If you want to keep warm around the home and save money on heating bills this winter, here’s an essential energy saving guide:
Check your windows
Image credit: Evolution Windows
The most obvious energy saving way to keep the cold out and the heat inside your home is to keep your windows shut. Also make sure they are good quality, well fitted and well maintained double or preferably triple glazed panes. Triple glazing is approximately 60% more thermally efficient than standard C-Rated aluminium double glazing and 40% more than an A-Rated double glazed window. Triple glazed windows insulate in a few different ways. Having three panes of glass triples the amount of glass that heat has to get through, slowing its movement and aiding insulation. The real insulating power, however, comes from the trapped air between the panes of glass.
Keep your doors shut
Image credit: The English Door Company
Also, keep doors shut when the heating is on, especially if you congregate in one room during the evenings. Dig out a draught excluder or have them fitted to all your doors. And don’t forget less obvious areas where heat can escape – keyholes and letterboxes, for instance, for which flaps are available.
Check your floors
In a typical home, 15 per cent of the heat is lost through the floor alone. Check floorboards and skirting boards for gaps. Just by buying some beading or mastic sealant, you could save money on your heating bill.
Block up disused fireplaces
If you have an unused fireplace, be sure the flue is closed. Consider putting glass doors in place to minimise heat loss. Another option is to consider a chimney pillow/balloon, an inflatable bag made from a special laminate that makes them airtight and which will just shrivel up if heated by accident and is a safer option than newspaper stuffed up the chimney!
Lower your thermostat
Image credit: Ecobee
By turning your thermostat down to reduce your room temperature by just 1C, you could cut your heating bills by up to 10 per cent.
Insulate your walls and loft
Around half of heat loss in a typical home is through the walls and loft. No wonder the average British home could save hundreds of pounds by installing loft insulation and cavity wall insulation.
Trap your heat
Image credit: Blinds 2 Go
An effective way of reducing energy bills, certainly in period properties, is simply closing your blinds or curtains at night. Thermal blinds are the best choice that have an airpocket to trap heat. Alternatively choose thermal lined curtains or roman blinds. If your curtains aren’t heavily lined, tack a blanket behind them, but be sure to let in the light during the daytime as the sun helps to warm your home.
Invest in Smart Technology
One cool thing the Internet now allows us to do is track our energy consumption. You can buy devices that tap into your electricity, gas and oil and read how much you are using. They will provide you with daily, weekly and monthly reports, as well as an insight into where you could be saving. These things might seem small, but they add up and a smart home picks up on them and helps to bring your consumption down to a minimum.
For further information on how Smart Technology can help you save click here.
If you follow all the tips in this guide you should have a toasty warm home and lower energy bills!
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