The majority of people are embroiled in a modern day battle against their heating bills. Try as they might, reducing their bills is a big struggle. The battle against heating bills gets even tougher when the temperature drops. As the days get colder, your need for a warm home gets greater. So, people will often have their heating on for more hours which results in higher costs.
If you’re not careful, you can soon rack up some serious heating bill charges. The problem is, it can become so serious that you’re unable to keep up with payments. What does this lead to? It leads to people being in debt as well as being cold in their home.
The purpose of this post is to help everyone save money on their heating bills. Reduce the costs and make bills more manageable every month. There are many great tips and snippets of advice, all of which you can find right here:
Search for the Best Deal on the Market
The first thing you should do is compare your current energy tariff to the others on the market. This will give you a good idea as to whether or not you’re being ripped off. It’s always recommended you compare energy suppliers every year. Some companies introduce new tariffs or offers for new customers that can save you money on your heating bills. There are numerous price comparison websites where you can conduct all of your research on this matter. If you find that you have the best deal on the market, then there’s not a lot you can do. My advice is to move on through this article and check all of the other points.
However, if you don’t have the best deal, then you have two options ahead of you. Firstly, you can cancel your contract and move to a different supplier. This may take a bit of time, but, it’s worth it for the savings you stand to make. Switching suppliers can mean you’re entitled to all the new customer benefits and deals that a cheaper company may offer you. The second option is to call up your supplier and threaten to cancel your contract. Tell them you want to move to a different company as they have a much better deal. When you do this, they will try their best to keep you on their books. They will offer you deals that are better than your current one. You may find that they give you a better deal than the supplier you’re thinking of switching to. In which case, it makes sense to stick with your current supplier and get that new deal. If they can’t offer you anything better then proceed with option one and leave.
Stop Heat Escaping Your Home
One of the main reasons people rack up huge heating bills is because there is too much heat escaping their home. Naturally, as heat escapes, there is a greater need for more heat. You turn your central heating up to compensate for the loss and keep your home warm. But, you could keep your central heating down low if you addressed the main issue here. Look around your house for any places where heat is likely to escape. Two of the biggest culprits are windows and doors. Old windows can often have damaged and cracked fixtures that let heat out and cold air in. Likewise, thin window panes aren’t very good for insulating your home. Get double or triple glazing to keep your house nice and toasty. Your front and back door can also cause so much heat to escape your property. Look at the sides of each door to ensure there are no gaps for heat to leave. If there are, you need to place material around your door to prevent the escape.
The roof of your house is also another place that lets in cold air and allows heat to run free. Check your roofing to ensure everything is in good condition, and no cracks are present. If there are, fix them and stop cold air entering your home. It’s also highly recommended you check the insulation in your attic. If it hasn’t been changed for decades, then it may have lost its ability to insulate your home. So, get some new insulation to put in your attic and trap heat in your home.
There are a couple of other ways you can also stop heat from escaping your home. Buy thick rugs and curtains for the winter months. These materials will help absorb heat and trap it in your rooms. Curtains are particularly effective, and way better at insulating your home than blinds are.
Be Smart When Turning On Your Central Heating
When you turn on your central heating system, you’re allowed to set the temperature. Obviously, the hotter you set it, the more energy you will use up. As a result, you start getting charged more for your heating bills. The obvious solution is to turn down the temperature in your home. It uses up less energy meaning you have more affordable bills.
However, as well as turning the temperature down, you should be smart when you set it. Put your heating on a timer, so it only comes on at certain times during the day. If everyone is out of the house, there’s no need for your heating to be on. You’re not warming anyone up, it’s a complete and utter waste of money. Likewise, what’s the point in turning it on when everyone is asleep? If you turn your heating on before bed, you won’t be able to turn it off until you wake up. It’s on for eight hours straight, most of which you will spend fast asleep. But, if you use a timer, you can set it to turn on just before bed and then turn off after a couple of hours. You go to bed nice and warm, and it doesn’t waste energy all night long. Then, set the timer to turn back on an hour before you wake up in the morning. By the time you wake, your house will be nice and warm.
Be smart with your central heating and always use a timer. This guarantees you’ll never forget to turn the heating off. That’s the main cause of high heating bills in homes all over the world. People simply forget their heating is on, and use up more energy than they need. Also, remember not to set it at a high temperature. Even if you’re clever and use a timer, there’s often no need for a high temp setting.
Wrap Up Warm
It’s been mentioned that you should keep your central heating on a low temperature. Some of you may think this will leave you feeling colder in your home. In theory, it will only keep you cold if you don’t look for other ways to keep warm. Make yourself warmer in your house, and you can have your heating on a very low setting.
The most obvious way to make yourself warmer is by dressing for cold weather. Stop hanging around the house in shorts and a t-shirt. Get some thick wooly jumpers and socks to keep your body warm. Wrap yourself up in blankets and get a thick duvet for your bed. While in bed, get a hot water bottle to cuddle and increase your body temperature. You’ll be amazed at how much hotter this can make you feel. All of these things will help reduce the need for your heating to be on full blast.
Look for Alternative Heating Solutions
In addition to wrapping up warm, you can use alternative heating solutions in your home. Doing this helps lower your need to have the central heating on. For example, you can buy a portable heater for your home. This is a great way of heating a room without using half as much energy as your central heating does. A little portable heater can keep your living space warm when everyone is sat watching TV. It’s also perfect to have in your room if you’re extra cold despite your hot water bottle and the thick duvet. Portable heaters can be powered via one of two methods. You can get some that are battery powered and some that plug into wall sockets. Even when plugged into a socket, they don’t use as much energy as a central heating system. A very convenient idea that limits the need for your central heating to be set at a high temperature.
If you have a natural fireplace, then there’s another heating solution right under your nose. Chop up some wood and burn it to create heat. The heat from a proper fireplace can be extremely comforting during the winter. Fire it up and keep the door open in your living room to allow the heat to travel through your house. The beauty of this is that it doesn’t use up any energy and won’t contribute to your heating bill. If you go out and chop the wood yourself, you end up getting free heating in your home.
The third idea is to heat your home by doing some cooking. Anyone that’s ever done some cooking will tell you that kitchens get really hot. There are so many appliances you will use that give off heat. A kettle will boil water and release warm steam into the air, as will pots and pans on a stove. Your oven will heat up very nicely to cook anything you’ve put inside it. The end result is a kitchen that feels like a sauna. So, allow some of that heat to flow through the house by keeping the kitchen door open. Have the doors open to your other rooms too so the heat can reach them as well. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at how effective this can be at heating your home.
Pay Attention to Your Radiators
Radiators are what provide the rooms in your home with the heat from your central heating system. They can also be the cause of your extra high heating bills. You can turn off your radiators when they aren’t being used. For example, let’s say you have the central heating on, but, no one is in their bedrooms. Everyone is downstairs, and those are the rooms you want to be heated. What you can do is head on up to the bedrooms and turn all the radiators off. This means you aren’t wasting heat trying to warm up rooms that aren’t being used.
You should also check your radiators and give them a good clean from time to time. It’s easy for them to become blocked with dirt, dust, and debris. When this happens, they lose their efficiency. Your central heating is turned on, and your radiators aren’t heating your home as well as they should be. So, you end up turning up the thermostat or keeping the heating on for longer to make up for this.
There are also a couple of things you can do to your radiators to make them more effective. For one, you can place tin foil sheets behind them. It’s claimed that the metal sheets will reflect the heat from the radiator back into the room. This prevents it from escaping into the room next to you. It’s a great DIY trick that helps you keep your home hotter without using more energy than you need to. Secondly, you can buy things called radiator boosters that are similar to fans. They help disperse the air that ends up stuck behind radiators. They’re affordable and can heat up your room quite considerably.
On that note, we’ve come to the end of this piece. Use all of these tips to reduce the costs of your heating bills. You can apply them all year round meaning there are huge savings to be made. However, winter is the time where most people struggle to keep a lid on their heating bills. The cold weather forces them into using more energy to keep their home warm. These tips can help you control your heating, and save a lot of cash.
