How to Stop Losing Heat from your Home

September 1, 2022

When you spend your hard-earned money on home heating oil to keep your home warm, the last thing you want to do is waste it by having a poorly insulated house where the heat can escape easily. The more money you spend trying to keep it warm, the more you lose.

Wouldn’t it make sense to tackle these problem areas, so that you improve your home and get a better return on your home heating oil spend? We thought so. So, here are the common ways your home is losing energy and how to stop it.

Gaps under the windowsills, around door frames and through the walls

If your windows are closed tight and you still feel a draught, you may need to investigate possible gaps underneath the sill. This isn’t always an obvious place to look, but you may find that a silicone caulk around the bottom of the sill is all it takes to block gaps and restore warmth and cosiness to your living space.

You should check all around your walls and frames for gaps or cracks which may be contributing to heat loss. Cavity wall insulation is a popular choice for preventing heat loss in older properties where wall insulation isn’t already present.

Through the letterbox

Your hallway will always be typically colder than the other rooms in your house. After all, it’s not really a place where you spend a lot of time – you simply use it to move from one room to another. The radiators in this space are normally turned down much lower to save on home heating oil in a space where you wouldn’t feel the benefit of it, but there’s also potential for what little heating there is in this space to be lost through a poorly insulated letterbox. Instead, try using a wall mounted post box and seal your letterbox to drastically cut down on draughts.

Through the roof

One of the most common ways your home is losing energy is through your roof space, through inadequate (or entirely missing) insulation. As hot air rises, it will naturally try to escape through your attic, and therefore the best thing you can do to stop this is to upgrade your roof insulation to keep the heating in your house where it belongs. Attic insulation is common and is normally in the form of fibreglass rolls or spray foam, depending on your home style and budget.

Check the quality of your insulation at present and decide if an upgrade now would be worth the investment – remember, having great roof insulation could save you up to 20% on your energy bills.

Through the floor

Flooring can be another common source of heating loss, especially if your home is older with a suspended floor. Insulating underneath your floorboards is advisable but to prevent any rot from condensation build up it is always best to call in a professional. Lifting your floorboards to lay insulation may feel like too big a task for you to tackle right now, so instead you can always add some thick area rugs to rooms where you feel you are getting draughts from the floor.