Is a faulty shower mixer tap making our boiler work too hard and driving up our gas bills?

By This Is Money

Published: 10:47 EDT, 17 April 2014 | Updated: 03:52 EDT, 18 April 2014

Is the shower stealing power?

Our shower has a wall-mounted mixer tap independent of the bath taps.

When it is turned right over to hot it is still not hot enough, at least in the winter, so we turn up the heat regulator on the combi boiler to get hot showers.

However, that then means the water coming through the kitchen tap is very hot. The shower is on the same floor as the kitchen and only slightly further away from the boiler.

Our gas bills at £80 a month seem very high for a small flat. AL, Twickenham

Pay Murphy, a heating expert at Pimlico Plumbers, says: The details of your question pretty much suggest the answer.

Given that the water is so hot coming out of the kitchen tap the most likely suspect is your mixer tap not doing its job properly, most likely through wear.

The other possibility, if you have a thermostatic shower, is a faulty shower cassette.

Either way the situation needs to be rectified. From a cost point of view you are burning more energy which you are paying for and the extra work load on your boiler means it’s going to need replacing sooner than necessary.

But even more important is the safety aspect, especially if you have young or elderly family members living in the household.