This simple error when heating your home could be costing you up to £115

Keeping our energy bills down is a priority for a lot of us this winter, especially given the ongoing energy and cost of living crisis. According to one expert, there's one mistake to avoid when heating your home that could be costing a small fortune.

Things like turning off lights in rooms you're not using, taking appliances off standby, and swapping baths for a shower are all well-known energy-saving tips for not wasting electricity. But now the time has come to turn consider turning the central heating on there’s a simple mistake we're probably all making, that could well be wasting our electricity and raising our heating expenses.

The mistake to avoid when heating your home

Jess Steele, heating technology specialist from BestHeating, told us that there's an easy trick that many people miss when it comes to saving on their heating bills. She said, ‘A simple error many make is heating the whole house – you should only really heat the room you are in.’

Explaining why, Jess explained, ‘Heating an unused space is adding needless money to energy bills, so ensure radiators are turned off in rooms that are not in use, such as the bedroom every morning when you leave for work.

‘Doing this will make your boiler work more efficiently, allowing the room you are in to warm up faster, and saving as much as £115 if your heating is used daily.’

However, there is one caveat to this rule. ‘Make sure you don’t turn off any radiators in the room the thermostat is in though, or else it will affect the temperature of the rest of your home,' Jess said.

Of course, not every home will have the ability to abide by this rule during the winter months, but if feel you can implement it into your life (or some of the best energy-saving products), it could save you a decent bit of cash.

As mentioned, a good (and easy) trick to following this rule is to try heating your living room only when you get home from work, and make sure the heating in bedrooms, spare rooms or bathroom is off until you go into them later on in the evening.

Or, if you want to stay toasty during chilly mornings, set your heating to come on in your bedroom an hour before you get out of bed, and make sure the heating is off in the rest of your rooms.

However, if you work from home a smart move is to heat only your home office space or kitchen (wherever your WFH space is!) and leave the rest of the home heating off until the evening.