Having a warmer home is ideal when the winter rears its ugly head every year and this year that’s more true than ever before with the cost of energy skyrocketing. To ensure you’re able to keep toasty without cranking the central heating up to wallet-destroying levels, here are a few tips to keep your home snug without spending a fortune.
Affordable home upgrades to keep you warm this winter
1. Insulation
If you’re so invested in heating your home it makes sense that you’d like it to be able to retain that heat for as long as possible. That’s where insulation comes in. Adding plumbing and heating equipment to increase the energy efficiency of your home, such as pipe insulation, will help to keep your home warmer for longer and reduce your heating bill. You could also add insulation to your walls and loft space to trap heat but that would be a significant financial and logistical undertaking.
2. Carpets
Having wooden or tiled floors might make things a little easier when it comes to keeping things clean but it will also give your home a much colder feel as they are colder to the touch and retain less heat. You can add carpets to create a warmer and cosier feeling room that retains more heat. This is why you’ll find so many bedrooms and living rooms with carpeting but not so much bathrooms and kitchens. Underfloor heating is an option, of course, but that doesn’t exactly gel with our “spending less money on energy” plan.
3. Radiators
While you can bleed old radiators to improve efficiency, outdated radiators will provide much weaker heating efficiency than newer models. If you have never updated the radiators in your home or haven’t done so in at least a decade, you might be surprised how quickly you’ll save the cost back in energy.
4. Double glazing
While most modern homes are built with double or triple glazing as standard, older Victorian homes might still have older windows that are notorious for losing heat. If you haven’t already got double glazing, then you should upgrade your windows as they are one of the key places that lose heat in the home.
5. Excluding draughts
Draughts are a nuisance that will lose heat from your home slowly but surely. Thankfully, you can exclude draughts around windows using silicone and you can invest money in more temporary solutions like draught excluders for doors. Or you could permanently install a tighter fitting door, though this might not be necessary.
6. Get your boiler serviced
You should be getting your boiler serviced at least once a year and while we know it’s an expense you might not want to consider right now, it’s a small annual bill that will save you a small fortune in the long run.