Cheap and Quick fixes to keeping your house warm

theGrinch

Heavy curtains, draft excluders, foil reflectors, keyhole covers.

These are some I have applied to our place.

Any other suggestions?

lockedout69

do you have a loft hatch?

Slinky

Ensure curtains/blinds are opened on windows facing the sun to get as much solar gain as you can. Pull them as soon as it starts getting dark.

getmore4less

Turn the heating up in the rooms you use and shut down the ones you don't and keep the doors shut.

Make sure any radiators are not behind those heavy curtains.

Aylesbury_Duck

lockedout69 wrote: »

do you have a loft hatch?

This is a good point. I've seen some very poorly fitting hatches and every house I've lived in or been into the loft of has had no insulation on the loft hatch itself. I've used a couple of solutions: a bin bag stuffed with rockwool shaped to the hatch and stapled to it, and more recently, the big polystyrene base my new washing machine came on only needed trimming in one dimension before sticking it to the hatch with double-sided tape.

Andy_L

an extra jersey

dunroving

Andy_L wrote: »

an extra jersey

And woolly socks. And thermal underwear. I'm surprised how many people strut around as if they are on the beach, in winter, and complain they are cold! My lodger asked if the central heating could be turned up (it's set at 20 degrees), and I suggested maybe he could try wearing a bit more than shorts and T-shirt to see if that helped!

trailingspouse

Yes, curtains over radiators is my problem. 5 out of 6 of our main windows have long curtains over the rads. And one of them also has a sofa in front of the radiator, meaning the back of the sofa is lovely and warm, the rest of the room not so much. But there's no-where else in the room to put the sofa!



The question is, what to do about it? The radiators are under the windows because a) that's the best place to put them, taking into account what else is in the room and b) if they weren't under the window, that part of the room would be even colder, which wouldn't really help. And the curtains are long because - fashion. Curtains that only come down to the window ledge look really old fashioned, and sort of unfinished.



Any idea what difference it would actually make to the heating bill if the rads were exposed? Is it worth shortening the curtains?

getmore4less

Don't shorten the ones you have get another short one that fits the gap and just have that up in the winter.
matching or contrasting or a cheap thermal one.

Draw the long ones to the side of the radiators in the winter and have the short one rest on the window ledge, if you tuck it down behind the radiator it is less effective.

take it down for the pretty look the rest of the year.


We just have blinds on our big window and the curtains are just for decoration.

Mistral001

getmore4less wrote: »

Turn the heating up in the rooms you use and shut down the ones you don't and keep the doors shut.

Make sure any radiators are not behind those heavy curtains.

Yes make sure that the curtains are behind the radiators and also put reflective insulation on the wall behind the radiators.

I have always assumed that most people will only heat the rooms they use, but there are some who will have the whole house heated even if they are only using tow or three rooms. So good advice on turning off radiators in rooms you don't use. However, I used to take this to the extreme where I would only heat one room (home office during the day and living room in the evening).

I found that when I changed to heating more rooms up but turning the heat down overall, I used less central heating fuel. I was surprised at this, but I think it is probably down to the pipes between the radiators under the floor being a lower temperature and hence less heat loss from them. I have a timber ground floor with a ventilated void under it where the pipes run with only old fashioned hessian fibre insulation around the pipes so the heat loss here must be significant.

Honeylife

dunroving wrote: »

And woolly socks. And thermal underwear. I'm surprised how many people strut around as if they are on the beach, in winter, and complain they are cold! My lodger asked if the central heating could be turned up (it's set at 20 degrees), and I suggested maybe he could try wearing a bit more than shorts and T-shirt to see if that helped!

I had the absolute same issue with my lodger last winter - and yes it was a bit colder than now, but she would not countenance putting on more clothes indoors. Daily she moaned about it! She couldn't deal with no heating at night even though it didn't go off until midnight! I subsequently accidentally discovered she had bought an Electric Blanket and had that on all night! She had to go.

Subsequently in my House Notes I have a section on Heating plus suggestions on appropriate clothing in the winter months, particularly they should purchase Duvets with higher togs, (not that cheap Primark 4 tog thing) wear warm pyjamas and only when its minus 'something' will the heating be put on at night very low.