Having coped with a wet summer and the frustrations that Storm Aileen brought with it, it would not be unusual for people to seek solace in their central heating sooner than expected.
Nonetheless, before you decide to fully utilize your central heating, think of what you can do to prevent your energy bills from skyrocketing. After all, Christmas is the corner thus you are allowed some extra warmth.
Before you scratch your head really hard trying to ignite some life into your boiler, and decide to fabricate an argument concerning the duration of time you should warm your house in everyday, consider these techniques that can ensure your wallet and home remain intact.
Before jumping into the specific tips, it helps to have a solid foundation of how heating your home actually works. Understanding the basics — from insulation to heat sources — means you can make smarter decisions about where to focus your efforts. Our guide on the most effective home heating methods breaks down your options clearly, so you can figure out what’s already working in your home and where you might be losing warmth unnecessarily. Once you’ve got that bigger picture in mind, the individual tips below will make a lot more sense.
1. A jumper should be your soul mate
It may seem pretty obvious and sounds more of a cliché than technique but never forget to put on a jumper. Based on its thickness, a jumper has the ability to add 2C-4C in warmth which can cut down on energy costs incurred in a year.
2. Forget the draughts
Regardless of whether it is a draught for the doors or the windows, you have to seal those gaps using plugging. Ovo Energy suggests that doing away with draughts can greatly reduce annual heating bills. It can save 55 which does not account for the expenses reduced by adjusting your heating lower with 1-2 degrees if your home is relatively warm.
3. Practice boiler maintenance.
Keeping your boiler in good shape is really just one piece of a larger puzzle when it comes to staying warm and keeping energy costs under control. Your entire heating system — from the pipes and radiators to the thermostat and vents — works as a unit, and neglecting any one part can put extra strain on everything else. These practical heating system maintenance tips are worth working through alongside your boiler upkeep, since the two go hand in hand more often than most homeowners realize.
Part of the amount spent on energy bills is largely attributed to boilers. It is thus essential to ensure the boiler is fully functional before using it on a continuous basis. Boilers become dysfunctional due to tiny but recurring problems. Servicing your boiler will shield you from the biting chilly weather in winter.
4. Adjust the heating patterns to suit your needs
In most cases, all you need is 20 minutes to ensure your house is adequately warmed before you finally throw away your blankets to welcome the day. Come evening, the same cycle should be repeated. Use the varied settings of the boiler to ensure each day’s heating needs are well catered to. For instance, if you children stay longer in school on Fridays for music practice ensure the heating settings are modified in line with that specific day. Heating an empty house only serves to dent your wallet more.
Once you’ve dialled in your boiler settings and heating schedule, it’s worth thinking about the bigger picture — the physical state of your home itself. Tweaks to your thermostat only go so far if heat is quietly escaping through the walls, gaps, and ceiling. Tackling a range of structural and thermal home upgrades — from draught-proofing doorframes to upgrading your insulation — can make a surprisingly large dent in your energy bills and keep the warmth where it belongs, which brings us neatly to one of the biggest offenders: your loft.
5. Loft insulation is your savior
Loft insulation may provide the redemption you so much need with respect to your energy bills. Insulating your loft means you will not pay for energy bills without fully understanding how they came about. In other words, loft insulation prevents heat loss and in the long run reduces energy bills. On the other hand, uninsulated lofts trigger heat loss leading to increased energy bills in the long run .
