Is it starting to get chilly outside? Well, UK experiences its autumn season from September to November. It’s also during these months that most people switch their central heating at home on. This also means that energy consumption will rise again across the country. Unfortunately, an increase in energy consumption also increases energy costs.
The rising energy cost has, in fact, left 2.4 million households in fuel poverty in the UK. This number represents the number of households that cannot afford to have proper heating in their homes. To save on energy costs, it’s crucial to reduce energy consumption.
Common Sources of Heat Loss
When there’s heat loss, your house requires more energy to get warmed up. This leads to increased energy consumption. You have to deal with heat loss early on.
No house is air-tight. Your first step in reducing heat loss is by knowing what are its main sources. Where does air come out or go in through? Because of their size, cracks and crevices are almost unnoticeable to the naked eye. You can find them mostly on roofs, fireplaces, basements, walls, windows, and power outlets.
As a homeowner, what can you do to reduce the amount of energy that your household uses? How can you minimize heat loss? There’s no one-step solution, but a series of carefully planned and inexpensive initiatives mostly on the part of the homeowner. The tips on this guide will hopefully help you do just that.
Insulate Your Home
Improving your home’s insulation can be your best defence against heat loss. If your house already has insulation, check all areas if any part needs to be replaced. Or, you can add more insulation to your current one.
Home insulation prevents heat from escaping your house by covering and filling in all crevices and cracks where heat may come off. Starting from the roof, ensure that the loft cavity in the ceiling still has adequate insulation. Check for gaps around pipework, electrical wirings, and hatches.
On the walls, insulation must be installed in the cavity wall. Check the gap between the inside and external walls if the insulation needs to be refilled. The same goes for your floors. The space between the ground and the floor surface should be well-insulated. While this is done during the construction, you can lay additional insulation layers on your floor surface.
Windows and doors can be insulated, too. Double and triple glazing windows are a great way to insulate windows. They are costly, though. You can also caulk around the frame of windows and doors to reduce heat loss. Adding window film also increases the insulation of your windows.
Draught-Proofing
Eliminate draughts from your house with a silicone caulk sealant. They are easy to use when you have a caulking gun. Hunt for cracks and heat leaks and start caulking your house.
The problem, however, remains in your windows and doors. The solution for your doors is to install weather strips or self-adhesive foam strips along their sides, including the hinges. Or, more commonly, you can use cheap and easy-to-install draught excluders.
For your window, it’s not necessary to draught-proof them if they are double or triple-glazed, according to the Green Age UK. However, they added that if your window glazing was installed before 2002, you need to draught-proof it.
Heating Solutions
Installing radiator panels can also lower your energy cost. They work by radiating or reflecting heat from themselves into the room. So, instead of the walls, it warms up the entire room. Like other solutions mentioned in this article, radiator panels are affordable and easy to install.
Your boiler can also increase your energy consumption if it’s older than ten years old. Replace it with an energy-efficient condensing boiler. It uses less energy compared to older models.
And if you don’t have heating controls for your house, you should get them, too. You can use them to control heating in your home at pre-defined times. This means that you only get to use energy when it’s needed.
You can also reduce heat loss by insulating your hot water tank if you have one at home. With proper insulation, it will keep the water warmer for longer.
Make Everything Work Together
Knowing when to open the curtains and keep them shut is another way of minimizing heat loss. During the day, leave it open to let the sunshine in. And just before the sun sets, close them once again. This keeps the warmth brought by the sun inside your home.
As you can see, there are many ways to minimize heat loss. If you apply most of them together, you get to maximize your solutions and avoid having to overwork your heating. You need to stay warm, but it doesn’t mean it should cost you a fortune.
