3. Use timers
When you wake up and it’s cold, you often turn up the heating to a high temperature so your home will warm up quickly. It’s much cheaper to set a timer, though. The Centre for Sustainable Energy recommends setting a timer on your boiler and to set it to about a half hour before you wake up. The most important thing is to set it to a lower temperature. This is much cheaper than turning on the heating when you need it. A boiler heats up at a constant speed; it doesn’t matter whether you set it to 20 °C or 30 °C. Don’t leave your heating on all day when you’re not home, though, because then you’re just paying for warmth you don’t need.
4. Move your sofa
In quite a few homes, the sofa is placed right before the radiator. We get it; it’s nice and toasty when you’re lying on the sofa watching TV. It’s not very good for your energy bill, though. The sofa is blocking and also absorbing the heat from the radiator. That means the hot air can’t circulate and it takes more energy to heat the rest of the room. Get the most use out of your radiator and move your sofa to another spot.
5. Make sure you have proper insulation
About 25 per cent of the warmth in your home leaves through the roof. You can prevent this from happening by making sure your roof is properly insulated.
6. Don’t turn up the heating too high
It sounds a little counterintuitive: don’t turn up the heating too high if you want a warm home. There’s no need to be cold, though! Research shows that you can cut down your heating bill with 10 per cent by turning down your heating 1 °C. The ideal temperature for your home is a temperature between 18 °C and 21 °C.
7. Invest in a new boiler
We know that buying a new boiler is by no means cheap, but it can be a really good investment. If your boiler is over 10 years old, there’s a good chance you can get a much more efficient model. You can save up to 350 euros on your energy bill if you’ve got a good boiler. Of course, that does depend on what kind of boiler you used to have as well as on your house.
Read more: 4 ways to keep your feet warm in winter
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Source: The Conversation | Image: Pixabay
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