15 Tips for
Warming
Winter

The nights are definitely getting colder so here’s some ideas to help keep your warmer and more comfortable, and reduce your heating bills.

1. Mind the gap: Block draughts by adding foam seals to doors and windows, make sure your curtains fit, use door draught stoppers, block unused chimneys and fit underfloor insulation where possible.
2. Trim trees blocking the sun: Maximise the amount of sunshine coming into your house in winter by trimming overgrown trees that are shading your house.
3. Follow the sun: If you're home during the day, as much as possible try to follow the sun as it moves around your house for some natural warmth.
4. Stay active: Boosting your circulation gets your internal heater going to keep you warmer. Get up and move around a bit once or twice an hour: chase the cat, play with the kids, do a quick chore and get you blood pumping.
5. Close curtains as the sun goes down: Capture the heat of the sun by pulling curtains in the late afternoon just as it goes down. An insulated home will also help you hold this free heat for longer.
6. Close doors: Keep doors to unoccupied rooms closed of course but also keep your garage door closed if you have internal access with a draught stopper on the internal door.
7. Check your thermostat: Have you got the temperature on your heater set higher than you need? Each extra degree of heat is costing you money so lower the thermostat to a level you’re comfortable with.
8. Dress for the season: It is winter so don’t heat to a level where you can lounge around in t-shirt & shorts. Put usual winter layers on and adjust your thermostat down to save money.
9. After baking - leave the oven door open: Once you're done cooking let all that heat out to warm the room.
10. Throws for late night warmth: if you’re only planning on staying up for a couple of hours, keep a throw or blanket handy to curl up under instead of switching the heat on.
11. Limit electric blankets for pre-warming only: Once you’re snug in a warm bed your duvet or blankets should be sufficient to conserve your body heat and keep you warm through the night. If you’re still cold perhaps a warmer duvet is in order.
12. Turn off half an hour before bedtime: If you switch your heat off (or programme it to turn off) half an hour before you head to bed, the residual heat will keep you warm.
13. Check your ceiling insulation: Around 30-35% of heat is lost through ceilings so insulation is a good first step. If you already have insulation, check that there's enough - the 2021 update to the building code requires around double the R-Value of ceilings as before. Read more about ceiling insulation.
14. Switch to a heat pump: A heat pump is the easiest to use and most energy efficient form of electric heating available, and during winter, costs only around 28 cents an hour*. Read more about heat pumps.
15. Got a Heat Pump? Check the filters: clean filters allow the heat pump to work more energy efficiently. The same goes for clothes dryers, hair dryers and extractors.

Brightr gives free advice and estimates for insulation, ventilation, heat pumps and more for your home. Simply book a FREE Home Assessment or get a free no obligation estimate online or call us on 0800 888 766.

A warm home is a healthy home, so try these options to help.

*Source: EECA - Using a 6kW heat output heat pump, 8 hours a day for 6 months of the year.