10 tips to reduce the heating bill
When I was looking into thermostatic radiator valves, I also read that by efficiently using heating controls, such as, a room thermostat, a programmer and thermostatic radiator valves, you could save around £75 a year and reduce carbon emissions by 320kg (The Energy Saving Trust).
I started thinking about our heating bill and ways to lower it since we are in the winter months and are using the heating a lot more!
It turns out there are a lot of articles with tips to reduce the heating bill so I’ve summarised below 10 tips that I thought were really helpful and easy to do!
1. Switch energy suppliers
It’s definitely worth looking to see if there are cheaper energy tariffs available and seeing what savings you could get if you switch energy providers.
We used the Cheap Energy Club from MoneySavingExpert.com to help us find a better deal and switch. I’ve written about our experience here!
MoneySavingExpert.com also has a useful guide named: Cheap Gas & Electricity: Compare now to save £100s.
2. Set a timer for the heating
It wouldn’t be energy efficient to have the heating on all day and so if you have a programmable room thermostat, then you can set when the boiler turns on and off, and set different temperatures for different times of day. You can also control the temperature in each room with thermostatic radiator valves, see tip 4.
For more tips from Which?, see this article.
3. Turn down the room thermostat
The Energy Saving Trust recommends setting the room thermostat between 18-21°C and they also suggest you may want to set it to 23°C if there is someone older, unwell or has a disability, or if there is a young child in the home.
According to the Energy Saving Trust, by reducing the room thermostat down by one degree, potential savings could be £60 and 310kg of carbon dioxide a year!
These were potential savings for a typical three-bedroom semi-detached home, heated by gas. Figures based on fuel prices as of May 2020. Find out more on their website!
4. Zone your heating
You can save energy and money by having better control of the temperature in each room, which is where the thermostatic radiator valves (TRVs) come in! For example, the temperature of the living room can be set higher than the temperature of a hallway as we spend a lot of time in the living room and are often sitting still so we might feel colder whereas we don’t use the hallway as often and don’t spend long periods of time in the hallway.
OVO energy has a useful guide on ideal room temperature for your home!
I’ve written a detailed blog post on TRVs to explain what they are and how to set them.
5. Turn off the radiators in rooms that are not in use
Heating a room requires energy and in turn means higher energy bills so if a room isn’t in use, you can turn off the radiators and save money. This was a tip from Uswitch.com.
6. Wear a dressing gown (or layer up)!
When I moved into a flat with my friend a few years ago, we were discussing how we should set the heating and I was all for having the heating on for longer as I was often feeling cold in the flat and she suggested wearing a dressing gown and having the heating on for a shorter amount of time.
She was shocked to hear that I had never worn a dressing gown and she kindly bought me one as a Christmas present! It’s so fluffy and warm! I love it!
I’ve recently discovered that Hubby has also never had a dressing gown so I bought him one. We now spend most of our evenings wrapped up in our dressing gowns but it also means we don’t need to have the heating on as much and can lower the temperature.
7. Keep doors closed for rooms that you don’t heat
The Energy Saving Trust recommends closing the doors for rooms that you don’t heat. I found this tip in a MoneySavingExpert.com Energy Mythbusting guide! Worth a read!
It was also mentioned in this BBC article, as closing the doors of unheated rooms helps to prevent the cold air moving into other parts of the home and help to contain the heat in a smaller area.
We have also noticed that when we open our living room door, we feel the cold air from the hallway so now we are in the habit of just making sure that door is closed when we are in the living room!
8. Draught-proof your property
By draught-proofing, you can reduce heat loss which means you will use less energy to heat your home and in turn, reduce the energy bill.
The Energy Saving Trust has a useful guide on it. The 'Dealing with draughts' section explains common areas to find draughts and how to fix them!
Common areas include:
- Windows
- Doors
- Floorboards and skirting boards
- Loft hatches
- Pipework
Dad actually already gave me some foam strips but I just hadn’t gotten around to doing it. Another task to fill my time in lockdown 3!
Also, previously I saw this cute draught excluder from Next when I was looking for our door stop but I thought that it’s quite expensive. There are definitely much cheaper options though!
9. Use thick curtains
Thick curtains can also reduce heat loss. When we picked our curtains, we went for lined curtains and blackout curtains but I did see thermal lined ones when we were choosing our curtains on the Dunelm website.
If you have just bought your first home, I have some blog posts on choosing and installing curtains which might be useful!
10. Use natural sunlight to warm your home
If you let the sunlight in during the day, it can warm up the room so one tip from this BBC article is to open the curtains during the day and then close the curtains or blinds when dusk falls to retain the heat.
Also being in lockdown, it’s just such a nice feeling to open the curtains in the morning, look outside and get some natural light in the room!
That’s all for now!
Jess
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