With summer coming to an end, many people might start worrying about the high energy bill due to heater usage. Heating units take up a lot of energy from power grids which results in higher energy bills. You might find yourself asking the question, “How to save heat energy?” 

With our 10 heat energy saving tips, you will prepare your home for the winter months without worrying about high energy bills. These tips will help you stay warm and comfortable while enjoying a low energy bill. Here are the top 10 ways of saving heat energy to prepare your home for the winter.  

How To Save Heat Energy And Why?

Before looking at the 10 ways to save heat energy, it is important to understand why you should save heat energy. The cost of energy use takes up around 5 to 20% of your annual household budget. In the winter months, these energy costs can significantly increase due to high heater usage. 

In some parts of the UK, winter affects areas much more severely than others which means that you will use your heating unit more, and this leads to an extremely high energy bill. This might lead you to wonder how to save heat energy without using a heater. There’s no way to avoid energy usage completely, but there are several ways to cut your energy costs drastically. 

With Meteor Electrical’s 10 ways to save heat energy, you will have the answer to the question of how to save heat energy while maintaining your household budget. It is important that you start implementing these tips before the winter to converse a sufficient amount of heat energy. 

10 Ways To Save Heat Energy

So, how to save heat energy? Follow these top 10 ways to save heat energy and reduce your energy bills. 1

1. Audit Your Home’s Energy Use

One of the most important ways of saving heat energy is by auditing your home’s energy use. A home energy audit or an energy assessment is a great way to improve the efficiency and comfort of your household. This audit provides extensive data on how much energy you use and shows you exactly where you can improve your energy usage. You don’t have to carry this task out on your own. 

A certified professional auditor evaluates your house and identifies any energy saving opportunities. The auditor also recommends multiple heat energy saving improvements to help you get started. However, if you don’t want to hire a professional auditor, you can also conduct basic auditing by yourself. 

A professional home energy audit looks at the amount of energy used up by your house and evaluates a course of action you can take to make your home more heat energy efficient. These audits do not require specialized equipment and are quite cost-friendly. 

Some auditing processes take about an hour. Through and extensive audits take over four hours to complete. These audits require specialised equipment, and they tend to be costly. Despite the price, thorough audits provide detailed information about your home’s energy use. 

In some home energy audits, the professional auditor will give you a home energy score. The home energy score. The home energy score acts like a car rating as it accurately indicates how much energy is consumed by your home. The home energy score describes your house’s energy performance against an average national consumption rate. The home energy score also provides ways to make your home’s heat energy more efficient in a cost-effective manner. 

2. Turn Your Heating Systems Efficient

If you don’t want to conduct a heat energy audit, you still have several other ways of saving heat energy from the comfort of your home. Since you are going to use heating units for the winter, one of the best ways of saving heat energy is by making your heating system efficient. One of the quickest ways of conserving heat energy is by regulating the heater’s thermostat. 

In the winter, you should set your thermostat around 20 degrees celsius and lower the temperature at night or when you are away. Keep your curtains, blinds, or shades open during the day to let the sunlight in. This will help you warm up your house. Make sure to close all the curtains and blinds at night to avoid letting the heat escape. 

When you are opening up your curtains, remember to keep the windows and the doors closed, especially when the heater is running. This is another great way of storing up the warmth in the house. Make sure that any air vents in the house are clear of furniture and other such obstructions. Clear pathways to the air vents will allow the warm air to circulate more efficiently in the house. You can also reinforce your window to conserve even more heat energy. 

Seal your windows from the cold winter air by installing a plastic film on the windows. You can also add this film to any other areas where the air comes in and out of the room. If possible, avoid using standard electrical heaters. Instead, you should opt for smart heating systems to make your heating more efficient. 

Smart heaters efficiently heat up your room, and they are also cost-effective. Meteor Electrical has a wide range of smart heaters options to help you create a warm and comfortable environment without worrying about your energy bill. Our iLifestyle range is perfect for energy efficiency allowing the end user to have full control of their heating system. 

Another great way of maintaining your heating systems is by conducting regular inspections. Remember to conduct annual inspections and maintenance of your heating systems to ensure they keep working efficiently. If you don’t check your heating systems regularly, you might be wasting energy. Inefficient heaters won’t provide adequate heating, but they will still accrue high energy charges. 

Some other ways of maintaining heat energy in your home include:

• Get an energy assessment to analyse your heating unit
• Install a smart thermostat
• Use heating units with proper certifications to ensure safety and energy efficiency.
• Install water heaters that do not require special taps.

Smart devices such as smart plugs are also a great way of saving heat energy. Check out our blog on What is a Smart Plug? 

3. Weatherise Your To Prevent Heat Energy From Escaping

Weatherisation is one of the most cost-effective ways of conserving heat energy in a home. Weatherisation keeps your home warm and comfortable even during severe winters. To weatherise your home, you can add insulation and seal up any air leaks in your home’s infrastructure. 

Weatherisation works well with any type of home, and you don’t need to improve any major structural components of your house to create a warm environment. Weatherisation cuts heating costs, and in some situations, you can avail of an even bigger energy cut. Generally, air infiltration creates drafts and lets in chilly air from near the windows and doors. If you have a basement, air filtration can bring up cold air up in your room. 

During your home energy assessment, the auditor will locate any air leaks in your home. These air leaks might come from the window area, doors, chimneys, wiring, and light fixture locations. Once you find out the location of the air leaks, you must seal these areas to achieve proper insulation. 

In your home energy audit, the auditor will give you proper guidelines on how to correctly and efficiently insulate your home to prevent cold air from seeping in. During the winter months, one of the biggest culprits of a cold draft in homes is a cold roof. With proper insulation, you can prevent your roof from letting in cold air into your home and disrupting the warmth. Some ways of sealing air leaks include:

• Weatherstrip windows and doors
• Seal and caulk air leaks in plumbing and ducting areas. Also, seal areas where electrical cabling is coming out through floors, walls, ceiling, and areas over cabinets. 
• Install a foam gasket behind switch plates and outlets on walls.
• Use a foam sealant on large gaps around baseboards, window trims, and other areas where air may leak out.
• Properly seal and insulate open fireplaces to avoid air leakage. 

4. Use Energy Saving Underfloor Heating

Energy saving underfloor heating is quickly becoming one of the most popular ways of saving heat energy. Energy saving underfloor heating turns your floor into a radiator. This heating system warms up the room from the ground up. Standard above-ground heating systems only warm up the air in the general vicinity of the heater; however, energy saving underfloor heating produces radiant heat that evenly spreads throughout the room. 

Standard heaters create warmth that rises upwards towards the ceiling. With energy saving underfloor heating, you get direct contact with warm air, and this creates a comfortable environment. Energy saving underfloor heating provides even heat distribution compared to standard heating methods. This quality makes energy saving underfloor heaters more efficient as you don’t risk overheating and energy wastage. 

The best way to create an efficient underfloor heating system is by installing an electric underfloor heater. Electric underfloor heating is placed as an ultra-thin heating wire installed on the floor level of your home. When the heating is turned on, the wire heats up, which provides radiant warmth from the floor. The heating cable is available in two different formats - mat and foil. To choose the format, you need to check the floor type. 

There is another format called the membrane and loose wire system, which is different from the two common formats. Membrane and loose wire systems are ideal for homes that don’t want to renovate the structure to accommodate underfloor heating. Loose wire underfloor heating can be installed by a knowledgeable DIY person. However, the thermostat for controlling the underfloor heating requires an electrician. 

A qualified electrician is needed to make the electrical connections and accurately connect the thermostat to the underfloor heating unit. Aside from the standard underfloor heating, you can also opt for water-based underfloor heating. The warm water underfloor heating uses heat and circulates it through the pipes installed underneath the floor. 

You might need to take into account the room height before installing water-based underfloor heating as the pipes are usually laid in a structural sub-floor configuration. Water-based underfloor heating is unsuitable for newly developed properties and large renovation projects as it greatly affects the floor levels. 

5. Add Insulation To Your Attic And Basement

Insulation is another method of keeping the house warm during the winter months without relying on heating systems. Insulation will prevent warm air from leaving the house in the winter. Once you have adequately heated up your home in the morning, the insulation will lock in the warm air in your home during the night. With insulation, you will use your heating systems less frequently, which will lead to major savings on your energy bill. 

6. Install A Smart Thermostat

As mentioned previously, smart heaters are a great way of saving heat energy. Aside from smart heaters, you can also install a smart thermostat to regular your home’s temperature and save up heat energy. Proper temperature control is important as it ensures you are not wasting any energy. 

A smart thermostat will help you save money on energy bills and create comfort in your house. You can save a lot more on your energy bill by turning down your thermostat by 10 degrees for 8 hours a day in both the autumn and winter months. A smart thermostat is wifi-enabled, and it automatically adjusts the heating temperature for an optimal environment. 

Smart thermostats with certified ratings provide ample energy savings. You can control most smart heaters with either a handheld device or a phone. This allows full control of the temperature. Smart thermostats also have a very accurate reading of the room’s temperature, so you have full control over your energy use. Here are some common features of a smart thermostat:

• Learning your preferred temperature and establishing a schedule that automatically adjusts the temperature for energy savings when you are away from home or asleep. 
• Some smart thermostats provide data on your home’s energy use which will help you track and manage your energy use. 
• Smart thermostats give you remote control of heating through your smartphone or tablet. 

7. Consider Solar Energy

Solar energy is a great way to reduce the energy demand from your household. If you live in an area that gets a lot of sunlight, you should consider investing in solar energy. Solar energy is cost-effective, and you can use solar power to run heating systems in your home. With solar energy, you won’t have to worry about breaking your budget in order to heat up your household effectively. 

8. Improve Your Air Ducts To Conserve Heat Energy

Air ducts are one of the most important components in a household property because they carry the air from your home’s heater to each room. If the ducts are poorly sealed, poorly sized, or poorly insulated, they might contribute to higher energy bills. 

One of the easiest ways of fixing air duct related heating problems is by fixing blocked air vents. You can do this by removing any obstructions from the air vent region. You can also fix this issue by disconnecting or removing damaged air vents. 

Make sure to replace such air ducts with vents that don’t move the air around adequately. Most people add hundreds of pounds a year to their electricity bills by letting air ducts leak air into lofts and crawl spaces. To avoid spending so much money, you should insulate or seal air ducts in rooms that are not inhabited by anyone in the house. 

9. Consider LEDs To Make Room In Budget

If you can’t save improvement to your ducts or if a home audit is too expensive, there are other ways of saving money on your energy bills to create some breathing room for heating system usage. If you save money on one section of your energy bill, you can spend that extra money on heating costs. One great way of saving energy is by switching to LED light bulbs. 

Switching from incandescent bulbs to LEDs will help you save money on your energy bills. Many people gain extra energy expenditure during winter time due to Christmas lights. Consider switching to LED powered Christmas lights to save on energy bills. Apart from Christmas lights, you should also consider switching your household bulbs with LED light bulbs. 

Most LED light bulbs use 75% less energy than traditional incandescent light bulbs, and these LEDs last much longer. Even though you spend a little extra on LEDs with your initial purchase, you will earn major savings in the long run. Visit Meteor Electrical to find the best range of LED light bulbs. The Kosnic range at Meteor has high-grade LED solutions to give you high-intensity brightness at a fraction of the cost. 

Read our blog on energy saving bulbs! 

10. Stay Warm With Blankets And Clothes

One of the most cost-effective ways to conserve heat energy is by bundling with more blankets or wearing extra layers of clothing. If you keep yourself warm with blankets and clothing, you won’t need to use the heater as much. 

Switch to warm weather clothing materials during the winter to conserve body heat. Even if you are staying at home, consider wearing a jumper to keep yourself comfortable. 

With Meteor’s 10 ways to save heat energy, you will adequately heat up your household without breaking your budget. Visit Meteor Electrical to make your house more efficient for the winter months. Check out our blog on Energy Saving Tips in your Home and Office.