Heatproof your home – top tips for energy efficiency

theguardian.com:

This winter is expected to be particularly challenging for UK households, thanks to steep rises in energy bills and other essential costs. The average household can expect to pay £2,500 a year for its energy after the government’s cap on unit prices, and potentially far more, depending on the size of its home and usage. Many people may struggle to cover basic costs such as food and heating over the coming months.

So it is more important than ever to plan ahead to make your home warmer and more energy-efficient. Here’s what you can do now – from simple DIY changes to more expensive measures.

You need to find where warm air is escaping from your home and cold air is coming in. Places that may let in draughts include windows, doors, floorboards, chimneys and loft hatches.

Hold a candle near windows, doors and other areas to see if the flame dances around, suggesting a leak. Alternatively, try a thermal leak detector, such as the Black & Decker TLD100. You can buy this for £48.95 or rent one for just £5 a day on the Fat Llama marketplace. This flashes blue for cold, green for normal and red for warm, so you know where there are air leakages.

It’s worth draught-proofing your internal and external doors. For gaps at the bottom of the front and back doors, the most durable choice is a “brush” draught-excluder. You can make your own draught-excluders for internal doors using rolled-up towels, or tights filled with old clothes, or buy cheap or second-hand draught-excluders on sites such as eBay.

You can buy rubber draught seals from DIY stores and fit these around the sides of your external doors. Install metal keyhole-covers, and fit a letterbox brush to keep the heat in your home.

If there’s a chimney you’re not using, stop the hole