doing so.

For example, at night. Everyone sleeps under a blanket and doesn’t freeze. On the contrary, it can even be hot. I'd rather sleep cool. But you can’t screw the boiler on, because it will be too cold to get up in the morning. I can be patient, but small children are capricious.

The second point is heating on weekdays. My wife and I work from 8 am to 5 pm, the children are in the garden. We screw the boiler on, since this is a whole 7 hours of idle heating. The result is that we return to a not very comfortable, cold house.

In order not to endure the cold, and at the same time save on heating, we decided to install a room thermostat.

Based on reviews, I chose the Beok digital programmable thermostat (ordered it on Aliexpress for 2000 rubles). What it does:

• Measures the temperature in the room and regulates the operation of the boiler. When it is sunny or thawed outside, the house cools down very slowly (especially after insulation), and the boiler cycles much less.
• Controlled via Wi-Fi. You can “tighten up” the boiler while lying on the sofa.
• Programmable for each day of the week and for different periods of time. I set the temperature for the weekend to 23 degrees from 7 am and 19 degrees from 9 pm. On weekdays, the thermostat is programmed to maintain temperatures of 23 degrees from 6 am, 17 degrees from 8 am, 23 degrees from 4 pm and 19 degrees from 9 pm.

I connected and configured the sensor using a video on YouTube.It also comes with instructions in English. The most important thing for correct operation is to install the thermostat in the central room (living room). Heating throughout the house will be based on the temperature in it. The sensor itself should hang at a level of 1.5 m from the floor, away from batteries and devices, and next to the outlet.

Of course, the investments were considerable, and they would not pay off in a year. But looking at the rising prices, I am frankly glad that the amounts in the payment order are quite acceptable, and not as fabulous as those of our neighbors. In addition, I discovered another unexpected plus of the work carried out. The house has become more comfortable both in the bitterest frosts and in the summer heat. Thus, we also saved on the air conditioner, which now practically does not turn on. And if it gets too hot, just let it run for two hours.

The plans for the future are to slowly insulate further. I'm still thinking about installing a second boiler, an electric one. If the house is well insulated, it will be possible to warm up the house at night at the most economical rate, and turn it off during the day. The gas boiler will remain as a safety net if severe frosts strike. But here you need to calculate everything correctly.