DIY influencer Shauna O’Connor has shared some top tips for keeping the heat in your home this winter in a bid to combat rising energy costs.
These “short-term savings” can all be implemented in your home ahead of the winter.
Every little bit counts to keep your home warm this winter, according to DIY influencer Shauna O’Connor.
The social media star has tried and tested a number of easy and cost-effective ways to prevent heat from seeping out the different cracks and openings in your home.
So, what does Shauna recommend?
First of all, identify the air leaks around windows, doors, sockets, and lighting leading to the attic. She said: “Last year what I did was, I waited for a cold, windy day and I ran my hand along the window boards and the doors just to feel for drafts.
“I’ve also seen a trick where you can go around the house with some burning incense and watch where the smoke gets dragged and that will help you identify air leaks as well.”
Once the leaks were found, she used silicone to seal up the hole.
Windows are another important thing to look at. The first thing to do, according to Shauna, is to get clear insulating film. This sells for about €10-15 and “creates a secondary glazing effect to help keep the heat in and the wind out”.
She said: “Some brands even claim that you can save up to ten per cent on your heating bill if you do that.”
Shauna recommends getting thermal curtains for the windows during colder months. She takes hers down during the summer but uses them to keep the heat in during the winter.
Ensuring doors and windows are airtight when they are shut is important. For this, the DIY pro recommends getting foam adhesive tape. “It has a sticky backing, you just stick it on. You can get that for around €10 and that will close off any air leaks in the windows,” she said.
Snake draft excluders that lie along the bottom of the door are also efficient.
A surprising way heat gets out is through the letterbox. To combat this, Shauna sealed hers up. She said: “It was really effective. I just closed it up and then I put my post box outside. If you’re not into closing it up, you can get draft excluders with bristles for that.”
Shauna told RTE’s Brendan O’Connor that when she had an energy audit done, the chimney was one of the areas where they were losing a lot of heat from. She said: “They recommended getting a stove. Down the line, that would be ideal but, for the moment, I’m going to get myself a chimney sheep.
“It’s kind of a fluffy plug that you put up the chimney and it’s made of breathable wool.”
A genius budget-friendly way to reflect back into the room is by putting a sheet of tinfoil behind the radiator. Shauna said: “If you’ve got radiators that are on an external wall, that external wall is absorbing a lot of the heat from the radiators. You’re losing a lot of that heat.
“You can buy special radiator foil but if you’re on a budget, there’s no harm in using some tinfoil at least. You won’t even see it behind the radiator and it will help reflect that heat back into the room.”
Bleeding each radiator in your home will also make sure they’re working properly. To do this, simply use a bleed key to release the air until water starts to come out.
Finally, Shauna keeps her home at 19 and a half degrees, as she says you can reduce the heating bill by ten per cent by lowering it by just one temperature. When asked by the RTE host whether this was warm enough, she said: “It’s comfortable but I’d want to wear a woolly jumper. I’m wearing a woolly jumper at the moment. I’m not cold, I’m comfortable but I’m not going around in a t-shirt.”
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