No one ever wants to be sat at home with his or her teeth chattering after a long day at work. Winter-proofing your house can also save you money and with the rising costs of energy bills, it makes sense for any financially conscious person to get ahead of the curb and make changes now. Here are four great ways to winter-proof your house so you and your family can have a comfortable and most importantly, warm, winter.
- Check Your Pipes
Water pipes can be vulnerable to freezing when it gets cold, your first point of call should be familiarize yourself with where the pipes are located in your house and which ones are more liable to freeze during cold weather. An easy way to protect them is buy pre-formed tubular insulating material, which you can wrap around the pipes and is easily available from DIY stores. If you are going away in the winter it’s a good idea to leave your central heating on very low to prevent pipes from bursting, whilst it sounds counter intuitive to leave the heating on, a burst pipe will set you back a lot more then a big bill.
- Heating Bills
Keeping the inside of your house warm can be incredibly expensive. Inevitably, you will have to turn the heating on, however this doesn’t have to cost you earth. An astounding amount of people have never changed their tariff with their energy company who should be trying their hardest to help their customers. Sites like Energy Helpline can help you compare heating providers so you see which company will give you the best deal.
- Insulate Your House
Make sure that your loft or attic space has adequate insulation; a lot of homes haven’t checked their insulation before winter and are surprised to find that they are losing heat this way. Even having draught excluders in your home will help save money and keep your house warm. Homeowners overlook this solution but it’s incredibly cheap to implement and could knock off £25 on your next energy bill.
- Energy Efficient Windows
Before winter arrives, you’ll want to make sure that your windows can actually block out some of the cold. If your windows are old it’s likely that they won’t be anything more then single glazed and it may be that the frames are letting cold air into your house. There is no point turning on your heating if it’s just escaping to the outside. Installing energy efficient windows in your house may seem like a big step and will cost you some money, but in the long run the savings to your bills will be worth it.
Winter doesn’t have to mean shivering in your house and debating whether to turn the heating because it will cost you money, make sure your home is winter-proof and you may not even need to turn the heating on at all!