While sometimes the best way to make sure that your home stays warm for the winter is to get yourself a new boiler and to make sure that your heating system is working as effectively as possible, you should also look at how your home can better keep the heat inside. Improving the heat efficiency of your home is not only going to help it heat up quicker than ever, but it’s also going to make it a little easier to keep those heating bills down.
Heating the home is getting more expensive, to the point it’s becoming a serious budgetary concern for a lot of families. Here, we’re going to look at how you can better keep that heat inside.
Start with insulation
There are very few things that improve the energy efficiency of a home like ensuring that it is well insulated. Warm air can escape the home in all directions, where there’s a gap, there is a way. If your walls, attic, and other parts of the home aren’t insulated, then heat can transfer through solid surfaces like a wall. If your home doesn’t have insulation, you might be able to get a grant that can make it a lot more accessible.
Look at the roof
One of the oldest lessons we all learn about how heat works is the simple phrase: heat rises. As such, if a lot of heat is escaping the home, then it’s most likely to be affecting your roof, first and foremost. Insulating the interior of your attic is a sure-fire way to stop this from happening, but damage to your roof tiles can open up a path for heating to get out of, as well. An annual roof inspection should keep you on top of any issues that can be repaired.
Mind your windows and doors
As useful as they are, windows and doors can be the opening in the armour that is your home that allows heat to escape. This is especially true of older windows and doors, which might have opened up with air gaps lately. The single best way to improve them is to replace them when they get old enough, with options like uPVC windows providing a cost-effective solution that can greatly reduce heat loss through your windows. If your windows haven’t been changed in decades, it might be time to consider this solution.
Seal up those gaps
You might not be ready to replace a window or a door that has opened up with an air leak as of yet, but that doesn’t mean that you simply have to let it be. For instance, you can use weatherstripping or caulk to seal gaps and cracks in walls, windows, and doors. A draught excluder for your door can be helpful as well. It’s worth noting, however, that these are only temporary solutions. At some point, you’re going to need to address the cause, whether it’s a crack that needs to be properly repaired, or doors and windows that need to be replaced.
Even the right curtains
Your window treatments can have a bigger impact on the effects of heat loss on the home than you might realise. The heavier those treatments, the better they tend to be in keeping the heat from escaping out the window. As such, you should look at options such as insulated curtains or blinds. They can also have other effects, such as better noise insulation, which can make them a great fit for the bedroom, for instance, where noise at night, as well as the cold, might be making it a little harder to get to sleep.
Mind your chimney
Do you have a chimney in your home? Even if it’s unused, it could be a point of heat loss that you might not even be aware of. There are ways to prevent this, of course. Aside from making use of the fireplace, so that the opening generates more heat than cold there are things like chimney balloons that you can send up there, blocking the path so that heat cannot escape. If you don’t use your chimney and, indeed, never plan to use it, then you can have it sealed off, as well.
With the tips above, you should have a better idea of the various ways that you can improve the heat efficiency of your home and stop it from escaping the home. It’s worth making the investment now, rather than having to pay a lot more for the fuel you need to fight the cold.
1
Leave a Reply