Six ways to make your home more efficient

As the colder months settle in, and with it, the need to heat homes, many Brits are looking for ways to keep already costly energy bills down. In fact, searches for “home insulation” have seen a 112% increase in the past 12 months.

With this in mind, and after the news revealing Ofgem’s price cap is set to make bills rise by £139 every year, experts at GTSE have revealed six ways to help homeowners make their properties more efficient. With energy-saving hacks starting from as little as £3, there are plenty of options to help improve the efficiency of your home and lower expensive bills.

1. Invest in a good quality boiler

Although investing in an energy-efficient boiler can be very costly if it’s something you can afford to do to your home it is more than worth doing. Installing an A-rated boiler can save you about £315 every year, meaning that a boiler costing £800-£1000 will have basically paid for itself within just two and a half years.

2. Maximise heat from radiators

Following on from investing in a quality boiler, it’s then worth ensuring you’re maximising the work it’s doing to heat your home. You can do this by simply installing radiator foils behind your radiators.

Radiator foils basically work to help keep more heat in the home by reflecting the warmth back in the room, instead of escaping through the walls. This hack can cost as little as £7 and is a super easy change to make to your home for some impressive results. In fact, studies have shown that using certain types of radiator foils can save you up to £4.02 per radiator, depending on the type of property you have.

3. Reinforce your windows’ insulation

It’s important to ensure you insulate every part of your home from the attic to the windows, to the walls, doors, and floors. There are also some easy hacks to help you insulate your home from as little as £3.

Windows account for a whopping 25% of heat loss in homes, so they should be considered as a priority to well-insulate and in turn, keep homes warm through winter. Beyond opting for double glazing, you can buy window insulation kits for £3 which can help as an easy, simple way to keep more heat inside and those bills down.

4. Unique ways to reduce water consumption

Although there are plenty of basic ways to reduce water consumption just through your daily routine, such as turning off the taps when brushing your teeth or just spending less time in the shower, there are also some budget-friendly improvements you can make to your home to help reduce how much water you use.

You can invest in water-saving showerheads, prices can vary for these, but they start from around £12 per head. These low-flow heads work by simply reducing the amount of water that needs to run through the shower without dampening the water pressure. Some modern models can also reduce the amount of water needed by almost half!

These are also a great hack for those that are not on a water meter as they’re still reducing the amount of water you need to heat up, in turn reducing your energy bills.

5. Draw your curtains

Using thick, insulating curtains, and drawing them as soon as the evening comes in, can help keep the heat in, especially if you have drafty windows. Although not as budget-friendly, these types of curtains can also be picked up for about £50.

According to researchers at the University of Salford, drawing your curtains in an evening reduces heat loss by up to 17%. You can further this by choosing to use electrical tape to secure your curtains to the wall. Although this seems like more of a drastic measure, it can increase heat loss prevention up to 25% by preventing cold air from the windows coming around the curtains.

6. Draft-proof your home

Making your home airtight is one of the most important ways of keeping your home toasty warm, it’s also necessary if you have not got double glazing. There are multiple ways to draft proof your home and keep the heat trapped inside, some ways to do this include:

• Using spray foam which can act as an air sealant, as well as an insulator. Places you can often add the foam to are air ducts, doors, windows, your attic, and pipe inlets.

• Insulation tape is another great way to reinforce airtight windows or make draftier ones for efficiency. It simply sticks to the frame and expands slightly to fill any spaces.

Commenting on the tips, Tom Armenante, e-commerce director from GTSE, says: “Energy bills have reached an all-time high, and to no surprise, the majority of us are on the lookout for ways to help save some money on costly bills. Even more so as the cold, winter months set in!"

“We hope these tips provide some inspiration on just some of the ways homeowners can look to make their homes more efficient, with plenty of budget-friendly options also available to keep the warm in and the cold out.”

Further tips on making your home more efficient can be found here.

*GTSE is a leader in trade supplies, cable ties, tape and tools.