Now that our New Years celebrations have all cooled off, many of us are starting to notice that the weather has cooled off just as much, with temperatures quickly dropping and snowstorms on the horizon.
With the current cost of living crisis and heating bill fiasco, many people are quite angsty when thinking about turning on their home’s heating. Luckily though, there’s more than one way to skin a cat and more than one way to keep your home nice and warm during the Winter months.
So, it is time to get prepared for a few weeks of incredibly cold weather, what can you do at home to keep you and your family nice and toasty as the temperature plummets outside, without needing to put your heating on max all day? Read on to find out!
Block Off Any Draughty Areas
When cold weather comes in, your first move should always be to cut off any draughty areas in your home, even the smallest draught can let the cold outside air pour into your home, so it’s smart to get ahead of things and block off draughty areas.
To do this, it would be best to have some draught excluders handy, but if you haven’t got any on hand a rolled up towel or some rolled up jumpers will do a decent job of blocking any draughts. Just feel around windows and external doors to identify any cold draughty spots and lay down a draught excluder in front of it to stop cold air pouring in.
Add Extra Insulation To Your Windows
During cold spells, windows can be a problem area. Not only are windows a common spot for draughts to occur, but hot air can actually leak out through the glass making the inside of your home lose it’s heat.
So, you should look to add a bit of insulation to your home’s windows in rooms where you’ll often be like your living room and bedroom. A great way to add some more insulation to your windows is by installing some made to measure thermal blinds, which can act as a barrier on your windows, keeping hot air away from the cold glass.
Take Advantage Of Any Heat Sources
If you’re not feeling too excited about the thought of turning your home’s heating on, you can try to take advantage of other heat sources in your home, utilising heat from the Sun (when it’s out), your ovens and even warm baths!
During the day when the sun is shining on your home, you can open up your blinds to let the light in which will naturally heat your home up; if you cook dinner in an oven, you can leave the oven door open once you’ve finished cooking to let the hot air spread around the room rather than being trapped in the oven; or when running a warm bath or shower, you can leave your bathroom door open to let the heat from the water spread around your home.
Of course, that’s not all you can do to stay warm at home this Winter, we have the advice every mother gave us to wrap up warm and shove an extra layer of clothes on or get under a cosy blanket; close the doors in whatever room you’re in to keep the heat trapped; or even go a bit wild and turn your heating on for an hour or two!
