How To Stay Warm This Winter Without It Costing The Earth

As energy prices skyrocket and winter draws in, many people's thoughts turn to the question ‘How can I stay warm through winter without having to sell a limb or sacrifice the planet?' Unless you happen to live in a mega eco-designed Passivhaus (in which case why are you reading this?), there is probably quite a lot you can do.
The bad news is that your house is probably pretty appalling energy efficiency-wise.
The good news is that this gives plenty of scope for improvement...

How Bad is my House?

Well, how old is your house? If it is less than a year old, then it's probably not too bad. Otherwise it's a fairly steep descent back to pretty poor in the sixties after which it nosedives. To be blunt, the newer your construction, insulation, windows, boiler etc. are, the better your house is.

So how do I find out?
• A lot of utility companies offer ‘Energy Audits' of your home for free. Bear in mind that there's no such thing as a free lunch, and that they will try to sell you something - like a new boiler etc. - but this can be a good way of analysing your energy use.
• You can also use one of the many online carbon footprint calculators; bear in mind though that all of these ‘energy performance' calculators, including the Government one, work on fuel prices from either 2001 or 2005. So your potential saving may be considerably more. Compare your bills from that time to this to see just what a difference that makes. Also remember these are designed to measure energy efficiency and carbon emissions, not cost per se.

What Can I Do About It?

As much or as you feel like/can afford/can get grants for. The good news is that in most houses there are a number of things you can do at all budget levels.

Grants
Look into what grants are available. Many councils offer 50% on cavity wall and loft insulation, people in receipt of most benefits or over 70 can get 100% grants for this. There may be excessive waiting lists, particularly at the moment, but take advantage of this if you can.

Insulation vs Generation
A common complaint is that grants are available to improve energy efficiency but not to install a woodburner or a wind turbine, etc. Why are the Government so obsessed with energy efficiency and insulation over micro-generation?
If your house is hideously inefficient in its energy usage and leaks heat like a sieve then running the lights from your mini-turbine is not reducing your carbon emissions or reducing your running costs by a great deal. Usually grants for renewables etc. are contingent on proof of having achieved exemplary levels of insulation etc. That is fair enough. The taxpayer is not going to fund your heatpump for you to disperse it all out through your sieve-like structure.

Insulate
If you haven't already, have the walls insulated, and the loft space insulated to the equivalent of 300mm quilt insulation. Also, no matter how much loft insulation you have, make sure the loft hatch is well insulated as well and draughtstripped round the edges. It is amazing how many people don't do this - when I go to open a loft hatch in winter it is like standing under a cold fan before I have even touched the thing. Make sure as well that adjoining walls to garages and other unheated spaces are well insulated - lots of people overlook this as well.
Are all of your hot water pipes lagged? If not you are losing large amounts of the heat before the water even gets to the radiators or taps. I know mine aren't for a fact because they are all visible. Is your hot water cylinder insulated? If so, to what depth? If it is less than 150mm, stick a jacket on it.

Exclude Draughts
One of the primary energy efficiency improvements of double glazing is eliminating draughts around the frame - heat loss through the panes is much less of an issue. Likewise doors and all openings. Many people worry on about ‘sealing up' houses and how unhealthy it is, but this should not be a concern. Ventilation is exchange of air you want and control. Draughts are money escaping through holes. Systematically go round all your doors and windows and feel with your hand where there is a draught. Use draught-excluder tape to seal the holes.

Windows
If you have triple glazed argon filled Scandinavian glazing units, congratulations, your windows are pretty good. If not there are probably things you can do. If your windows are not double glazed you can make your own secondary glazing units with a simple wooden frame and perspex that fit inside the window frames and can be removed when not required. Even using plastic film will improve matters - trapping a layer of air between the inside and the external pane by whatever means will reduce heat loss.

Curtains
As soon as the sun has gone down, draw the curtains. Trap the heat before it even gets to the window panes. Are your curtains lined? Thick lined curtains can be had very cheaply in charity shops, jumbles, on Freecycle etc. They may not necessarily be pretty, but they will keep the heat in. Consider fitting long curtains in front of external doors to close at night. Likewise any doorways, corridors, staircases etc. that open onto unheated space.

Heating and Hot Water System

Mains Gas
Mains gas is considered to be the most energy efficient fuel in assessments for an Energy Performance Certificate for a variety of reasons - a major one being that it is piped directly to your house. If you have LPG gas in bottles or bulk your rating will come down by about 30 points, because of the energy involved in delivering it to your house by road. Likewise heating oil, coal etc., which brings us on to:

I Wanna Woodburner
So does everyone, it seems. Woodburning stoves are indeed an energy efficient solution if you have a large supply of coppiced wood on your property, or if you live in an area without mains gas. In which case, of course, go for it! - you don't need to be reading this to tell you that. If you don't, where are you going to get that wood from? How are you going to transport it to your home? How often? If it is old pallet wood etc., what is the embodied energy in its production, shipping etc.? If you live in a town and don't have access to free wood, let's be honest, you want a woodburner because they're trendy and look nice. If you are having a multifuel stove then any environmental gain goes straight out the window anyway. Coal is also a fossil fuel, remember?

Boiler
First of all, how old is your boiler?  Many older regular boilers like this one struggle to achieve 55-60% at optimum performance; 45% or less is not uncommon. A modern condensing boiler can be achieving around 93% efficiency. Cost of a new boiler is about £900 plus getting a plumber to install it... well, yes it's true you are not going to see ‘payback' in the short term, but the same is true of that woodburner you wanted to install, remember? If you can afford to upgrade your boiler to a high-efficiency one this will probably be the most significant step in reducing your carbon emissions and bills.

Radiators
If you have an older heating system, go round when the heating is on and feel the radiators. Are they uniformly warm all over? If they are warm at the bottom and cold at the top you probably have air trapped in the system - use the radiator key and bleed off the air. If they are warm at the top and cold at the bottom your system is probably silted up with sludge deposits. You need to have the system drained and cleaned out. You can do this yourself with a DIY manual if you are confident with this kind of thing; alternatively a plumber can do it fairly inexpensively.

Heating Controls
How is your heating controlled? Thermostat, programmer and TRVs (thermostatic radiator valves) on the radiators should be an absolute minimum. Much better is having separate controls for different zones of your house. Why are you heating the whole house to the same temperature all the time? I only need my bedroom to be warm when I go up to bed and when I get out of bed, not during the day when I am downstairs. Does the HW cylinder have a thermostat? If not, fit one. Is your system pumped? If so is the pump in heated space? Does the boiler have load or weather compensation?

Renewables
This article purposefully does not go into solar water heating, photovoltaics, ground source heatpumps etc. If you are considering these and can afford to do these and they are practical for your property (and you have already ticked all the other boxes we have covered) then brilliant! Go ahead, do them! They will only help.

By Arcturus Rann