In the winter, elderly people may face a number of difficulties. It can be a challenge to keep your home warm on a budget. However, there are many things that older people can do for free or at a low cost to keep themselves warm and healthy.
Telecare24 has come up with 12 cold-busting ideas to keep you and your home warm this winter. Some of these ideas even help you save money on energy bills.
Here are the 12 ideas:
- Close your curtains or shutters at dusk. If you can have your curtains lined as this will increase the warm air trapped in your home even more. Similarly, triple glazing will also help keep the heat in.
- Keeping your internal doors shut helps retain the heat. Look for small spaces where heat can escape and use draught excluders in places such as under doors and letter boxes.
- Regularly bleed your radiators – and put some reflector boards on any that are positioned on outside walls. Use radiator thermostats to control the heat more efficiently. Thermostatic valves help control the heat.
- Move furniture away from vents, registers, and radiators blocking the flow of heat into the room.
- Check your floorboards and skirting boards for gaps and 15% of your heating is lost through the floor. Beading can help plug those gaps – insulation can help even further.
- If you have a personal alarm – ask your provider to supply an ambient temperature sensor. This wirelessly connects to your alarm and if the temperature drops below safe levels, it will notify your alarm centre who will then contact you to assist. This is a great idea if you sometimes forget to put the heating on and will ensure you can stay safe in your home despite the cold weather.
- If you have a fireplace that is more decorative than functional use, then use a chimney pillow to make the chimney airtight.
- Make sure your water storage tank has an insulated hot water jacket.
- Ensure your cavity walls and loft are insulated. As much as 50% of the heat is lost this way and proper insulation can save you £255 a year. You can get subsidies for the cost, contact your local authority for details.
- Wall and Loft insulation.
- Install a programmable thermostat. If you have one already, make sure it works correctly. Reducing the room temperature by just 1 degree can save you £55 a year.
- How old is your boiler? Investing in an A-grade condensing boiler can save you £235 a year. If you have had your existing boiler for more than 15 years, then it may be time to replace it.
Check other suppliers’ tariffs. Switching suppliers can take two months so it’s a good idea to look around now before the cold really sets in. Use a comparison website such as http://www.uswitch.com
We hope you find these ideas helpful. Please check out our blogs for more information like this.
