With energy prices rising, it’s more important than ever to ensure that heat stays trapped inside your home. This means you’ll stay warm all winter long, but it’s also more energy efficient, cheaper, and more sustainable. Keep reading for our eight easy ways to heatproof your home.

Use draught excluders

Many UK homes are well known for leaking heat out through gaps in doors and windows, which can often lead to a cold draught blowing into rooms. It’s thought that draughty doors can cause up to 15% heat loss in a home, which means that your heating has to work extra hard to replace it. This can become expensive, as you’re using more energy to heat your house up.

Draught excluders are a cheap way to combat this issue. They’re usually long in length and made of an insulating material to drape along the bottom of your doors. They cost as little as £3.99 from Amazon, or if you’re feeling creative you could have a go at making your own with an old pair of tights. Simply cut the legs off the tights, and stuff them with old socks or pieces of scrap material. Once you’ve reached the end, you can tie a knot to stop any stuffing from falling out, before putting it by your doors and windows.

Get your boiler serviced

One way to keep your heating working as efficiently as it should is to arrange an annual inspection and service of your boiler. As boilers get older, they can become less efficient, which may result in higher heating costs. If you live in a ForHousing home, we’ll work to arrange this with you at a suitable time every 12 months. Check out our information page to see how we’ll work with you to keep your home gas safe this winter.

Bleed your radiators

Bleeding your radiators is a good way to ensure that your radiators are working to their full potential throughout your home. Air can become trapped over time in radiators, which makes them less efficient at heating up properly. Bleeding is a very simple process, and if you feel comfortable doing it yourself then that’s great. However, if you’ve never done it before and would like to contact us for someone to come over to do it for you, simply get in touch with us here.

Add extra layers

This may sound simple, but the more layers your home has, the warmer it will become. Keeping extra blankets or throws handy will make all the difference when it comes to keeping your heating bills down. Rather than reaching for the thermostat on a night to turn the heating up, try cuddling up under a cosy blanket first! You can buy blankets and throws for £5 or less at many well-known retailers like Wilko or ASDA.

Close doors and windows

While this seems obvious, a lot of heat escapes rooms in the home due to doors and windows being left open. Closing doors as you enter each room can help to heat your space up much quicker, as it means less heat will be able to escape. The same applies to your windows. However, it is important to leave them open a crack after showering or while you’re cooking to avoid a build-up of condensation.

Make use of your heating timer

Most heating thermostats now have the option to put your heating on a set timer. This means you can set your heating to come on half an hour before you wake up, and half an hour before you arrive home from work. This is handy because it stops you from having to put your heating on full blast and instead will heat your home up gradually which will save you some money on bills.

Keep your curtains open until 3pm  

In the thick of winter, the sun will often begin to set before 4pm. Therefore, it’s important to make the most of any natural sunlight coming into your house by keeping curtains or blinds open until around this time. Any light coming in will heat your rooms up naturally, and means your space may be less chilly when you draw your curtains to keep the heat in at night.

Ensure radiators aren’t blocked

Making sure that your radiators aren’t blocked by other furniture in your home is vital to heating rooms up effectively. This is because the warm air can easily become trapped behind furniture, meaning your heating has to work extra hard to actually heat your rooms up. The trick to this is to leave a gap between things like your sofa or bed and the radiator. You’ll still be able to feel the benefits of the heating, while also letting the heat circulate around the entire room.

We hope this blog has given you some good ideas about how to heatproof your home, save some money on bills and help the environment. We’d like to remind you that if you’re struggling with your finances this winter, you’re not alone. We’re always here to help and support you in any way we can.

You can contact us by chatting with us at www.forhousing.co.uk, or calling us on 0300 123 55 22.