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12 Practical Tips to Keep Your Home Warm in Winter Without Turning Up the Heat

The cost of living crisis is affecting us all. As the colder weather comes, the spectre of rising heating costs doesn’t make things any easier. But thankfully there are many ways that you can keep your home warmer without spending more on your energy bills.

Topics

1. Improve Home Insulation
2. Your Oven can Help Keep Your House Warm
3. Draft Proof Your Home to Keep Cold Air Out
4. Insulate Water Pipes
5. Thermal Curtains can Reduce Heating Bills
6. Insulate Your Floor with Rugs
7. Install Shelves Over Radiators
8. Bleed Your Radiators
9. Don’t Cover Radiators
10. Tin Foil can Help Keep Heat in
11. Only Switch Your Heating On When You Need it
12. Smart Tech Makes Home Energy Easier to Manage

Introduction

In this article we take an in-depth look at how to keep your home warmer in winter while leaving your thermostat where it is. So, if you're sitting comfortably, let's dive into some top tips to help you save money on your heating bills this winter.

What is the Right Temperature For My Home?

Everyone will have their own ideas about the comfortable temperature for their home, but for most of us it's around 18°C to 21°C.

Any lower than that and the cold air might either have you reaching for a hot water bottle, dusting off electric blankets or heading for your heating controls.

With that in mind, why not consider some or all of the following ideas which might be just what you need to stay warmer without it costing you an arm and a leg? Let’s begin with an obvious choice.

1. Improve Home Insulation

One of the best ways to keep your house warm in the winter season is to invest in some insulation to put an extra barrier between you and the cold outside.

Sure, this option is going to cost you some money at the outset – particularly when talking about cavity wall insulation – but that money is going to return to you within a couple of years via your heating bill, so savings are not immediate, but will pay off in the longer term.

Given that heat rises, loft insulation is perhaps the most cost-effective insulation option, with all the warm trapped air contributing to a pleasant indoor temperature.

In a UK home, the cost of fibreglass loft insulation rolls will vary (due to the size of your loft and the depth of the insulation required), but if you install it yourself, you could end up paying as little as £200-£300 for everything.

2. Your Oven Can Help Keep Your House Warm

A simple way to add to your home's energy efficiency is to make use of heat you're already producing – from your oven. Once you're done baking or roasting, there's a whole lot of heat you can use.

Rather than allowing the warm air from your cooking to dissipate in the usual way – by passing through your oven's ventilation system – you could leave your oven door open.

This burst of heat can last for 10-15 minutes and help reduce heating costs over time. It's an often-overlooked source of warmth.

3. Draft Proof Your Home to Keep Cold Air Out

Believe it or not, draughts in your home can lead to 15-30% of its heat being lost. However, by draught-proofing your front door and windows you'll will keep your house warmer without moving your heating controls up.

Depending on the age of your home, you might need to draught-proof your chimney. An uninsulated chimney can lead to losing up to 30% of your home's heat, as it's a big space, usually between 30 to 45 cm wide, that’s open to the wind and the cold.  

Excluding Drafts Doesn't Cost a Lot

Door draught excluder products are very cost-effective, as are those for your front door's letterbox, so this kind of draft protection will also help you to keep your money in your pocket.

Fitting them to your exterior doors only takes a few minutes and a couple of basic tools available from most DIY shops. In fact, some can be installed without any tools at all. This means you'll usually be able to draught proof your home yourself.

4. Insulate Your Water Pipes

Did you know that insulating your hot water pipes can also add to your home's warmth? When you add pipe lagging, foam tubes or other types of reflective pipe insulation, you make your central heating more efficient by reducing the amount of heat lost.

Insulating your pipes can also help prevent them from freezing during a very cold winter – something you can read more about in this dedicated article: How Do Your Prevent Water Pipes Freezing? 

5. Thermal Curtains Can Reduce Your Heating Bills

If you want to keep your house warm in winter, it's important that you stop warm air from escaping through your windows. Even if your windows have no issues with drafts, they're still made of glass, so they'll lose some heat via thermal transmittance.

However, you can reduce this form of heat loss with long, heavier curtains or curtains which are insulated, typically foam-backed to provide an extra layer of insulation. Thermal curtains like these can be bought for under £100 and can be found at your local DIY store.

6. Insulate Your Floor With Rugs

Are you aware that you can also lose around 10-15% through your floor if it's not insulated? The amount of heat that escapes through your floor is influenced by what it's made of, with wooden and concrete flooring losing more than other types.

You can add some effective insulation to hard floors without it costing you a fortune by adding rugs in your living room, bedroom and hallway. This will further help you to save money while also keeping your feet warm this winter.

7. Install Shelves Over Radiators

When you install shelves over your radiators, you get extra storage space and when done right, it will add a nice aesthetic to your home.

Additionally, it will also add to your home's energy efficiency by directing the hot air into the middle of the room, rather than having it simply rise to the ceiling. The room will feel warmer even though there's no more heat being generated by your central heating system overall.

8. Bleed Your Radiators

Over time, central heating radiators can accumulate trapped air inside which reduces their efficiency. When air gets inside, it stops the hot water from circulating properly, causing cool spots.

This reduces heat output and means that every time you turn your heating on, it won't be warming your home as quickly as it should be, making the system work harder and using more energy.

Bleeding Radiators is Simple

Bleeding radiators is a pretty simple job too. All you'll need a radiator key or flathead screwdriver, depending on your radiator type. It goes a little something like this:

1. Turn off your heating and waiting for the system to cool

2. Find the bleed valve (usually at the top, side edge of the radiator)

3. Turn the value anti-clockwise slowly, a quarter to a half  turn, to release any air

4. Let the air vent until it’s replaced by water

5. Quickly tighten the valve again once the water starts flowing

You should be doing this at least once a year (ideally at the start of Autumn) so that your boiler heats your home more efficiently and allows you to set your heating system at a lower level while achieving the same warmth.

9. Don't Cover Radiators

Keeping your house warm in winter can be as simple as moving your furniture around. Now, we're not talking about Feng Shui here. We just mean repositioning your sofas and chairs to ensure that they're not blocking your radiators.

Radiators, as their name suggests, are designed to radiate heat around the room – something they can't do if they're blocked by furniture.

However, if you move furniture, especially sofas, away from radiators they'll be able to radiate more heat, meaning they'll cost less to run.

10. Tin Foil Can Help Keep the Heat in

Here's another tip. Did you also know that you can use items from your kitchen cupboards to make sure that less warmth escapes from your property?

Simply by putting tin foil on the wall behind radiators, you'll stop heat from escaping by reflecting it back into the room.

Again, this will allow your heating to run at a lower temperature and keep more of your cash in your bank account, rather than in the hands of the energy companies.

11. Only Switch Your Heating on When You Need it

This might sound like an obvious tip for lower energy bills, but you should only be putting your heating on when you really need to.

A lot of people leave their heating on when they go out or even set it too high and end up having to open their windows because it's too warm inside. That’s effectively burning money.

12. Smart Tech Makes Home Energy Easier to Manage

A good starting point to make sure you're using only the energy you need is by investing in a smart thermostat, many of which can be controlled from your phone, no matter where you are. Only 6% of UK homeowners have one installed, despite the benefits on offer.

It's a surprising statistic really, as dropping your thermostat by just a single degree can help you save up to as much as 10% over the course of a year, which can equate to £80 to £100. Hive and Netatmo are popular smart thermostat brands.

Final Thoughts

So, if you're looking to prevent heat loss this year, there are many ways you can do it. Some methods cost money whereas others require just a little time and know-how. And several small thing done to help reduce heat loss will add up.

Whether talking about draughtproofing, bleeding your radiators or investing in a smart thermostat, it's up to you which of the ideas we've covered here you put into practice.

Combine them all and you'll do much to ensure that you make your wages or pension go further during the coldest days of the year.

We hope you found some of these energy saving tips useful to help you stay warm in your home this winter.

For more helpful how-to DIY guides and home renovation inspiration, visit the Hiatt Hardware Blog.