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How to Stay Warm in a Colder House

So yes, harping on about it again....we live in a VERY cold house, and recently it snowed....alot!


Part of this renovation project is the installation of a full central heating system. So far we've installed a Biomass boiler, which is heating our water, and in time will heat the whole house with a mix of rads and a retro-fitted wet under floor heating system.


However, for now as we are still in the planning stages of room layout we are living with electric, fluid-filled, wall mounted heaters. I...am also living with my in-house accountant/husband...so, needless to say these heaters are used sparingly!

We've installed a log-burner (yipee!), but we are currently plastering and painting the lounge so it's out of action (booo). The heaters in the house do come on via a timer system, but only in select rooms...so the long and short of it is, the house feels chilly (and in some rooms that are not in use is as low as 4-6 degrees at the moment!). On the whole though we are managing to stay comfortable and I thought I'd share my top tips to stay warm for anyone in a similar situation, or living in an older, less energy efficient and chilly house!

  1. Wear Slippers!! I can't stress enough how much heat is lost from your feet and if you suffer from poorly insulated floors you'll certainly suffer from cold feet...so as obvious as it sounds wear slippers. I have a pair of slipper boots for general around the house wear and a pair of awesome duvet slippers for when chilling and watching a film...! I can't recommend them enough!
  2. Thermal Socks....yup as above...warm feet generally means a warmer body....get those sexy sock on! 
  3. Heat Main Rooms - we've found that we've been quite comfortable by heating one or two rooms that we are spending all of our time in, for us that's the master bedroom and the lounge, so our main spend has been on heating these rooms for longer periods of time. The other heaters will tick over for much shorter periods of time on a timer just to keep the house ticking over
  4. Use Fires - where possible if you own a log burner or open fire....use it and keep the doors to the rest of the house open - if you have a proper fan to circulate the heat then even better! They are a great way of heating up the rooms that you need heating!
  5. Drink lots of hot drinks....! We are living on tea (and mulled wine) at the moment!
  6. Layer up! I cant express this enough, I regularly now wear a thermal top, jumper and fleece in the house and at times even a gilet over that! Keeping your torso warm is vital for overall body warmth.
  7. Keep curtains closed! When you're heating a room, especially if you have old windows, keep the curtains closed to keep as much of the heat in the room rather than it escaping out of the windows.
  8. Make use of cooking heat. One tip I have found is when cooking keep the kitchen door open to make use of the heat generated when cooking. When I finish with the oven I tend to leave the door of the oven open to let it circulate around the room.
  9. Hot dinners....we are making lots of casseroles etc in the slow cooker at the moment and a hot dinner certainly helps keep warm!
  10. The power of the shower! In our place the shower is king! It's so nice to be in a hot shower....key is to wrap up warm after your shower to stay super warm and cosy!
There are loads of other ideas; hot water bottles, heated wheat bags and electric blankets but at the moment the above is how we are staying warm!

Roll on central heating...but until then, wrap up warm, layer up and keep your feet warm!




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