8 ways to winter proof your home

Autumn has been mild until now, but with the weather taking a turn for the worse, there are simple ways to winterproof your home which will help cut down those energy bills. Here are eight ways you can make your house warmer without a huge price tag.

PLUG THE GAPS

Is your home draughty? rather than turning the heating up to compensate for the cold air getting in, try these easy fixes to fill the gaps.

Draught excluders (I call them sausage dogs) will stop the wind whistling under your front door — and through any internal doors with a gap at the bottom — and you can make your own.

use one leg of an old pair of trousers, fill with sand and sew up the openings, for a cheap alternative.

For small gaps around windows or doors, buy some foam insulation tape (Amazon has rolls of it from £2.95) which you can fix on yourself.

If there are any small cracks, spread a blob of decorator’s caulk over it with your finger (available from hardware stores or at screwfix for £2.49).

Draught-proofing measures like this can save you about £60 per year (based on a gas- fuelled, semi- detached property). the house will feel warmer too, which means you are more likely to turn down your heating, saving even more on your energy bills.

CHEAP DOUBLE GLAZING

WInDoWs let out a lot of heat, but installing double or triple-glazing is expensive. However, you can cut down a small amount of heat escaping through single-pane windows by putting an insulating clear film over them.

Amazon has a selection with prices starting at £ 3.25 and you can get different sizes on eBay from £12.96. If any windows don’t close properly, get them fixed now. online platform bark.com can put you in touch with a handyman in your area.

LINE CURTAINS

IF your curtains are on the thin side, improve their draughtresistance by adding some thermal lining.

Lauren Guthrie, from the BBC’s Great British sewing Bee, has made a helpful step- by- step video of how to do it for the national trust which is available on youtube: search ‘ Lauren Guthrie national trust’.

JustFabrics sells thermal curtain lining material for £5.95 a metre ( justfabrics.co.uk) if you make your own. Another option is ready-made thermal curtain linings which you hang behind your existing curtains (from £10 at dunelm.com).

or you can buy ready-made thermal- lined curtains from retailers such as Argos, which has pairs from £30 ( argos.co.uk) or try John Lewis where they cost from £85 ( johnlewis.com).

you could also install thermal blinds. research from the university of salford found that drawing the blinds at dusk can reduce heat loss by 13-14 per cent and closing the curtains from 15-17 per cent.

thermal blinds cost from £9.99 upwards at Blindsbypost.com. the company is also offering an exclusive 10 per cent discount code for Daily mail readers. It’s valid on all BlindsbyPost thermal blinds and has no minimum spend and is available until December 31, 2022.

Just enter the code DAILymAIL10 in the box at the checkout to claim your seasonal discount.

BLEED RADIATORS

FeeL your radiators. If they’re cold at the top but warm at the bottom there is probably too much air in them. use a bleed key on each one (you can pick them up for a couple of quid in hardware stores or online) with something to catch the water as you let out any air bubbles. this will allow the radiators to work efficiently.

to stop heat escaping, putting reflector paper behind your radiators is very effective. I have this behind mine. you can get a 4.7m roll for £7.99 at screwfix ( screwfix.com). thick kitchen foil will also do the trick.

ADJUST THE BOILER

IF you have a condensing combi boiler, you could cut around £200 from the average energy bill by turning down the flow temperature (please note: this is different to the thermostat).

Check your manual to find out how to do this — it’s usually one of the knobs on the front of the boiler. or there is a very useful guide at theheatinghub.co.uk which explains why a lower flow temperature will make the boiler run more efficiently.

save even more money on your bills by setting your thermostat at 17-18c rather than the mediterranean temperatures of 22c or more that some of us get used to in winter.

It’s healthier and it will save you money.

If you’re at home during the day you can save hundreds through the year by just heating the room you’re in with an electric or oilbased heater rather than turning on the central heating.

stop heat escaping from hot water pipes by lagging them. you can buy insulating tubing from most hardware stores or online and it’s pretty cheap.

At Wickes, for example, prices start at £1.30 ( wickes.co.uk) and there are plenty of youtube videos from official sources, such as water companies showing you how to do it.

CLEAR THE GUTTERS

WHILe the autumn leaves have been glorious this year, they are a menace when they fall into gutters. Water running down the exterior walls instead of through the pipes can lead to damp spots and even leaky ceilings.

Keep the gutters free of debris yourself or hire a handyman to help. Also get them to lop overways

hanging branches from nearby trees that could be clogging up the gutters.

Leaks over time can cause areas of damp which can lead to mildew and black mould on the walls and damage to foundations. Removing black mould costs from £50-£350 per room. Serious damage to walls and foundation can cost thousands to put right.

BLOCK CHIMNEYS

IF YOu have an open fireplace that you don’t use, the chimney can be a big cause of lost heat. The Energy Saving Trust estimates that installing a chimney draught- excluder can save about £65 a year on energy

bills. Stormguard’s draught excluder balloon, which will fit most chimneys, does the job and is £21.79 on Amazon.

An environmentally friendly alternative is the ‘chimney sheep’ — a removable draught excluder made from felted Herdwick wool which plugs up the chimney.

These are priced from £ 18, come in a range of sizes and are available from chimneysheep.co.uk.

The company website claims the Chimney Sheep stops about 5 per cent of your household heat from escaping, reducing your heating bill by about £125 on average (based on the current Energy Price Guarantee of £2,500).

INSULATE THE LOFT

uP TO a quarter of heat in the home escapes through the roof, according to British Gas.

Loft insulation can be expensive. Checkatrade says the insulation material alone for a detached house would cost about £600.

But it will definitely cut down your energy bills by a considerable amount, if done properly.

The Energy Saving Trust estimates that installing the recommended 27cm of insulation will lead, on average, to annual savings of £590 on your energy bill in a detached house or bungalow, £ 355 in a semi- detached house, and £330 in a terraced property. You can do this more cheaply yourself if the loft is easily accessible and you don’t have damp problems. But you will need to wear a protective suit, a mask and gloves.

If you’re renting, speak to your landlord about insulation. The rules are fuzzy when it comes to insulation and tenants’ rights. Legislation puts the onus on landlords for properties to be energy efficient but only at EPC level E.

However it is worth asking your landlord to better insulate the property.

If they won’t, and you want to stay in your rented home for a few years, ask them if you can install it yourself.