The cost of heating our homes has gone and up. Over the past couple of years it has nearly doubled in many cases. So now is a better time than ever to look at reducing your heating costs. There are number of things you can do that will greatly reduce your costs. Many of the biggest savings involve spending some money at the start but you will make it back over time. For some there may even be grants available. Most of the savings are made by reducing the heat that escapes from the house. There is no point paying to heat up the street outside your home.

Most houses already have loft insulation but if it isn’t good enough or thick enough it won’t be doing a very good job of keeping the heat in. It should be 270mm thick, so check it now and top it up if it isn’t up to the job. If you have no loft insulation at all you could be wasting 15% of the money you spend on heating. Loft insulation is usually something you can do yourself and will only cost a few hundred pounds. This would easily be made back in a couple of years.

If you have cavity walls and haven’t already had them filled with an insulating material you should give it some consideration. It isn’t a job you can really do yourself but should still only cost about £500 for an average home. It will save you about £80 a year so it will take a little while to cover the installation cost. If you don’t have a wall cavity you can clad the interior or exterior of the walls instead. This isn’t cheap though.

This next tip won’t cost you a penny and can start saving you straight away. Turn down your heating. If you turn it down by just 1°C you can save 10% and about £40 a year. I know we don’t like the idea of turning the heating down when it is cold but you won’t even notice a small change in temperature. As soon as the sun goes down you should be shutting your curtains. This can stop a lot of heat escaping out of the window.

If your boiler is on it’s last legs then it won’t be performing very well and could be costing you a lot of money. You should look for the most efficient boiler available when it comes to replacing it. A condensing boiler is best as it converts 90% of the energy it uses into heat. This compares favourably to the 60% of a conventional boiler.

If you follow all of this advice you can easily save 50% of your heating costs. There will be an initial outlay but it should only take a few years to recover. There is more information available from the Energy Saving Trust and they can even tell you if there are any grants or offers available by filling out the form here.