How To Keep Your Home Warm This Winter
Here at LP Plumbing and Heating, we are often asked the best way of keeping your home warm. Now there is split thinking on the subject and some varied trains of thought but in the main here are a few tips that in our opinion are a few places you can start that will definitely make a positive difference to helping produce more heat into your home and then keep it there.
10 Tips To Help Keep Your Home Warm & Save Money
1. Make sure your loft is well insulated, heat retention is key to using less energy. The minimum recommended depth of loft insulation is between 250mm and 270mm and that is just a minimum guide, for older houses you may want to be doubling that.
2. Block any drafts around the home that may be coming in. This includes poorly fitted windows, around doors any old vents that no longer serve a purpose. Remember a lot of older houses will have vents in each room that lead directly outside without any baffles so the cold comes directly in. These old vents were for old gas appliances like open flue boilers and gas fires. if you no longer have those get those vents blocked as they are costing you money! Most boilers nowadays are sealed system systems that do not require that level of ventilation.
3. Don't let your home get freezing cold, IE keep your heating thermostat at a minimum of say 18 degrees or whatever you feel is appropriate for when you are not home. It takes longer and uses more energy to heat your home from cold, so setting your heating to off while you are out all day or leaving it on 10 degrees for example is costing you more money as you are heating from cold rather than keeping a constant minimum heat.
4. Keep your home heating thermostat at a set temperature when home, once up to temperature it can be maintained with short bursts of heat rather than long periods of heating time, again using less energy.
5. Keep your boiler serviced annually. This will help to pick up any potential problems early meaning you don't end without heating and hot water when it's freezing outside.
6. If you need a new boiler don't keep putting it off just get one it will save you money in the long term. If you know your boiler has problems address them sooner rather than later when you need it most.
7. Make sure your thermostats are working correctly, a faulty thermostat will cost you money in lost energy, giving incorrect temperature settings.
8. Make sure your radiators are working correctly, for example, are they heating up completely at the top and the bottom or only just getting warm. You may need a central heating system clean if this is the case.
9. Keep your doors shut around the home so that individual rooms keep their heat.
10. Ensure your thermostats are located in the rooms you spend the most time in. Having your thermostat in a cold drafty hallway will mean you are burning more and more fuel as that room never gets fully warm resulting in the heating being on all the time.
