Simple ways to keep your home warm this winter: part 1

Autumn is in full swing now and the weather is only going to get colder over the next few months. With energy bills constantly on the rise it can be a struggle to keep your home heated adequately throughout the winter months. As winter sets in you can’t escape having to light the fire or turn the central heating on, but there are ways that you can maximise the warming ability of your radiators and keep your energy costs down…

  • Use tin foil to reflect the heat: You can prevent unnecessary loss of heat from the radiators in your home by placing aluminium foil behind them. This will prevent the heat from disappearing into the walls by reflecting it back into the room where it is needed the most. Special foil that is purposely designed for reflecting radiator heat will work best, but good quality kitchen foil will also suffice!
  • Put thick curtains up: Your home loses a lot of its heat through the windows, and one of the best ways to prevent this is with thick curtains. Look for curtains with a thermal lining, or make your own using fleece fabric. It’s not only windows that lose heat; doors also allow precious heat to escape. If you can’t hang a curtain over your doors then try pinning up an old sheet to keep draughts out.
  • Harvest the sunlight: On sunny winter days it may still feel cold outside, but the sun streaming in through your windows during the day will warm your room up a little. The sun uses infrared energy to heat up the objects and surfaces in a room, creating radiant, ambient heat. Just be sure to draw the curtains as soon as the sun starts to set in order to keep a bit of the heat in.
  • Have double glazing installed: Double glazing is one of the best ways to prevent your home losing heat through the windows, but it can be quite costly. If you haven’t got the budget for new windows then you can fake it. There’s a special film that you can buy to put across single glazed windows to mimic the effect of double glazing.
  • Close unused rooms: There’s no point in heating up rooms that aren’t being used, so make sure you turn the radiators off in spare bedrooms etc and only turn them back on when they’re needed. Whilst a room isn’t being used it’s important to keep the door closed to prevent the cold air escaping from the room and making the rest of the house cold.
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