When the first cold days arrive, the bill goes up far faster than the temperature in the living room. The good news is that you can save on heating without living under a blanket and without any building work: in a rented flat, almost everything that genuinely helps is a small adjustment you can make this weekend. These are the nine you notice most.
1. Understand the radiator valve
The numbers on the dial are not "power", they are a target temperature. On most valves, 3 works out at around 20 °C and each number raises or lowers it by about 4 degrees. Turning it to 5 does not heat the room any faster: it heats it too much and then you are overheated. If the room is already at the temperature the number sets, the radiator switches itself off.
2. Bleed the radiators before the season starts
If a radiator is hot at the bottom and cold at the top, or makes bubbling noises, there is air inside and it is not performing. Bleeding takes five minutes: open the valve fully, wait half an hour, put a cloth and a container under the bleed valve, open it with the square key until air comes out and close it as soon as water appears. Do this on every radiator in the flat, and tell the building manager if the system loses pressure afterwards.
3. Clear the space in front of the radiator
A sofa pushed against it, a long curtain covering it or a shelf above it blocks the warm air and can waste a significant share of the heat. Leave a few centimetres free in front and above. It is the cheapest change on this list.
4. A different temperature in each room
Not every room needs the same thing: living room 20-21 °C, bedroom 17-18 °C, kitchen 18 °C and bathroom 22-23 °C only when you are using it. Every degree less means around 6 % less consumption, so dropping one or two degrees in the rooms you use least shows up on the bill.
5. Turn it down at night, but do not switch it off
Leaving the heating off all day and blasting it when you get home costs more: reheating cold walls and furniture uses more energy than keeping the place ticking over. Drop it two or three degrees overnight or while you are out, and never let a room fall below 16 °C or you will get damp.
6. Close the internal doors
If the bedroom is at 17 °C and the living room at 21 °C, an open door sends warm humid air into the cold room, where it condenses on the walls. Keep the door shut between rooms at different temperatures.
7. Air the rooms quickly, with the windows wide open
A window left ajar all day is the classic mistake: it chills the wall without refreshing the air. Open it fully for five or ten minutes, two or three times a day, with the radiator valves closed while you do it. The air is replaced and the walls keep their heat.
8. Block the draughts
Run a sheet of paper around the frame of the closed window: if it slides out easily, the seal is worn and needs replacing (it is cheap and sticks on without tools). Add a draught excluder under the front door and thick curtains that you close at dusk: a window with no shutter loses heat all night. In our selection of home products you will find textiles and solutions that help keep the heat inside.
9. Write down your consumption every month
Note the reading on the meter or the heat cost allocator on the first of every month. After two or three months you will know which changes worked, and you will have something to argue with if the annual settlement comes back with an odd figure.
Where to start
If you are only going to do three things: bleed the radiators, set the temperature room by room and seal the windows that let air through. Those three give you the most heat for your money and are the ones you notice first as soon as the temperature drops.