When heating bills seem to keep going up and up, it can be hard to know how you can save money – particularly when you and your family want to be warm.
But small things can have a big impact over time on your heating bill. You can start to save money straight away by lagging a hot water pipe, for example, but you may not notice this saving for some time.
There are also times when you will need to bite the bullet and spend money to improve something in order to save money in the longer term.
Fitting a new heating system and investing in underfloor heating is one way of investing money in your property, but saving in the longer term.
Heating your home
To heat your home, you use energy. This can be supplied via mains gas or electricity, via ground source heat pumps, air source heat pumps, wind generated energy or solar power. However your home is heated, you want to use as little energy as possible and keep as much as the heat in your property, for as long as possible too.
Here are 7 ways of saving on your heating bill.
1 Exclude draughts
Losing heat is the quickest way of making your property cold. Taking time to fit draught excluders around exterior door frames, especially those that are not double glazed, will help keep draughts out and warm air in. You may think that this small improvement is not worth the effort but you will be amazed at how much heat is lost over the winter months through gaps and draughts around non-double glazed doors and windows.
2 Turn the heat down
In a well-insulated home, you will notice your boiler or heating system needing to fire up less often as the amount of residual heat in your home remains high. To this end, turning down the thermostat a degree or two makes perfect sense.
3 Invest in a more efficient source of heating
A log burner, gas central heating, electric bar fires… There are all kinds of ways and means of heating a home. Underfloor heating is growing in popularity and for many reasons.
- Underfloor heating supplies are affordable and readily available to create a system perfect for you home
- It is a source of background heat that keeps your home warm enough throughout the day and night
- It can use ground source heat as its energy supply which, apart from the cost of apparatus and fitting, is a constant, free supply of energy
4 Insulate walls and lofts
The minimum recommended depth of insulation in a loft has increased from 120mm to 270mm. Topping up your loft insulation will save you serious cash over the longer term.
Making sure that walls are insulated will also help to keep the heat in. Cavity wall insulation or adding an extra layer of wall insulation on the outside can also save you cash over the longer term. Increasing your home’s Energy Performance Certificate grade will also have an impact on its value too.
5 Insulate you!
The days of walking around your home in winter, the heat on full blast and lounging about in a t-shirt should be long gone. This is not only costing you hundreds of pounds but it is also pumping CO2 into the atmosphere at a high rate.
As well as turning the thermostat down a degree or two or more, insulating yourself by wearing a jumper, woolly socks and slippers and so on.
6 Use heat in the home well
When you have finished using the oven leave its door open to allow the heat to dissipate through the kitchen and around the home.
7 And finally, don’t overpay
Taking time to regularly shop around and get the best deal is simply essential.
Having background heat in your property will change how you live in your home. Underfloor Heating Trade Supplies has a range of underfloor heating kits that bring its customers many benefits.
