5 clever tricks to help you heat your home without turning the heating on in winter

Soaring energy prices and a cost of living crisis mean that putting the heating on has never been more expensive. While it is important to turn the heating on for a few hours each day to protect your home, cranking up the heating to stay toasty and warm all day is now out of the question.

If you're looking to save energy and save money whilst keeping warm there are a couple of clever ways to stay warm, without turning on the heating. The obvious solutions include – as Martin Lewis says – is to 'heat the human, not the home', by using things like hot water bottles, heated throws and electric blankets. 

But there are other ways to keep your house as toasty as possible without putting your central heating on, that you may not have considered.

How to heat your home without putting the heating on

1. Open all blinds and curtains

As long as your windows and doors are all properly sealed, an easy and free way to heat up your home is to make the most of any sunlight that comes our way this winter – limited as it may be in the UK!

James Longley, managing director at Utility Bidder, says, 'The UK often experiences spells of bright sun throughout the autumn and winter months, so it’s important to use this to your advantage. 

'Make sure all curtains and blinds are fully open so that the light projected by the sun can help to heat up different rooms within the house.'

This can be particularly effective if your home, or at least parts of it, are south-facing, so make sure you don't keep those window treatments closed.

2. Manage draughty spots

In a similar vein, snuffing out and patching up any draughty spots around your doors and windows is another way to avoid losing valuable heat in your home.

'It may sound simple, but any areas exposed to draughts can bring in cold air and let warm air out,' James explains. 'With this in mind, make sure all doors have a draught excluder at the bottom of them, and don’t forget about pet flaps and letter boxes. 

'In fact, if you can, fixing your letter box so that any drafts can’t enter the home will have a big impact.'

For external doors, stormguard rubber draught seal from Robert Dyas are ideal for keeping cold gusts outside. For internal doors, it's also worth adding in some more attractive draft excluders which you can pick up from £7 at Dunelm. These will make a style statement and help keep an internal room cosy.

3. Take advantage of extra heat

Many of us will use appliances that generate heat or hot water regularly throughout the day – and one of the keys to keeping your home as warm as possible without using the heating is utilising these as much as possible.

For example, James says, 'When taking a hot shower, you’ll often find the bathroom becomes filled with steam which in turn produces heat. 

'Before taking a shower, leave the bathroom door open so that some of the steam and heat warms the surrounding areas of the home, which will hopefully leave you feeling warmer for longer.'

Of course, you'll still want to be careful to avoid letting too much moisture into your home without proper ventilation; using one of the best dehumidifiers in tandem with this tactic is ideal for preventing a build-up of said moisture.

Another way to make the most of heat generated in certain spots of your home is to leave your oven door open immediately after use – as long as there are no children running around who may be vulnerable to burning themselves!

Leaving the oven door open rather than shut when you're finished with it can allow the hot air generated to stream into your home, and should heat up your kitchen rather nicely. We've tried this trick ourselves at home, and are pleased to say, it works!

4. Place your furniture in the correct spots

This is a well-used trick, but it's an important one to bear in mind if you can only turn your heating on sparingly.

'It’s unlikely you’ll be able to last all of the autumn and winter months without putting the heat on, so to use as little energy as possible, make sure there are no items of furniture such as a sofa in front of the radiator, as this will soak up the majority of the heat,' James says. 'Instead, leave the radiators exposed in order for them to heat the whole room.'

It can also be wise to ensure you don't have too many big pieces of furniture blocking any natural light that may be entering the room because, as mentioned, this can heat up your home quite nicely on a sunny day.

5. Close internal doors

Heat will escape through all of the doors and windows in your home, so try to keep as much in as possible by closing the doors to all and any rooms you aren't using. 

Perhaps you often congregate in just the living room in the evenings? If so, conserve any heat created by closing all of your other internal doors downstairs. This will keep the warmer air concentrated in the room you're in, and not the rooms that aren't currently in use.

Though this may mean that other rooms are a little chillier when you open the doors again, it's a great way to keep your most-used rooms as warm as possible.

So before you feel the urge to turn the heating on high, consider if you're using all these tips to keep your home as warm as possible.