According to the experts, maintaining energy efficiency and warmth, especially at night, all comes down to how you use your home heating system – and what time you turn your heating on
There’s a specific time to keep your home warm and cosy this winter, without hiking your energy bills drastically.
With the colder months here to stay for the foreseeable future, keeping warm at home – and for as cheap as possible – is a concern for many. According to the experts, maintaining energy efficiency and warmth, especially at night, all comes down to how you use your home heating system.
Exactly what time you turn your heating on can also be a major contributing factor to the overall comfort and cost-effectiveness of your home. Llewellyn Kinch, CEO and co-founder of solar platform and home energy specialists MakeMyHouseGreen, said: “With things getting chillier as winter sets in, people depend more on their heating to stay warm in the house.
“Night tends to suck the heat out of a house in winter. Who wants to get up in the morning to a freezing house? If you use your home heating in one key way, you and your family won’t have to.”
It turns out there’s an unexpected, optimum time to turn your heating on in the evening that can keep your house pleasantly warm all winter night long – and it’s right before you go to bed.
The expert continued: “To create a balance between energy efficiency and home comfort at night, turn your heating on about an hour before you go to bed and leave it on for a few hours by setting the timer. That way, the house won’t get too cold at night, and it won’t require so much energy to heat it up again on those frosty mornings.”
If you stick with this habit, you should feel a real difference in how your home feels in winter – and in your energy bills. If you usually time your heating to turn off late evening, like most people do in winter, make a simple change so it stays on for a couple of hours after you’ve gone to sleep – or turn it on manually about an hour before you go to bed.
Ensure you set a timer so your heating turns off an hour or so after you go to bed. This will allow the entire house to reach a comfortable temperature without overburdening the system – and likely make for a cosier bed time for your family.
Other energy efficient solutions to keeping your home warmer in winter include closing your curtains and shutting doors to keep heat in the rooms you use most – and those you use least. This is because unused, cold rooms suck heat from warmer rooms through walls and doors, and that will waste heat energy. Use draft excluders around windows and external doors to keep the cold from getting in while keeping your house toasty, too.
Over on TikTok, cost-effective heating solution tips are incredibly popular as more people aim to feel comfortable and cosy without suffering eye-watering energy bills. The official Citizens’ Advice TikTok page shared a string of helpful ideas and good-to-know tips.
In one short clip that boasts more than 13K likes, the network said heated blankets cost just 2p an hour to run, as well as reiterating the need for draft excluders to keep heat in. The advice forum also advised not overfilling the kettle when making a much beloved cup of tea, washing your clothes at 30 degrees, and sticking to four minute showers to save around £95 per year.
In the comments section accompanying the video, one person summarised: “It’s sad we’ve had to come to this”, while another exclaimed: “FOUR MINUTES? YOU AREN’T CLEAN IN FOUR MINUTES!!!!!” And another added: “This isn’t the kind of future I anticipated but here we are!”
