10 easy steps to keep your house warmer this winter
Winter nearly here. And while there’s not much you can do to stop it getting cold outside, you can still make sure you stay warmer inside.
So here are ten simple tricks to keep your house warm in winter and stop that precious energy escaping.
Heat your home, not your walls
Here’s how to keep your house warm with some easy foil insulation. Cover a thin sheet of card with tinfoil and place it behind your radiators (if you’re feeling particularly crafty you can make it T-shaped so it sits on your radiator brackets). It’ll reflect the heat back into your rooms, meaning they warm up faster and retain more heat. If DIY isn’t your thing, you can also buy ready-made foil insulation.
Make sure your pipes are lagged
Pipe lagging (insulating hot water pipes with foam tubes) keeps the water inside your pipes hotter for longer and protects against the cold. It also makes your heating and hot water much more efficient. This ensures as much heat as possible makes it to your radiators.
Draught-proof your home
If your home has a draught, patch it up. Filling in the gaps around windows and doors can help you save on your heating bills, so spending a few pounds on window draught excluder – an insulating tape – is a great investment. Cool air movement causing unnecessary heat loss.
Bleed your radiators
Check your radiators are heating to the top. If they aren’t, the chances are you need to learn how to bleed a radiator. It sounds a bit medieval, but all it means is releasing the trapped air at the top, which is stopping the hot water from rising. Simply use a radiator bleed key (about £1 in any DIY shop) to open the little valve at the top.
Get your boiler serviced
Boilers need to be looked after. Give yours an annual boiler service and it will last longer and work more efficiently – if you don’t, it could cost you money or not function as efficiently.
Close the curtains
You won’t be surprised to learn that lots of warmth escapes from your home through the windows. If you’ve got curtains, close them before darkness hits or while you’re out of the house and leave them closed over night. Thermal linings are even better.
Use the oven to heat the house
Once dinner comes out of the oven, we all close the door again. But why waste that heat? Leave the oven door open and let the heat transfer slowly into your kitchen. (assuming its safe to do so…)
Roll out a rug
Wooden floors might look lovely but they can also let heat escape from right under your feet. Putting down a warm rug covers up the gaps especially with a suspended floor, which in an older house may not be insulated.
Know your thermostat
Learn what your ideal temperature it, and experiment at different levels for comfort. Zoning within a house is one of the easiest ways to save money and heat a house efficiently.
Our Residential Heat Loss Survey can highlight exactly where you are losing heat. Please contact us for more information.
