Heating a home, especially when coming up to the colder months, can be one of the costliest expenses a home has. In 2019 the average gas and electricity bill for UK households was £1,289 a year. This is a big expense for many households, but there are simple things that can be done to bring that cost down.
This year has brought more challenges with the pandemic – we’re all spending more time at home, and the house needs to be kept warmer for longer as a result.
In this article, we will show you some tips and tricks that you can do around the house to help bring the cost of heating down in your home this year – not just during the winter but all year round.
Don’t let the draughts in
Remember that sausage dog draught excluder you bought just because it looked cute? Well, it can finally be used for good now. As well as having a draught excluder, DIY draught-proofing your home by using self-adhesive rubber seals around the doors and windows or fixing those forgotten cracks in the window, doors, and floor can save you £25 a year.
Curtains
This may sound simple, but remembering to open your curtains during the day will give you free heating. Allowing the sun to shine through the windows without any obstruction will heat your room up naturally. Remember to shut your curtains when it gets dark so they can act as insulation and keep the cold out.
Keep your radiator free
You may love your sofa on that side of the room, but if it is right in front of the radiator, it may be stopping the heat from circulating around the room. This is especially dangerous for wood or upholstered furniture items as it could cause a potential fire hazard. This also goes for if you have anything over the top of your radiators, such as clothes drying. This stops your radiator from circulating the heat.
Maximise insulation
Having insulation in your house will mean that, during winter, it can keep heat in. But what you may not know is that, during the warmer months, it can also keep your home cool.
25 per cent of heat is lost through your roof, so having insulation in your loft can help stop so much heat being released. A third of all heat in the house is lost through the walls, so even though it is a bit more expensive than loft insulation, it is worth getting wall insulation too as it can save you up to £160 in your heating bills.
It’s not just heat escaping that your insulation can help stop. Because insulation helps regulate the temperature of your home, it can stop condensation and the build-up of mould.
A degree can save money
It may sound stupid, but by just turning your thermostat down by one degree, you could cut down your heating bills by 10 per cent. As a guideline, Public Health England recommends that the room temperature should be no lower than 18°C. This will make a big difference, as the average household has their thermostat set above the guide temperature at 23°c.
Upgrading your boiler
You may think that your boiler works perfectly fine and does not need upgrading. But if it is over ten years old, chances are it will need replacing. Depending on what make your old boiler is and what kind of home you have, you could save up to £350 a year by having a new boiler put in. New boilers have to be A-rated for efficiency, meaning they have to be over 88 per cent efficient. Most boilers are over 90 per cent efficient, but you won’t find this with boilers over ten years old.
So whether you may be trying to be more environmentally friendly, maybe getting an electric car and EV charger installation, or thinking about installing a heat pump in the future, we hope these tips have helped you work out how you can save money and heat your home efficiently In the future