Cheaper ways to keep a home warm this winter

[Griselinia]

Currently on oil, prices of which are already crazy.
Looking for ideas for safe, effective cheaper ways to heat the house this winter.
DH wants oil heaters in every room. I'm concerned about the smell and the DC burning themselves on them.
Infra red panels? Splash out on a Dyson? Get over my fear of electric blankets?

We have a little gas stove with a butane tank, but it does get hot if you have small children.

I've just paid £1000 for 900litres of oil. In January I paid £788 for 1250 litres. It makes me cry!

Electric blankets on beds are a really good way to keep wamr
you can get with timers so no worries about leaving them on
oil filled rads are also efficient at heating rooms if you get a decently sized one - leave on a lowish setting if you can

Don’t heat every room - heat the absolute minimum
heat yourself as much as possible. Electric blankets downstairs and hot water bottles upstairs if you worry about the blankets when asleep

insulate - use door curtains and sausage dogs on the rooms you are heating , extra layers of curtains on the windows, stuff your loft ( leave ventilation )

Following this thread with interest.

I'm in a rented property with single glazed windows in Scotland. Landlord's putting in secondary glazing but not until December, and I'm already freezing in the afternoons!

We paid 650 for 500l around March time. Horrid prices. Not sure I could sleep with a butane gas stove on but hope it works for you

Following. I have oil heating, and in the evenings it is already cold. Me and the dog snuggle down into a blanket together to watch the TV and I have a good duvet on the bed. But I am trying to hold off putting the heating on until the end of next month if possible.

Good point about not heating every room and I'll look into those blankets with timers, thanks :)

Has anyone tried infra red panel heaters?

We're on gas rather than oil but found the following tweeks helped:

Turning the hall 'stat down to 18

Open/close doors to make use of solar gain at front of the house and so unused rooms are not heated.

Heating off from 09:00 to midday and again from 14:00 - 17:00 unless very cold.

Hot water (gas boiler) only on for minimum time morning and evening.

Non dishwasher stuff washed up once a day - kitchen tap takes forever to run warm - gallon plus left cooling in pipes.

A pot of tea for 2 is 600ml. Only boil that much in the kettle.

Have you scope/funds for solar/batteries.

We don't sleep with it on, we use it in DHs study.

We don't sleep with any heat. I can't even bear the click of the heating coming on in the morning, I hate central heating! The heating goes off at 7.30pm so that the bedrooms cool down for bedtime.

My comment was more about warming a room during the day.

Nope no funds for solar unfortunately

Not tried infrared but ive just purchased a self heating blanket from Groupon for £28. Im on gas/electric so not oil but ill need to be more frugal with use this year due to finances. Also in a rented property, which is even more tough because my tenancy agreement states I need to keep it heated to a 'reasonable temperature' to prevent damp/mold. Which i understand, but the landlord isnt the one paying 😕

I do have an oil filled radiator in the loft bedroom where my son sleeps as it never gets warm up there even when the heating is on, so ill have that going on a timer/thermostat when the time comes too. I recommend the oil radiators, they work well

we have some electric blankets but I find the heat coming from them a bit wearing unless it’s very cold.
im more a fan of a really good fluffy blanket and a hot water bottle.
i also have a hot water bottle that goes around your neck which really warms you up fast.

Not on oil.... but...

I have never had an electric blanket that hasn't gone wrong. I am a massive hot water bottle fan

Ah see

Ah see hot water bottles risk scalding... Can you tell I'm a bit risk adverse!?😂

We're trying to keep our bills down this winter too, so following with interest. With a 22-month-old in the house, heater safety is a big worry for us as well. Heating only the rooms we're using has made the biggest difference for us. Hope you find a setup that works for your family!

I would rather have the whole house warmish than one room boiling and the rest freezing. Having said that, they say heat the person not the house so l try and do that first.

I like microwaveable heat pads instead of hot water bottles. For the kids you can get warmable cuddly toys to warm the bed - the Warmies brand does nice ones as does dunelm.

Portable oil filled radiators are cheap and effective at keeping the chill out of a room and don't smell of anything. You can get them in nice colours and they stay warm for ages after you turn them off so they can be quite good at night. You can probably get a timer switch so they come on again half an hour before you get up.

Halogen heaters give a cosy glow and can be nice for warming a small area e.g. positioned by your desk all day or in front of the sofa in the evening

I cant be doing with being cold, but we have a tiny two bedroom flat. I just put the heating on, we pay £90 a month, we will be in massive debit by the summer but eon dont seem to care..however we have heated throws, and electric blankets for the chilly not cold days. They make a massive difference.

Big woolly blankets for the sofa and bed.
Our house is detached and solid walled which is a pain but all the windows have thick curtains.
I get really cold feet so hope to try and electric blanket this year. Is it possible to have them heat only one side of the bed,? DH runs about 10 degrees hotter than me.

I have thermostat on 18 degrees during the day and 14 at night. Electric blanket for my bed, it has separate controls for both sides of bed. Heated throws for living room if watching TV or reading. I do turn heating up if we have visitors. I have a variable temperature kettle and only heat water needed, and to 80 degrees for coffee. I also have sheepskin slippers, but thick socks have kept my feet warm just as well.
I bought electric blanket and throws from a shop (Argos and John Lewis) and well known brand (Dreamland), as when initially researching before buying (when prices first went up in 2022) there were too many reviews on Amazon where blanket had caught fire.

electric heaters of any kind will be more expensive than oil heating so I would just try and use less heating
My favourite trick is to not turn it on until Christmas Day I find this works as your body adjusts to the gradual cooling temperatures Once the heating has been used I find a struggle to turn it off again

We have a mixture of log burner running some heating and an ashp The ASHP is so expensive to run we’ve not had any hot water since spring when I stopped lighting the log burner unless the electricity has been free or very cheap.

We have had no oil since March , but we are going to have to cave in

We are fortunate that we have a stove in the living room which keeps that room toasty, warms our bedroom as that's the other side of the chimney, and does take the edge of the rest of the house

I pull the curtains closed at dusk and shut the windows . Rooms not used the doors are kept shut We dress for the season, so we have socks and jumpers on and as it gets colder the thermals will be added

If Im cold at home alone during the day I add a fleece

I grew up in the 60's and we had the one gas fire for a 3 bed house . I grew up forever cold - ice on the insides of the windows cold. Here I am 60 years later looking at being cold during the winter again

Oodies.
Our DD bought us one a couple of years ago. I can't recommend them enough.