Interior Design Tricks to Save Money this Winter
With the rising cost of energy, we are all looking at an expensive winter. Even our eco chapel with its biomass boiler and solar panels isn’t escaping – our wood pellets now cost £3,250 for a year’s supply compared to £1,225 last year! But it’s not all doom and gloom, there are some simple things you can do with your interior design to help. These tips will mean you can turn down your heating a degree or two, or have it on for a shorter length of time. Remember, the room stays warm for several hours after the heating switches off (and keeping that heat in the room after the heating is switched off is really what these tips are all about) so you don’t need to keep your heating on all the time. Not only will it help your bank balance, it’s better for the environment too!
Move your furniture away from radiators
It sounds like a no brainer but so many people put a sofa or bed in front of a radiator! We do this with our sofa in the summer as it’s the best layout for the room, but when the heating comes on in the winter, that sofa will move. Sometimes, especially if you have a small room, it can seem like there’s only one place to put the sofa or bed and that may be in front of a radiator. Even pulling it away 30cm will allow you to benefit more from the radiator (although I don’t condone this unless there is really no other choice!). It’s worth sacrificing some floor space or having a less-than-perfect layout in order to save money on heating throughout the winter. If you are unsure how you can adjust your layout or want some help, you can book into my Design Surgery – an hour video call where you can ask me anything and hash out all your design dilemmas, coming up with instant solutions.
Whilst we’re on the subject of uncovering radiators, remove wooden radiator covers and don’t draw curtains over radiators (that just heats up your window recess!). Wooden radiator covers absorb the heat and don’t radiate it back out because wood is not a heat-conductive material. I have heard people say they don’t notice the difference in heat, but they will be unaware that their thermostat is working harder and costing them more to combat the radiator cover! Unfortunately, anecdotal experience doesn’t trump factual science. The best way to ‘hide’ unsightly radiators is to paint them the same colour as the wall. I love a shelf over a radiator too, and choosing a material that still radiates heat such as marble will prevent it from making your radiator inefficient.
Use thermal lining or interlining in your curtains and blinds
This in an absolute must if you have period windows with single glazing. Heavy interlined curtains, whilst beautiful, do not come cheap, so if this isn’t in your budget don’t worry – you can get thermal lining kits! These cost around £30 and hang behind your regular curtains. You need to buy the correct one for your curtain heading type.
Become familiar with how your heating system works optimally
Not technically a design tip, but if you have electric heaters, it is very expensive to keep them on for long periods so it is more cost-effective to have them come on long enough to heat the room up then switch off for an hour or so, then turn it back on when the temperature drops too much. Instead of having the heating on for 6 hours in the evening, you might have 4 bursts of half an hour each throughout the evening which is enough to keep the room temperature up. We have a biomass (wood pellet) boiler so it uses most energy when it comes on in getting up to temperature, therefore it is most cost-effective to have it come on once in the morning for a few hours and again in the late afternoon to take us through the evening. If you have cast iron radiators, they take longer to heat up than modern versions but hold their heat for hours after they’ve been switched off. This means you will need to adjust your heating controls accordingly, for example having them come on before you wake up and turning them off several hours before you go to bed. Do some Googling to work out how to make the most of your own heating system.
If you are shopping for your home . . .
I’ve tried to avoid tips that require you to buy better things because that isn’t on the cards for many this winter, but if you are renovating or buying new, here are some tips.
Ensure new curtains (and curtain rods) are 60-90cm (or up to 150%) longer than your window. This is standard advice as it gives you 30-45cm space for the fabric to ‘stack back’ when your curtains are open so that they don’t block any light, but it’s also a good thermal trick as when the curtains are drawn closed, that extra space to the sides stops any pesky draughts coming through.
In older houses the radiators can usually be found under windows. This was done to combat the heat-loss of single glazing and is completely unnecessary with modern double glazing. If you do live in a house with radiators under the windows and you don’t want unfashionably short curtains, dress your windows with thermal or interlined blinds instead.
Don’t buy a chrome towel rail for your bathroom. Chrome is an inefficient conductor so it reduces the potential heat output of your rail. Aluminium and painted finishes are more efficient. Heated towel rails are a good investment though, they don’t use a lot of electricity to run and are much more efficient than using a tumble drier to dry your towels.
Use rugs on floorboards, stone and tile floors. Apart from reducing draughts if you do have breezy floorboards, having something cosy underfoot will make you feel warmer and therefore be comfortable with a lower ambient air temperature, meaning you can turn the thermostat down a little. A living room rug should be big enough to just tuck under the front feet of your sofas and chairs, it should not look like a small island in the middle of the room! You can also have rugs in the kitchen – a runner works well in front of a run of units or an island. A washable flatweave rug is ideal for a kitchen or for under a dining table.
