BEAMA, the trade association for energy infrastructure and systems, has published updated estimates of the fuel bill savings that heating control upgrades can deliver, revised to reflect the gas prices set under the Energy Price Guarantee from 1 October 20221.
The document sets out an estimate of the fuel bills savings potential, both annual and lifetime, for improvements to heating controls in a range of UK house types1. It is the gas price basis that has changed: the figures now rest on the Energy Price Guarantee prices in force from 1 October 2022 rather than earlier price assumptions1.
"Updated to cover the gas prices based on the Energy Price Guarantee from 1 October 2022"
The published description does not give the savings figures themselves, the house types covered, or the lifetime period used. Those details are not in the material released with the update1. The Energy Price Guarantee, the scheme that fixes the unit price of gas and electricity for households, is set out in more detail in our guide to the Energy Price Guarantee.
Why it matters for households
Savings estimates for heating controls are only as good as the prices behind them. When the price of gas changes, the cash value of any reduction in gas use changes with it, even if the amount of gas saved stays the same. An estimate built on Energy Price Guarantee prices therefore describes what a household on those prices could expect, not what a household on a different tariff or a different payment method would see.
For a home's energy independence, the practical point is that heating controls act on consumption rather than on supply. A programmer, room thermostat, thermostatic radiator valves or zoning arrangement changes when and where heat is delivered, and the saving comes from burning less gas. That is a reduction in the volume of energy a household has to buy, which is a different thing from a change in the price it pays. Our guide to how much heating controls can save covers the estimates, and whether smart heating controls actually save money looks at the evidence behind the claims.
How much of that potential a given household realises depends on the controls already fitted, how the heating is scheduled and how the home is zoned. Our pages on heating schedules and setback and on heating zones explain the mechanics. Where controls depend on a cloud service for scheduling or remote operation, the household's control over its own heating sits partly outside the home, which is the subject of heating controls and energy independence.
What happens next
No further update date has been reported beyond the 1 October 2022 price basis1.