Endotherm

Cherry24

Considering buying Endotherm to put in the central heating system to save on gas bills as they are astronomical at the moment but I can't find much about it or many 'real world' reviews.

Just wondered if anyone had used it? It's an additive that is supposed to heat up your radiators faster and keep them hot for longer.

My main concern is if it will cause any damage to my system. It says it isn't corrosive but would be nice to have some reassurance on this from people that have used it.

Rubidium

If your gas bills are astronomical, you need to find out why rather than expecting a magic wand solution but adding some snake oil to your system.

It is supposed to work by "Changing the surface tension of heating system fluid essentially makes it “wetter” here

WestonDave

Interestingly if you look at their graph on their website, when it comes to room temperature the green line (no Endotherm) leads the blue line most of the way across suggesting the additive actually slows down the heating process!


In reality all this would do if it worked (which it won't) is make a marginal difference in the heating up time - it won't in the long term reduce the amount of energy needed to heat the rooms.


If your bills are astronomical it will be because of other factors - inefficient boiler, lack of insulation, draughts, unrealistic expectations of heat.

Pincher

You don't know what they put in it, so don't touch it.

If you want to break up the surface tension, a drop of Fairy liquid will do the same thing.

http://www.1023.org.uk/whats-the-harm-in-homeopathy.php

https://www.bellperformance.com/blog/bid/110843/diesel-fuel-additives-top-5-things-you-never-knew-you-didn-t-know

I used to use Redex for my diesel car, which is a good idea.

I bought some Redex for petrol, out of habit, but stopped myself using it. It's more meant for older engines. With new engines, I might do more harm than good.

Cherry24

Rubidium wrote: »

If your gas bills are astronomical, you need to find out why rather than expecting a magic wand solution but adding some snake oil to your system.

It is supposed to work by "Changing the surface tension of heating system fluid essentially makes it “wetter” here

We have tried everything else (that we can afford at the moment). We live in an old cottage which we only moved into in October (our first home). We have secondary glazing, insulation in the roof and have filled all gaps but other modern insulation is a problem with solid walls in a 250 year old house.

Rubidium

Cherry24 wrote: »

We have tried everything else (that we can afford at the moment). We live in an old cottage which we only moved into in October (our first home). We have secondary glazing, insulation in the roof and have filled all gaps but other modern insulation is a problem with solid walls in a 250 year old house.

Your 250 year old cottage will never be as energy efficient as a more modern property with cavity wall insulation, full double glazing and adequate loft insulation, so perhaps you are simply expecting too much, if your boiler and heating system is serviced and working properly, due to the extra heat loss.

CashStrapped

Anyone who moves into a property during the winter months usually thinks their bill is extortionate. This is because you have not had to build up a credit on your energy account during summer. This would normally enable you to spread the cost over the year.

If you move into a property in winter, the DD is usually set very high to compensate for high winter bills as there is not surplus credit to use.

What you need to start doing is look at your use in KWHs. You need to start monitoring what you use on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.

Only when you have figures for your actual use, can you determine how much you use and why your bills may or may not be extortionate.

Then you can start looking at methods to reduce consumption.

1. Age of boiler
2. Boiler controls, (Water temp, thermostat, hot water thermostat, TRV valves)
3)Insulation (as you mentioned)
4)Energy Tariff

You can only go through these things once you know what you use in KWH. Just looking at the cost can be a red herring in helping you reduce consumption.
It will probably be the case, as mentioned above, the your property will be less efficient and cost more to heat due to it's age. But without accurate consumption figures, you have nothing to monitor nor any figures to make a comparison.

Cherry24

We have just had our boiler serviced.

The main problem is that we are freezing even when the heating is on. Might have to upgrade our hot water bottles to electric blankets. Thanks for everyone's help anyway.

matelodave

Magic juice in the heating system wont make it heat up any faster nor will it make the radiators hotter or save you money.

As said above you need to look at all your controls and even check that the boiler and radiator have been correctly sized for the heating load. Several factors come into play.

The amount of heat that you need to heat the house which is related to the temperature outside and the temperature that you want inside.

The size of the boiler to provide that heat and lastly the size of the radiators to deliver it. If the boiler or the rads are big enough then you wont get enougfh heat to compensate for the amount that gets lost through the fabric of the building.

The other thing to bear in mind is the amount of time that you have the heating on - if you are hoping to get the rooms up to temperature in an hour or so then you need big rads and a big boiler.

Undersized rads or boiler will take a long time and may never be able to get the temperature up even though the boiler seem to be running all the time.

You'll be using significantly more energy at this time of the year comapred to the summer but the only way to check is to read the meters frequently to find out how much you are using in kwh. If you dont measure it you can't control it

DavidP24

Cherry24 wrote: »

We have just had our boiler serviced.

The main problem is that we are freezing even when the heating is on. Might have to upgrade our hot water bottles to electric blankets. Thanks for everyone's help anyway.

I would stick to hot water bottles and get more layers in your clothing around the house or your energy bills will be even higher, thermals if it is really cold.

If you are cold in bed try a duvet under the sheet and get a 13.5 tog for over, you can also add one of those summer 4.5 togs get a size bigger than your bed, e.g. a king size for a standard double.

In bed it is best to sleep naked or just underwear to keep warm.

Cottages can get really cold because of the material used to make the walls, my parents bought one, created a modern extension (twice as big as cottage) then had the cottage walls rebuilt so they looked the same but used more modern materials. You may need to check if yours is listed before you try something like that.

You may have had your boiler serviced but that does not always mean it is at optimum setting. It may have other settings or it may not be up to the job.