Should I turn off the boiler and water-heating in summer?
Depending on your home and lifestyle, you might be able to cut your energy bills by switching off your boiler and relying on other sources for your hot water. A new energy-efficient boiler could save you hundreds off your heating bill every year. Get a boiler deal  Read on to find out if turning off your boiler for the summer is a good idea. If you have an old boiler  especially one with a continuously burning pilot light  it may well be worth turning off the boiler in the months when it's not used for heating the home. Even if you have a more modern boiler, you may want to switch it off if the water cistern is not a modern one coated with polystyrene. If you have an electric shower  and don't take baths during the summer  and a dishwasher, only water used at the kitchen sink and in a bathroom hand-basin would need to be heated. Old washing machines and dishwashers with hot fill  where the machine uses water heated by your boiler  are still able to heat up cold water to the appropriate temperature for internal use, and modern machines which are cold fill only will not need any external hot water. However, it's always best to run your central heating and hot water occasionally during the summer. If you don't, the pump and diverter valve that circulates the fluid round the radiators and to the hot water cistern can become seized up. If this happens, they could fail when you finally turn the heating back on in the autumn.