Heating your home
Heating your home for less this winter
Our housing stock is older and draughtier than most, and our winters are damp rather than freezing — which means heat leaks away instead of being trapped. The trick is heating the rooms you use, when you use them, and stopping the warmth escaping.
Get your timer right
Heating a house from cold twice a day usually beats leaving it ticking over all day — unless your home is very well insulated. Set it to come on 30 minutes before you're up and off 30 minutes before you leave.
Turn down the radiators you don't need
Thermostatic valves let you run the living room warm and the spare room cool. Closing doors keeps that heat where you paid to put it.
Chase the draughts
A wet afternoon and about £30 of materials will pay you back every winter after.
- Letterbox and keyhole brushes on the front door.
- Draught strip round doors and old sash windows.
- A chimney balloon in an unused fireplace.
- Fill the gap where the floorboards meet the skirting.
If you're on home heating oil
Around two thirds of NI homes heat with oil, and oil isn't a regulated price — so shopping around matters. Order in bulk when prices dip, agree the total price including VAT before delivery, and avoid 20-litre forecourt drums except in a genuine emergency. The Consumer Council publishes a weekly NI oil price check that's worth a look before you order.
Service the boiler
An annual service keeps a boiler running efficiently and catches problems before they become a cold weekend and a big bill.
If you ask us
If you only do one thing: get the timer sorted. Most people are heating an empty house for hours a week.
Using less helps. Paying less per unit helps more.
Compare & save