Cheap and easy ways to keep your home heated this winter

With more cold and miserable weather on the horizon, homeowners across Bristol will be trying to make their houses as warm as possible.

However, cranking up the thermostat and having a lovely, warm home can end up being quite costly if you're not careful.

Thankfully there are cheap ways to keep your house nice and toasty while also making sure your heating bills don't spiral out of control.

Plus, you'll be doing your bit for the planet. As Bristol Live launches its #Do1Thing campaign, which aims to get people in Bristol making small changes to their lifestyle in order to fight climate change, we've compiled a list of things you can do to make a difference. Heating your home doesn't have to cost the planet - or you - as much as you'd think.

Angela Terry, an environmental scientist who founded climate website One Home, said there's several easy ways to keep bills under control on the cheap.

"The biggest use of energy in the UK by far is neither electricity or transport but heat," she said.

"Heating our homes may be one of the biggest demands for energy but there are many ways to reduce our energy bills."

Her hacks to heat your home cheaply are:

• Keep your thermostat at 19C.
• Close your curtains from dusk until dawn.
• Plug any leaky gaps around windows and doors with strip insulation.
• Add roof insulation to 27cm in your loft.
• Have your boiler serviced regularly and install a new one if old and inefficient.
• Fit cavity wall insulation or solid wall insulation if your house is over 100 years old.
• Use thermostat radiator values to keep empty rooms or bedrooms at a lower temperature.

Those looking to go a step further to save money can also contact the CHEESE project, a Bristol-based not-for-profit organisation which aims to reduce energy loss in homes.

For people in poor housing conditions and in fuel poverty, surveyors from the project will visit your home and identify where you are losing heat completely for free.

Surveys start at just £100 for others and will provide homeowners with low-cost but impactful remedies to save money and reduce energy consumption as well as your carbon footprint.

You can apply for a survey on the CHEESE project website here.

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