Keeping yourself, your family, and your home warm and comfortable during winter may be costly, especially if you had not budgeted anything before the cold season. You can do many things to enhance the warmth during the winter months, whether you want to change your heating system or renovate it completely.
It is for this reason that we are offering a few guidelines that will help you keep you and your loved ones warm during winter.
1. Upgrade Your Thermostat
Thermostats work together with boilers in helping to regulate your home temperature. In some of the older homes on the market where the heating systems are also old, thermostats may degrade gradually over time. It may lead to excessive heating within the home and hinder the time it takes for the boiler to power up. Updating your thermostats regularly ensures that your house gets heat to your desired temperature, error-free communication between the boiler and thermostat, and also preserve heat and reduce costs. The latest thermostats allow you to control your heating preferences through your phone, ensuring your home is cozy and heated to the right temperatures. It also provides an easy and fast way to regulate heat efficiently.
2. Service Your Boiler
The first most important thing to ensure you are ready for winter is to ensure that your boiler is functioning properly. It might not work well and effectively if it is old and in bad condition. Professional home services advise people to ensure that your boiler is working by servicing it regularly before the wintertime comes around or just simply getting a new heating installation to avoid heating disruptions. If the boiler is faulty or damaged, it will require a lot of effort to heat your home leading to higher electricity costs when you receive your bill each month. Therefore, you should take into consideration that you should be servicing your boiler every 12 months to make sure that it functions effectively and without any risk.
3. Re-organize Your Furniture and Buy More Rugs and Curtains
Another thing to do that can make sure your home stays warm is making sure that your furniture’s arrangement is in a way that doesn’t affect heat sources like the radiator. You don’t want to place furniture in front of places that are supposed to help spread heat. For example, you would not want to place a couch over the air vent if your vents are installed on your floor.
Alternatively, you can try placing the frequently used furniture around the heat sources to get more warmth without obstructing them. In addition to re-organizing, you can also purchase more rugs to make your floor feel warmer. Nowadays, people are layering up rugs to maximize heat. The plush carpet is one of the quality materials good for your home during winter. Also, ensure you purchase lined or thermal-lined curtains, which help preserve heat.
Additionally, keeping the curtains open during the day allows sunlight into your house. Doing so naturally warms up your home and keeps it warm for the night. The sun goes down at 4 pm during the winter, so opening the curtains until 3 pm will warm up your house.
4. Put a Floating Shelf Above the Radiators and Insulate the Loft and Doors
To regulate heat in the room, you can use a floating shelf that will diverge the heat all around the room instead of getting wasted by rising to the ceiling. You can also make sure the radiator is working well by bleeding. It guarantees that there is no stuck air affecting the heating performance. Insulating your loft and doors is important as well. Draught proof the spaces between the frame and the door, it works for all the entries in your home. Also, you could be losing most of your heat through the roof if it is not insulated. Loft insulation is simple and effective and can last for up to 40 years. Additionally, it saves you on bills and loss of heat.
You can also build a chimney balloon and draught-proof windows since insulating the loft would be pointless if the cold air enters the chimney. According to the University of Liverpool research, 4 percent of the total heat goes to waste up the chimney. So, you might consider a high-quality block that stops the cold air. If you use the chimney and are looking for a quick fix, a draught excluder may be of help. However, if you don’t use your chimney at all, you should contemplate having a professional close it up. All you need is to apply self-adhesive foam tape to the frames for your windows. While they may seem expensive and unnecessary, such critical practices are crucial for maintaining warmth in your home during the cold season.
