How to lower heating costs over the winter

[99redballoons]

I have two little ones and last winter the heating was pretty much on all day, the bills were astronomical! We desperately need to come up with some ingenius ideas to reduce the bill this winter. What have you installed/stuck up/sealed/blocked up etc in your home to help combat draughts and heat loss?

We're in a semi-detached house with original bay windows at the front and double-glazing at the back. We would rather not install secondary glazing on the front (unsightly), but those windows let out LOTS of heat and let in LOTS of air (wooden windows never seem to close properly!). We have two chimneys which are VERY drafty even with chimney balloons (not sure how to temporarily block these up). We've got the full selection of drafty doors, gaps in the floor etc.

I have bought some gap spongy stuff to put on the wooden windows to help reduce the draughts. Any other bright suggestions? The chimney?

Also, is there an economical way to run your central heating if you do want it to cover 5am-10pm? I was thinking of having it on across the day with an hour or so gap in the morning and afternoon when it goes off. Not sure if this will help or not though...

TIA!!

If you archive search my name and programmable / thermostat you might get some old posts which help.

A programmable stat allows you to set different temps for different times of the day (ie. cosy when you wake up, cooler in the mid morning, warming up again for bath time, snug until you go to bed and then relatively cool again after midnight when everyone is asleep IYSWIM).

One thing that will help the windows is to get some good, thick, lined curtains up - the heavier they are the better. And another thing I did to deal with a particularly appalling window in my old flat was to tape up the gaps with masking tape for the winter (!). Not beautiful, but it worked.

I think whether it's cheaper to turn the heating off or not depends on how well your house is insulated. My father (who is a bit scientific minded, bordering on peculiar) did a proper experiment to find out what our gas usage was when we a) had the heating off during the day when we were out and b) kept it running all day. It took about the same energy to reheat the house at the end of the afternoon, as it did to keep it warm all day.

You can get secondary glazed panels which you could put up over the winter and remove for summer so not so unsightly. Carpets,curtains (draw as it gets dark), loft insulation, perhaps silicone sealant over any gaps .

tbh I doubt switching off for an hour or so would make much difference as the heating will only have to boost to reheat what you have lost. Try turning the room theromostat down a bit or fit individual radiator thermostats.

Great. Thanks for the tips. Interesting about heating on the in the day.

Any ideas on the chimneys? I'm sure we're losing loads of heat up and out. We've got chimney balloons up there, but I keep getting debris coming down so they must not be a good enough fit. Would stuffing them up with newspaper work? I know ther're supposed to be able to 'breathe', but just don't want a gale.

Thermal underwear .

LOL Freckle.

Freckle

Looked at your old thread h2d. thanks.

thick lined curtains
electric blankets
turn off radiators in rooms that are not used as much.
We only use the radiators in our living room/ bathrooms and ds's bedroom - his room as it is large and feels very cold
DD who is 4 is a very hot child and in thick jimjams and socks with her duvet, she needs no heating at all.
We only have the heating(water and radiators) on 6am-8.30am thermostat set at 20 deg C
Water boost at 3-5pm)
Heating on from 5-8pm.
We also turn it off manually if we're comfy, also we turn it on if it's a proper cold snap

Hope bit of it were useful 99 !

Would a square of polystyrene insulation maybe do the trick ? They're sold in thick (50mm ?) slabs, maybe you could cut to size and stuff it up the throat of the chimney ? Doesn't need to be perfect... whatever you do will still not be airtight IMHO so should allow 'breathing'...

One trick a chippy taught me was to install a small shelf above a rad... the heat rises and then kicks out into the room rather than just climbing to the ceiling IYSWIM.

Does your loft have the current recommended amount of loft insulation? The amount has gone up enormously in recent years and it is comparatively cheap to install. As heat rises, this is the most important area to have adequately insulated. You could also consider cavity wall insulation. The windows are difficult - the advice re thick curtains is the best unless you change to double glazing. Little point in switching off heating for short periods as more energy may be used in getting system back to thermostat set temperature.

Thanks for the further tips. We're going to try and sort the chimneys out this w-e.

Unfortunately we all leave room doors open (they don't close properly anyway!) so it would be difficult to just heat a few rooms, but we do have individual knobs on each radiators (all on about half way) so I'll turn some right down and see what happens.

As we're out of the 'newborn' phase (dd was newborn last winter) I'll just have to get strict about cardigans and blankets in the day. We also have a small electric fan heater which I guess we can use to warm the room after bath time as dd doesn't really need her radiator on either.

Thanks all!

If your household income is quite low and you get certain benefits (child benefit & child tax credit will do) than you may be able to get help from a government funded initiative called the warm front scheme. They offer a grant of up to £2700 for things such as loft insulation, covity wall insulation, new heating systems and draught proofing.

We had someone come around to see us on 8th Sept and their installers are coming to start work week begining the 2nd october. I am thrilled as my youngest ds has a heart condition and feels the cold, so we have heating on most of the year through, I have everything crossed that this will help to reduce our bill considerably.

Thx for the info hm2j. It's great there are some worthwhile schemes out there.

If your chimney balloons are letting in drafts they probably need to be re-inflated.

I would get the internal doors sorted out too so that they can be closed - then during the day you only need downstairs rads on.

Our gas bill is £45 per month, we have the heating on continually through winter, not switching it off at all, it is set at 18c and overnight we switch it down to 12c, I don't know if this is reasonable or not.

Between April and October the system is switched off altogether!

We can't afford it either, but I know someone who only has gas fire on in day time and central heating on 6-8am and 6-8pm and her gas bill is more than mine, so I don't know if keeping a low constant temperature is better!

Thanks for the other pointers. Just off to check the balloons now.

Since starting this thread I've put spongy draught excluder stuff around all the opening wooden window panes. Seems to be making a difference, the net curtains aren't moving any more! I've also had some of the internal doors refitted so we can now close a few rooms off. Heating only went on two days ago (off since May) so I took a meter reading and I'm hoping to keep on top of it (monthly readings) this winter.

Thanks for all the help.

Fill Cavity walls and get roof insulation to depth of 250mm, phone around to find a firm that can offer a grant to help with costs (try energy savings trust website to help with that, too). You can lose 60% of heating through roof and walls. .

Close your curtains at dusk and all night (keeps heat in).