Temperatures are heading in a downward direction, while bills are only going up, up, up. Welcome to winter 2024.
We’ve already endured our first cold snap of the season, and have just found out what fuel bills will look like in 2025.
The energy price cap was hiked by more than 10 per cent from October, sending the average annual household bill up to £1,717. In the first quarter of next year they will go up again, to £1,738 on average.
Thankfully you don’t have to choose between being chilly and being broke. There are many hacks to help keep your house warmer and cosier without cranking up the thermostat. Up for something a bit more high tech? There are also plenty of smart ways to upgrade your home to make it seriously energy efficient:
Free
Make sure radiators aren’t blocked by furniture. There’s no point paying to heat the back of the sofa. For an extremely modest cost you can also make the most of your radiators by inserting sheets of kitchen foil behind them to help reflect heat back into the room.
You should bleed your radiators regularly to release trapped air and make sure they are heated all the way from top to bottom. For more information on how to do this see britishgas.com.
Keep curtains and blinds open during the day, particularly if there’s a glimmer of sunshine. Close them after dark to stop heat escaping. The thicker the curtains the more heat they will retain.
Put on an extra layer, and turn your thermostat down by a single degree to cut your heating bill by 10 per cent. You can also try turning down the temperature to avoid paying for unnecessarily scalding-hot water.
Easy and cheap
A lot of heating is lost through the floor, especially if you like the bare-boards look. When Soulla Christodoulou, 58, from Finchley sanded down the floorboards in the ground floor of her period home she took the trouble to fill in all the gaps in with a mix of PVA glue and the left-over sawdust to beat the drafts. “We also bought felt underlay for our rugs and our home is much warmer,” said Soulla, a novelist and founder of editing and writing company Writing for Life (www.soulla-author.com).
The Government itself recommends basic draught proofing is one of the cheapest and most effective ways to keep your home warm. Block unwanted gaps around windows, doors and floors using either self-adhesive foam strips (cheap, won’t last forever) or metal or plastic strips (slightly more expensive, considerably more durable). Don’t block essential ventilation points, like air bricks or extractors because you do need some fresh air coming in.
Not only will your home be warmer once its draft proofed but you will knock about £40 off your annual power bills. See the Help for Households advice hub for more information.
A draft excluder, the heavier the better, against the front door will stop cold outside air seeping in.
Letterbox draft excluders will be slightly annoying for your post-person because they make it harder to push letters through, but will also help block cold air. You can buy excluders in a range of sizes from DIY or hardware stores for less than a tenner.
If you are not in a position to install double or even triple glazing there are loads of window insulation kits you can buy for about £15 to £20. They aren’t particularly aesthetically pleasing, and something of a faff to install, but by creating an air barrier between the window and the room they are effective.
A heated clothes airer will dry clothes when there’s a chill in the air. Drying laundry on radiators is a big no because you are pumping excess moisture into the air, and a covered radiator is less efficient at heating a room too. Lakeland’s Dry:Soon three tier airer has a bit of a cult following, costs 9p-an-hour to run, and is currently priced at £224.98.
Home improvements
Because she works from home designing reading aids for children (www.wordier.online) keeping warm is crucial for Kamilah Hale, 35, from Bromley, Kent. “I'm disabled, causing immobility, and have Raynaud's, a condition which causes poor circulation, so I am constantly cold,” she said.
Kamilah has tried many tricks to keep her home comfortable, including adding insulation and silver foil panels behind radiators. But for her the most effective solution involved a quick call to a plumber. “I got my radiator system flushed last year for £500 and I can't tell you what a difference it's made to my house.
“It used to take at least four hours to get two degrees hotter. It can now do that in under an hour. My radiators are properly hot for the first time in the seven years since I bought my flat.
“Honestly, one of the best investments I've ever made. I wish I'd done it years ago.”
You should also get your boiler serviced annually to keep it running efficiently.
Loft insulation is another no-brainer, keeping the heat you’ve paid for inside your home and protecting your pipes against freezing.
Uninsulated lofts are responsible for up to a quarter of your home's heat loss, according to green energy advisors GreenMatch which estimates that insulating the loft of a three bedroom semi will cost around £930.
Make sure that loft insulation is at least 270mm thick for maximum effect. If you have a hot water tank it should be insulated too – the Energy Saving Trust (EST) recommends that hot water cylinders have an 80mm thick insulated cover.
About a third of heat loss is through the walls according to the EST. If your home was built after 1920 you probably have cavity walls, and can combat this by filling the gap with insulation. You will need a specialist company to drill small holes into the outside walls and then inject insulation – usually mineral wool or polystyrene beads through them before sealing up the gaps. It should only take a few hours, costs around £400, and the EST said that that savings mean that the outlay should be repaid within five years. For more information see energysavingtrust.com.
Double glazing makes a massive difference to a cold and drafty old house. Prices vary depending on the materials you use – UPVC is comparatively cheap but ugly, but hardwood frames could cost twice as much. The EST suggests budgeting around £15,000 to install new A-rated windows in a semi-detached house. By comparison the cash savings are modest – about £140 per year.
Your boiler gobbles up around half of the energy you use at home. An A-rated condensing boiler will save around £200 per year. Budget around £2,000 to replace an older model. Boxt.com are offering £150 off Valliant boilers from 29 November until 2 December.
If you want more fundamental change then an air source heat pump could be the way to go but be warned, its not a straightforward option. Buying and installing a pump, which will be significantly more energy efficient than a conventional boiler, will cost around £12,000 according to consumer watchdog Which? The good news is that there are Government grants of up to £7,500 available to help with the cost. You will also need space for the pump, usually about the size of a washing machine, and an underfloor heating system. For more information on heat pumps see: getaheatpump.org.uk
