Energy Saving - Cut heating costs with our handy guide

Check Your Insulation

One thing you notice about heat is that it doesn't stay where you put it.

Hot things get colder, cold things get hotter and given enough time, most things will eventually end up the same temperature, why is this?

There's a law of physics, called the second law of thermodynamics, which says, 'heat flows from hot things toward cold ones and never the other way around'.

It not just greedy energy suppliers responsible for those painfully large energy bills, the second law of thermodynamics also plays its part.

Heat travels in three ways:

Conduction: When something hot touches something cold the hot thing gets colder and the cold thing gets hotter.

Convection: Your house works just like convection hater, warm air flows out of the top sucking cold air in from the bottom.

Radiation: Just like your heater radiates heat towards you warming you up, your house will radiate heat out into the cold outdoors.

Understanding the second law of thermodynamics isn't rocket science, once you know how heat travels and what to look for finding ways of saving energy gets a lot easier.

Click to read 'The 3 step insulation fix & watch the video for more handy tips'

The 3 step Insulation Fix

1. Stop heat being conducted away:

Do this by stopping your warm air and furniture from touching cold surfaces:

Cover any cold wall or floor with something that won't conduct heat easily. Use simple measures such as putting rugs on cold floors, using thermal lining wallpaper (£4.50 a roll from Wickes), and draping heavy curtains over walls and outside doors.

More expensive options include getting cavity wall insulation, double glazing or putting non-heat conductive coverings on cold outside walls.

Lag pipes, hot ones to keep them warm, cold ones to stop them from cooling the warm air heating your home.

Lag the hot water cylinder if you have one and make sure the cold water tank is lagged too, not just to stop it freezing but to stop it sucking heat out of the air.

2. Stop your house from losing warm air:

Insulate the attic: Warm air travels up, if you have an attic your warm air is going to be heating up the cold roof tiles and leaking out into the sky.

Insulating your loft prevents this, the thicker the better and remember to stick some over the inside of your loft door as well.

Stop those draughts: Check the gaps between your doors and the floor, if cold air is being sucked in, then warm air is being pumped out. Pin draught excluders to the bottoms of the doors.

Stop the gaps: Cover the letterbox and keyholes. If you can, put up door curtains. Check around the window frames, the gaps between skirting & floors, and even the gaps around the electric wall sockets. If you have a hearth you are not using then stop warm air from escaping up your chimney with a Chimney Balloon Kit.

Remember your house needs to breathe, you have to allow some air flow through it, but make sure it's ventilation you can control.

3. Stop your house radiating heat:

Notice how hot a greenhouse gets on a cold and sunny winters day? That's because glass lets the suns heat energy (infrared radiation) travel right through it. This warms up the stuff inside the greenhouse which in turn warms up the air in there.

This works the other way too, your heat energy will radiate out through windows. Next to the roof and poorly insulated walls your house will lose most heat through the windows, this is why we use double glazing (and now heat reflecting glass).

If you don't have double glazed windows and can't fit simple secondary double glazing, then get some thick curtains.

As you only need them for winter there is no need to spend too much on them, check out your local charity shops most will have loads of decent curtains at low prices.

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