How to Keep Your Home Warm on a Budget
This post may contain Affiliate Links
This is a collaborative post
With energy bills rocketing and the threat of even worse news for bill-payers later in the year, there’s never been a better time to look for ways to reduce your energy consumption while keeping your house warm and toasty.
Fuel poverty is a very real fear for many and a reality for more households than ever before in the UK.
In this blog, we’ll explore some ways to cut costs while ensuring your home stays warm. By taking a handful of sensible steps, you’ll be able to lower your energy usage, reduce heat escaping from your home and keep the pounds in your purse rather than the energy company’s pocket.
Draw Your Curtains
Heat escaping through poorly fitted windows or failed double glazing can have a distinct effect on how efficiently you can heat your home.
If your budget is healthy enough, a new double glazing installation can result in a heat loss reduction of 50%, a substantial difference.
However, if you’re budget doesn’t run as high, simply choosing good-quality thermal curtains will go some way to keeping the warmth in.
Allow any warmth from the sun to stream through your windows during the day, and draw your curtains as soon as it begins to get dark and the temperature drops to retain any of the sun’s heat.
Heavier curtains will also help keep out any draughts from older windows if you can’t afford to replace them.
And don’t forget your doors! Buying curtains not only for your windows but doors too, especially porch or front doors, may surprise you with the difference this can make for relatively little cost or effort.
Boost Your Insulation
About a quarter of your home’s heat loss occurs through the roof. This makes sense when you consider that heat always rises.
Combat this by adding some extra insulation to your loft space.
Depending on the construction of your loft, you may be able to do this job yourself, saving on labour and making it a cost-effective step that will result in a noticeable difference to your bills.
However, if you’re not experienced in roofing or insulation, it’s wise to consult with professionals offering residential roofing services in Chesterfield MO, who can assess your needs and ensure that any addition to your loft is done safely and effectively.
Engaging experts not only secures your home against heat loss but also safeguards the structure of your roof, maintaining your home’s integrity over time.
Depending on what type of build you have, you may want to consider upgrading your wall insulation too. This is more costly than loft insulation but could save you over £100 a year on your heating bills which is not to be sniffed at!
Invest In A New Boiler
While opting for a new boiler installation is a big investment, it could save you thousands of pounds on your energy bills in the long run as older boilers can be extremely inefficient.
If you’re on a low income worried about the cost of a new boiler, there are lots of schemes out there that can help you with the cost.
When you get a new boiler installation, always make sure it comes with a gas certificate issued by a qualified Gas Safe registered engineer. Having a valid gas safety certificate UK ensures your boiler is installed safely, operates efficiently, and keeps your home compliant with legal gas safety standards.
Maximise Your Radiator Output
Make sure that you’re getting the best out of your radiators by allowing the heat they provide to circulate properly around your home.
Consider rearranging your living room so that the sofa doesn’t sit in front of your radiator. If this is your current living room layout, the majority of your radiator’s heat will be absorbed by your sofa rather than heating the room.
This means you’ll be heating your room for longer or at a higher temperature than needed – and raising your energy usage unnecessarily.
Long curtains that fall over radiators are also culprits for blocking heat circulation and funnelling the heat straight out of the window, so consider buying some shorter ones that sit between the window sill and the top of the radiator.
You can kill two birds with one stone here and make sure your new curtains are thermal too, ticking off step one on the list at the same time.
Buying or making DIY radiator reflectors can also help efficiently circulate the heat further into the room and are especially useful if your radiators are fitted under windows.
Exclude Any Draughts
A draughty house is one that leaks heat and costs you more to get up to temperature. This step is extremely cheap and easy to carry out but will make a noticeable difference to the temperature in your home.
Block up any obvious gaps under doorways with draught excluders and add self-adhesive foam to windows and external doors to help plug any cold spots that let the chill in and the heat out.
Make Your Heating Smart
Investing in a smart thermostat and heating system is not the cheapest step on the list initially but will help you review and manage your usage throughout the day and the seasons.
You’ll be able to heat specific rooms as and when you need them and easily change the thermostat if you have an unseasonably hot or cold day, even when you’re not home.
A smart heating system is much more intuitive than a traditional thermostat and so allows you to effectively micromanage your usage and only heat your home as and when you need to.
Studies show that smart homes can reduce heating bills by 40%, which will go a long way to offset the looming price increases we’re all facing.
There are no two ways about it – heating your home is currently a worrying issue for many of us. However, by taking a few simple steps, many of us can reduce the amount of heat we lose in our home and try to keep our heating running efficiently (and more cheaply) going forward.
