How to cut your heating bill before Winter….

I’ve just had an email from our Energy supplier, e-on, letting us know that our energy bills are likely to go up over the next year due to the Ofgem price cap increasing from the 1st October. 

This is the estimated costs for the next year, compared to this year:

It’s not a huge increase to be fair but it just feels like another bill that’s increasing!

We were planning to switch to Octopus energy for this house when we move to our new house as that’s who supplies my old house (where a now 20 year old Master Frugal lives) as I’ve been really impressed with them since they took over Bulb as the supplier.

In the meantime though, it’s all about making sure that this house is as ready for Winter as possible. 

We absolutely aren’t the kind of people who will reach for a jumper or an extra pair of socks when we’re cold, we’ll always turn on the heating if we’re cold so for that reason, we want to make sure that the house is as energy efficient as possible so it stays warm for as long as possible and retains the heat when we do switch the heating on. 

So here’s my top ten tips on what you can do to reduce your heating bills without feeling the need to sit and shiver under a pile of jumpers and blankets…

• Bleed your radiators – I had no idea about this one but apparently trapped air stops your radiators from heating up properly, so you need to bleed them to make sure they’re working at full efficiency. We have a little key that my partner uses to do ours every now and again but I don’t actually know what it is that he does. 😁

           I’d recommend having a watch of this video to understand more about this. 

• Check for drafts – If you have any little drafts then get them sorted before the cold weather descends. Use draft excluders on drafty doors and seal any gaps around windows. Honestly, even a rolled-up towel can help. We did some work in our kitchen last year before Winter as we had a draft from around the big window which we sealed up and it’s made a world of difference. 

• Close your curtains at dusk – when the sun goes down, so does the temperature so we always close our curtains when it starts to get dark out and we’ve found that our thick curtains really help trap heat inside. Our new house is a period house with sash windows so I suspect we’re going to need to invest in thick curtains for each room as I can imagine it could be a bit drafty until we’ve had chance to get them sorted.

• Use radiator reflector panels – This is one thing we don’t have but I know about how effective they can be aas I’ve been researching them for our new house. From what I understand, they bounce heat back into the room instead of letting it escape through external walls. They’re not expensive at all – these ones cost just £12.99 for a 5m roll. 

• Turn your thermostat down 1°C – This is one of my biggest tips as I am a huge advocate of this one. I did this when the kids were younger in my old house as they used to love a really hot house which I hate because (a) I hate being hot and (b) it cost a bloody fortune! They didn’t ever notice that I turned it down, first by 1 degree then after a while by another 1 degree. Most people won’t notice the difference in comfort with such a small decrease, but it can cut bills by up to 10%.

• Set heating timers – I hate heating on over night and it’s a total waste to have the heating on through the day when we’re not here so I really recommend that you set a timer for when you need the heating on so you only heat your home only when you need it, not 24/7. 

• Move furniture away from radiators – I’ve always been guilty of this one in previous houses but this house is so much better laid out so we don’t have to have any sofas and beds blocking heat circulation by being pushed up against them.

• Add insulation – Heat rises upwards and I’ve read that 25% of your heat can leave the house through an un-insulated lost and that a quick layer of insulation can reduce that significantly which will keep your house warmer for longer meaning less heating needed. It’s not expensive when you put it into contest around how much money it could save you – have a look here.

• Layer up rooms you use most – Our living room is super cosy in the Winter with a big thick rug covering most of the floor, faux fur blankets on the back of each chair and we re-hung the door last year to address a cheeky draft. It’s the room where we spend most of our time in the Winter so we focussed on cosying it up. 

• Service your boiler – this one is one that you might put off as it feels like a really grown up thing to do but genuinely prevention is better (and cheaper) than fixing an issue so a quick check-up makes it run more efficiently and could prevent breakdowns mid-winter.

It’s worth putting in some time now to prepare your home for Winter so you can reduce your heating bills before it gets cold. I promise, it’s worth it!

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