Reducing heat loss in your home during winter

Heat loss is described as a scenario where heat escapes from a building’s inside to its outside, usually through the walls, roofs, floor, and windows. Understanding how heat is lost in your house helps determine the most effective heating system to install, ensuring that your home is adequately and cost-effectively heated. If the heat loss in your house isn’t that much, then just floor heating will be enough. On the other hand, high heat losses may require that you go further and find ways to reduce them to ensure the system you installed performs efficiently. Heat loss is an important aspect that will also help determine whether your building meets regulatory standards. It will also determine the energy costs of running your home.

Why it is important to minimize heat loss
When your house’s heat loss levels are high, this will typically cost you more. However, specific steps can reduce heat loss and thus lower heating bills. Some of the ways to reduce heat loss in your home include;

• Improving your house’s insulation.
• Using efficient heating methods that will help reduce energy consumption.
• Reduce the leakage of air.

If the heat loss rate is more than the heat output, you will undoubtedly have high heating bills as you’ll require much heat to warm the room adequately. A noted earlier, some of the most common areas in which heat escapes are open windows and doors.

Ways to reduce heat loss by improving insulation.
The primary way to ensure no heat loss through walls, floors, roofs, and windows is by improving their insulation. You can seal all gaps present on existing insulation, or you can choose to install more insulation. This is because adequate insulation ensures minimal heat loss. Insulation can be done as indicated below

Insulate doors and windows
Installing double or triple sealing will significantly help reduce the heat lost through windows. Typically, the gaps that exist between the window panes are filled with air. Air is a poor conductor of heat and thus reduces heat loss. Using sealing materials on the door and window frames play a significant role in further reducing the heat loss. By using draught excluders around doors, helps save energy. Draught excluders are usually easy to install, and thus one can install them on their own.

Wall, loft, roof, and insulation
To lessen the amount of heat that is lost from walls, one can install cavity wall insulation. This entails blowing insulation materials on the gap that exists between the brick and the inner all. This should be carefully done to ensure that no gaps are left in the insulation. Using cavity wall insulation reduces the circulation of air and thus minimizes the heat lost through the walls. The use of warm-up insulation boards can also insulate walls. Insulating the loft is also very important. This is because a poorly insulated loft leads to increased heat loss, which increases heating costs. Ensure that you check your loft insulation and ensure it is appropriately placed. This will help save much on heating bills. 

Use of efficient methods of heating
One can reduce the energy consumed by the use of efficient heating methods. The lower the amount of heat lost in your house, the less heating you will need and the less costly it is. When a house requires less heating, then a low-temperature underfloor system will suit your house’s needs. It is also essential to concentrate on other areas such as open windows. Leaving windows open is one of the primary sources of heat losses. Ensure the windows are closed. When heat losses are low, one can easily find a low energy capacity efficient heater, thus saving on heating bills.

Use of chimney dampers.
If your house has a fireplace, having a damper inside it will help. Chimney dampers serve as seals when you aren’t using the fireplace and help avert unwanted heat loss. Leaving the chimney open when it’s not in use usually invites air into your home fire. Only open the damper when you have a fire.

In conclusion, during winter, heating the house is essential. However, it is important to be privy to the fact that there are accompanying costs. By reducing heat losses in your house, you can significantly save on energy costs. The heater type you use will also determine whether you’ll save on energy bills or spend much. Products review sites such as UK collected reviews and online home products reviews will help you with reliable sites to find a good efficient heater for your home.