10 Money-saving home tips for winter
Read our brrr-illiant tips on how to prepare your home for winter, avoid any domestic disasters, and minimise your heating bills....
1. Discard those draughts!
It takes time and money to heat up your home, so it’s important that you do as much as you can to keep in the warmth. Close your doors and windows, and fill any gaps with a draught excluder.
Read more about draught-proofing your home here.
2. Insulate and insulate again
As well as draught-proofing, you could also cut your energy bills by doing the following:
- Cavity wall insulation: Avoid losing heat through your walls.
- Floor insulation: Make sure gaps in the floorboards are filled.
- Loft insulation: Did you know that a quarter of the heat in your home is lost through the roof? You can stop that happening by insulating your loft, attic or flat roof.
- Water tank insulation: Treat your tank to a new winter coat!
3. Open your doors...
Leaving some doors open will help to distribute the heat in your home. For example, leaving the bathroom door open when you run a bath or put the shower on will mean the steam can travel into other rooms. You could even leave your oven door open after cooking! (Remember to keep a careful eye on kids and pets).
A frozen or burst pipe can quite literally put a dampener on things, and the damage can be very costly to repair.
4. Prevent frozen or burst pipes
A frozen or burst pipe can quite literally put a dampener on things, and the damage can be very costly to repair. Make sure you inspect and insulate your pipes and taps before winter really kicks in, and look out for any leaks that could get worse. Also, familiarise yourself with your stopcock’s location, so you can switch off the water supply if you need to. It’s also a good idea to leave the heating on at a low setting if you’re away for the night, to keep warm water circulating through the system.
Read more about preventing burst or frozen pipes here.
5. Get your boiler serviced
Avoid getting left in the cold this winter by making sure your boiler is in good working order. Having your boiler professionally serviced will hopefully avert any problems, so you won’t end up paying for expensive emergency call-outs…
6. Turn down your heating
According to Energy UK, turning down your thermostat by just one degree Celsius could cut your heating bill by up to 10%, and save you around £85 per year. Plus, if you don’t have a thermostat, installing one could save up to £70 per year!
7. Use timers on your central heating
Set your heating to come on half an hour before you get home from work, or before you get up, as advised by The Centre for Sustainable Energy. It takes around 30 minutes to both heat up and cool down an average home, so make sure you also set it to turn off half an hour before you no longer need it. Figure out what works best for your home by tinkering with the timer.
8. Reposition your furniture
It might seem like an obvious point, but make sure you move any furniture that’s blocking a radiator. You’ll feel the full effect of the heat that’s being produced, and ensure you’re not wasting any money!
9. Don’t let the rain dampen things
It’s not just the nip in the air that you have to worry about this winter. We’re all too aware of the wet weather we often experience in the UK, and if your home isn’t properly weather-proofed, you can expect to see more of the rain than you’d like…
The first line of defence, of course, is your roof. Take a look at it from the outside first, to see if you can spot any loose tiles.
10. Protect yourself against home emergencies
As we all know, household emergencies have a nasty habit of occurring when you least expect them! If your central heating failed during the winter months, for example, you’d want to know that it’d be taken care of as quickly and efficiently as possible. We want to help you feel more confident and remove any nagging doubts you might have about home emergencies – read more about Swinton’s Home Emergency Cover here.