For many families, one of the biggest headaches they have is keeping their home warm. Over the past year, the cost of energy has risen at an alarming rate. Some sources suggest that the increase is as much as 17%, which translates into families having to find an extra £200 to pay their fuel and power bills, this year.

Understandably, when money is tight, a lot of you are worried about keeping your home warm enough. To help you with this I have done a bit of research and put together a few tips.

Compare the deals and switch

Finding the cheapest supplier makes the biggest difference. So, if you do nothing else shop around for the best price and switch to that supplier.

If you are on mains gas or electric it is reasonably easy to compare deals and select the one that is cheapest for you. There are plenty of websites that enable you to do this.

When you use heating oil it is a bit trickier. There are far fewer sources of information. However, this is a good website for finding out oil prices. All you need to do is to fill out the quote form and hit enter. Once you know the price you can work out how much oil you can afford to order.

Invest in insulation

If you are living in one of the 25 million UK homes that are not properly insulated you really need to take action. At the very least, fully insulate your loft.

In a typical house, 25% of the heat that is lost escapes via the roof.  You do not have to spend a fortune to insulate a loft and you can easily do the job yourself in a day. In no time at all, the money you save on your fuel bills will pay for the cost of buying the insulation materials.

Sort out any draughts

Around 40% of heat is lost through the floors, windows, and doors. Ideally, you need to fit double-glazing. But, this is expensive. Fortunately, you can still improve the situation by installing temporary film glazing and leaving it up for the winter months.  This short video excerpt shows you how to do it. If you happen to have more funds then it’s worth calling around some double glazing window fitters to get some quotes. Around 18 to 25 per cent of heat can be lost through the windows of a house leading to potentially higher energy bills as you try to battle the draft.

You should also check the frames of your doors and windows for draughts. If you find any use some sort of filler or foam to fill in the gaps. This simple step makes a huge difference to how warm your home is. Less heat will be able to escape and it makes it harder for cold air to get in. Not to mention that you always feel cold if you are sitting in a draught. So, anything you can do to cut them down automatically helps you to feel warmer. This, in turn, opens up the opportunity for you to turn down your thermostat. Something that is very beneficial because you reduce the amount of energy you consume to heat your home by 1 to 3% for every degree you turn your thermostat down by.

The more draughts you eliminate and the better insulated your home is the more money you will save. You can also check out some more tips on reducing your energy bills here.

Do you have any tips to share on keeping your home warm on a budget? Do leave a comment below.

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