As we head into the colder months, heating and insulation are becoming a very hot topic. With the added pressure of the current fuel crisis, insulation provides a cost-effective means of making your home less fossil fuel dependent and therefore helps you save on those all-important bills.
From altering your curtains, to insulating your attic, experts at GoodMove have shared some handy tips on how to keep your home warm and cosy during those chilly months.
1. Seal drafty doorways and windows
Heat’s mastery is escaping from every little crevice, so it’s key to keep out those pesky draughts by keeping doorways fully sealed over the colder months.
Make sure to use rubber weatherstripping to fill spaces between the sides and bottom of your door and the door frame. If the space between the bottom of the door and your floor is extra-large you can also use a draft stopper.
For external doors, ensure that your keyhole, letterbox, or cat flaps are covered. These accessories can make a massive difference to your home’s insulation and can be picked up for a couple of pounds from your local hardware store.
2. Insulate your pipes and hot water tank
As you would put a jacket on to guard yourself against frosty temperatures, the same applies to your pipes and hot water tank. All you need to do is purchase a tank jacket, which can help you save on money by keeping your water hot.
You should also consider insulating your pipes, especially if you have any external pipes outside your home – very cold weather could cause these pipes to freeze, causing warps or cracks as well as potentially very expensive damage to your entire system. Invest in foam tubing, or ‘lagging’, that wraps around the pipes, to protect them from extreme temperatures and keep your water hot.
3. Check floors for cracks and gaps
It’s not just the cracks under our door that heat can escape from – heat is prone to drifting upwards through cracks in floorboards. This is especially true of older houses that have genuine wooden timber floorboards.
Rugs are a cheap, and stylish way of preventing heat from escaping. However, if you are looking to future-proof your home, carpet is also an option to consider for long-term investment.
4. Add thick curtains to your windows
Temperatures can drop to what feels like arctic levels over the colder months, so curtains can provide an added layer of protection from those bitter nights.
Options such as Thermaliner blackout curtains are a committed way of keeping your home insulated. However, if you’re perfectly happy with your current style of curtain, you can simply add fleece liner to your existing curtains.
Top tip: Keep the curtains open during daylight hours to let the sunlight in and add natural heat to your home, but when the sun sets, draw your curtains.
5. Make your radiators more efficient
You can make your radiators work harder by checking that they’re in good working order and maximising on their location. Make sure they’re bled regularly, and that there’s no furniture in front of them that could be absorbing heat.
If your radiators are located on external walls, consider lining them with foil to reflect heat back into your room instead of it being wasted and escaping into the wall.
6. Insulate the Attic
If your home is without adequate insulation, you could be losing up to a quarter of your home’s heat through your roof. Therefore, the key to future-proofing your home is to prevent the heat from rising and heating the attic instead of living spaces.
Insulation is fitted to the floor of the loft, trapping the heat in the main part of the house and stopping it from rising up to the loft. This is perfect for property owners that use their loft as excess storage space.
Plus, insulating your attic can make your home much more sustainable, through reduced energy usage. In today’s property market, where sustainability is a key box-ticking requirement for buyers, this can set your house apart from similar properties on the market.
“In the coming months, for many of us it will be all too tempting to reach for the thermostat. However, even without the rising energy prices at the moment, this can be an incredibly expensive method of keeping yourself and your family warm.” Nima Ghasri, Director at GoodMove explains. “Therefore, we hope that our top tips can help to provide a simple, and cost-effective, method of keeping your home warm over the winter months.”
For those interested in more information on how to insulate their home, please visit: https://goodmove.co.uk/blog/selling-advice/how-to-winter-proof-your-home