Top tips to help keep your property warm this winter

With the arrival of colder weather, and more expensive energy costs, it’s important to consider how you can help keep the heat in, and the costs down. Here Your Move provides some top tips to help you as a homeowner or landlord.

• Bleed your radiators. If the top of your radiator is colder than the bottom of it there could be cold air trapped inside, which prevents it from filling with hot water and hence heating up. By simply bleeding the radiator you’ll release the air and allow the hot water to flow inside.

• Don’t allow the top of the radiator to be blocked with clothes or other items. It’s important to let the warm air flow and ensure the heat, that you do have, can circulate. 

• Draught proof anywhere that could be susceptible to letting cold air in. There’s draught excluders that can be bought for doors (which should be left closed where possible) as well as self-adhesive foam tape which can be applied to windows too. Think also about letterboxes and even keyholes. Any good DIY shop will sell items to help block out the cold air in these areas.

• Consider the position of your furniture. Remember to move sofas and any other items away from radiators to avoid blocking the warm air and ideally put up thermal curtains at windows – and even invest in some for doors too.  

• Make sure there’s adequate insulation around your property including in the loft, where heat can often escape, and possibly under floors and within external walls. And don’t forget to insulate your hot water cylinder too – at least to a thickness of 75mm.

• Check the boiler.  An inefficient one can affect your heating bill so it’s really important to regularly get it serviced, approximately once a year, ideally during summer, but anytime could prove beneficial. And don’t forget to check on thermostats too. Even if you’ve set the heating to come on and off at certain times, an old thermostat can sometimes lead to delays in the property heating up or it being heated at higher temperatures than needed.

There’s lots more advice available from the government who have produced a handy leaflet that provides additional support to those who want to keep warm, and well, this winter. Simply visit their site here  or if you’d like to discuss how you might improve your property in any way – for the benefit of new buyers or tenants – simply contact one of our branches.