Winter is coming, the house is getting cold, and it’s finally time to start making moves to make the house a cosy place to come home to. With the darker nights drawing in and the harsher weather outside, you want to make sure that the drop in temperature doesn’t make you surfer on the inside. You will use over 70% of the energy consumption in your home on your heating bills, but you want to reduce this figure and still maintain the warmth in the home.
The biggest problem that you will find is that you want to keep your house warm without using ten extra radiators to drain your finances. The house needs to be comfortable and cosy when you get home from a long day at work. You need the tips below in place and you can embrace every aspect of winter without worrying about shivering your butt off just because you’re inside! With this in mind, here are some of the best tips you didn’t know you needed for the colder months!
- Use the curtains in the house as much as possible. If your windows only have blinds, install a curtain pole and hang double lined curtains in front of them. During the day, use the heat of the sun to warm the rooms in the house with the curtains and blinds open all day. Once the evening draws in, shut the blinds and curtains to trap the heat inside. As long as you ensure that there are no gaps around the edges, you should be able to stay warm all evening.
- Adding timers to your central heating is one of the best things that you can to prioritize your energy. You can program your boiler to turn the heating on half an hour before you wake and at a lower temperature the rest of the time, it’s cheaper to have it consistently running rather than blasting hot air at intervals. Of course, that doesn’t include when you aren’t in the house! Turn off the heating entirely or program it to be timed for when you are almost home!
- If you have any furniture blocking the radiators in the house, move it out of the way. If you move the furniture away from the radiators, you’re going to allow the heating to circulate the room properly. You should also keep curtains and wet clothes away from the radiator, too. While clothes will dry off, you are having them absorb the heating and you will end up colder. You want to get the most out of your heat sources if you’re at home. It makes for much better comfort if you have radiators that are exposed.
- Get up into the roof and add to your insulation up there. A lot of the heat is lost through the roof but if the attic is well insulated, you can prevent this from happening. You can have more insulation added to the space, too, that will help you to keep your heating bills much lower than you had them before.
- Wrap yourself up in blankets and slippers, but think about how your boiler needs to be wrapped up, too. Your hot water tank needs to be as wrapped up as you need to be – the more you insulate it, the longer your water remains hot. You can upgrade the old jacket of the tank and help your home to remain warm.
- Invest in good outerwear! It sounds rather daft, but you need to start investing in clothes for outside so that you can remain comfortable when you are on your way home. You have to consider ensuring that you need to remain warm when you walk into your house. If you spend some money on good outerwear, you should think about spending good money on a dressing gown and slippers. Ugg slippers are perfect for the winter nights, and a good, thick dressing gown will keep you warm on the inside. You need to make the right investment, though, or you will find that you will be shivering!
- Start blocking out draughts with homemade draught excluders and DIY draught proofing with rubber seals on the doors and windows. Getting the doors and windows sealed will keep the cold out and the heat in and it’s a simple solution to a chilly problem. You need to feel comfortable and you cannot feel that way if there is a draught blowing through your house. You can do this with the upper levels of the house if you have them, and keep the bedrooms as warm as the rest of the house!
- Add rugs in the house! You want to layer up the carpets and flooring with rugs from https://www.cowhiderugslondon.co.uk/ and feel toasty every time you walk into the house. It doesn’t matter if you already have a high pile, you can add a rug and make the room muted, pretty and warm at the same time. With the right rugs, you can make your house look beautiful at the same time as making it warmer. You’d add throws to the sofa and the bed, so adding rugs to the floor will have the same effect.
- Get a boiler upgrade and be quick about it if you want to have it installed before the cold weather really takes hold. Boilers should last for up to ten years, so if yours is older than that it’s time to get it replaced and working well for definite in the winter. You want a boiler that works efficiently at all times.
- Where you can, reflect the heat! Radiator panels are easy to install and cheap to buy. The heat from the radiators can then warm the rooms and not just makes the walls hot. They will always reflect the heat back to the house and that’s exactly what you need while you try to keep as warm as possible on a longer night! Take the time to try these tips and you can maintain your warmth, too.