Top 5 Tips to Keep Your Home Cozy This Winter

As winter approaches we begin to hear the familiar sounds of the NYPD choir singing Galway Bay. Almost overnight the frost appears and the cacophony of ice scrapers fills the morning air.

As we go about our days, the cold nips at our noses, chatters our chilly teeth and freezes our fingers – until we can get home to the warm in true Chris Rea style. 

Investing in the long-term thermal efficiency of your home is a valuable and rewarding thing to do. Not only will you feel the benefits of the warmth, but your wallet will thank you when the energy bill comes in.

Here are our top five ways to save you hundreds of pounds per year and improve your home for all future winters.

5. Hot Water Tank Insulation

Of all our suggestions this is by far the easiest to implement. Fitting a jacket around your hot water tank keeps the hot water staying hotter for a longer period of time, reducing the amount of energy that you use and saving you money.

The best part about this solution is that you’ll likely save money simply by buying the jacket. We’d recommend getting a jacket that’s at least 80mm thick to ensure that the heat is retained. If you own a thinner jacket, it might be time to treat yourself before Christmas!

For those living in the future with their combi-boilers, consider radiator reflector panels. Usually part of your radiator’s heat goes towards making a very warm wall which is of no benefit to anyone, least of all your frozen bones! 

These reflector panels install behind the radiator and reflect the heat into the room, saving you money and heating the room up much quicker.

Overall this should net a saving of around £200 per year.

4. Roof/Loft Insulation

Heat rises. This simple scientific fact means that you’ll lose about 25% of your heat through your roof/loft without proper insulation throughout. 

If you have access to your loft it should be relatively easy to insulate. The best part: you can usually do it yourself using mineral wool insulation between the joists.

Before starting it’s worth making sure that you don’t have any damp or condensation problems. Additionally, if you have existing wall insulation make sure to avoid gaps as this can cause mould. If in any doubt, consult a professional.

Depending on the size of your house, you could save between £250 – £400 annually.

3. Wall Insulation (Cavity & Solid Wall)

If your building was constructed after the 1920s there’s a good chance that it has cavity walls. If it’s older than this, then it’s more likely to have no wall cavities; we call these solid walls. In an uninsulated house, you could be losing over 30% of its heat on average. 

A cavity wall is one of the easiest ways to improve your thermal efficiency. Simply hire a specialist to drill holes in the outside walls and then inject insulation material into the cavity. Once the cavity is filled with the insulation, the specialist will seal up the walls with cement and fill in the brickwork. 

As solutions go, this is a job that can be completed in under a day for most houses and should be mess free. The average semi detached house will save around £265 per year.

If you have solid walls don’t despair; solutions are available to you too. You can install insulating panels on both the interior and exterior walls of your property to improve the efficiency. 

The only downside to this is that it will change the overall appearance of your property, so if the aesthetics of your property are more important we’d recommend trying one of our other options.

If you’re in a detached house, this could save an incredible £600 per year. Even semi-detached and mid terrace houses stand to save between £200 – £300.

2. Secondary Glazing

Single panes of glass are not prepared for winter in the UK. Double and triple glazing both offer some improvement, but secondary is by far the best and more affordable option. It outperforms double by a significant margin and is 20% more affordable than triple glazing while also outperforming it. 

One of the many excellent benefits of secondary glazing is that you install it alongside your primary windows. This means that you don’t have to worry about replacing the existing windows, further reducing your carbon footprint alongside the benefits of having a warmer home. 

It’s no surprise that secondary glazing features highly on our list. It’s a product that we’re proud of for many reasons. Beyond the already listed thermal benefits, secondary glazing provides superior noise reduction with up to 54 Db reduction. Additionally secondary glazing is tough and secure with up to PAS24 options available. These two features combined mean that you’ll have a peaceful season even if you’re Home Alone.

Based on the average household’s 9 single-glazed windows, we estimate that you could save over £1500 annually. Even if you have double glazing throughout, installing secondary glazing alongside could save over £400 per year!

1. Draught Proofing

When all else fails, the simplest solutions are the best ones. These last few suggestions may only help a little bit, but you’ll be surprised what a difference it makes to your bills. 

Firstly, find out which parts of your property are letting the team down and letting your warm air out.

Odds are that you probably don’t have a thermal imaging camera: most people don’t own one. The lower end models usually cost about £50 and increase significantly as you get more precise. Services such as Library of Things can be useful for borrowing one if you live in London or Brighton, but for the other 86% of the UK population the only budget option might involve changing energy suppliers. 

Even without this you should be able to work out the coldest places within your home and reinforce them. Even if you already have secondary glazing or loft insulation, these methods should help: 

• Carpets help insulate the floor and rugs are helpful for rooms with stone, wood, or laminate.
• Curtains and blinds can be a great help for the windows in your property.
• Doors with gaps can be fitted with a hinged flap or brush. If it’s an external door with a letterbox, you can get brushes for these too.
• Floorboards, skirting boards and walls can have a few cracks or gaps which can easily be filled with caulk and other fillers.
• Chimneys should have draught excluders as the warm air in your home is always seeking ways to rise up and escape. Make sure to choose a breathable material such as wool to allow ventilation. Just remember to take it out if you plan on starting any fires and especially remember to keep the coast clear on Christmas Eve!

In total, you could be saving the equivalent of 10% the average UK salary just by sufficiently insulating your home if you can employ all these methods. Even if you can only do some of them, it’ll be a nice boon to your next Christmas!