If you are starting to feel the heat in the wrong sense of the phrase when it comes to your residential energy bills, rest assured that you are hardly alone. Issues including the Ukraine crisis and a lack of gas stocks in the aftermath of a cold winter have pushed up energy prices.
It’s especially worrying that, in the UK alone, about 85% of homes use gas central heating, as revealed in research cited by Metro. So, what are you supposed to do about burgeoning heating costs?
Build up a ‘stockpile’ of energy, if this is practically possible
Admittedly, it might not be — as, according to money expert Martin Lewis, it will only work on traditional — rather than ‘smart’ — prepayment meters, and not even necessarily all of those.
In words quoted by the Daily Mail, Lewis says that UK energy regular Ofgem has confirmed to him “that you get the rate on the day you top up, not when you use the energy.” So, UK households on eligible pay-as-you-go meters could buy energy in bulk now before the UK energy price cap rises in April.
Upgrade your windows and doors
If it’s been quite a while since the existing windows and doors were originally fitted, they could now be rather outdated in their thermal efficiency. Fortunately, though, there are various measures you can take to improve how effectively these units can keep heat within your home’s walls.
You could, for example, double or triple glaze your windows if they are currently just single panes of glass, while external doors can be replaced with more energy-efficient alternatives.
Fill gaps in windows and doors
This process is known as draft proofing, and it’s an especially cost-effective way of reining in energy bills. That’s because too much heat can escape a home even just through small gaps in the building, such as holes or cracks that may have inadvertently formed as a result of home improvement work.
Hence, you should carefully inspect windows and doors in your home for signs of gaps to plug.
Insulate your roof and loft
Did you know that, according to one statistic shared by the Energy Saving Trust, as much as 25% of a non-insulated home’s heat can be lost through the building’s roof?
This could be your cue to install insulation in your roof and loft if you haven’t done so already. UK households that have already acted on this cue should heed that Instaloft provides a great loft boarding service for protecting insulation up there.
Insulate any solid walls in your home, too
How can you tell if your home’s external walls are solid — rather than cavity — walls? Well, the likelihood of this being the case would be stronger if your home was built before the 1920s.
If your home indeed falls into this particular category and turns out to have solid external walls, you should look into having these walls insulated. That’s because insulating external solid walls of a home can significantly cut costs of heating it unless you have heat lamps in the bathroom.
