Pic Credit: Pexels
Your home should be a comfy, restorative spot that offers shelter from the outdoors and a place to get nice and toasty, especially in the winter. However, if you feel that shiver creeping up your spine as a draught blows through the room, it’s more than a temporary annoyance. It’s a sign that your home has a leak that can cost you a lot more in energy bills than you might realise. Draughts make the home heating system work harder to keep the place warm, so they’re worth stamping out. Here’s how you do it.
Plug Those Leaks
The first thing you should do is take a closer look at where they might be coming from. Draughts typically spring up from windows, under doors, or even around floorboards. Thankfully, there are plenty of steps you can take to stop them from getting into the home, even when you’re not able to afford more permanent fixes. Rubber door seals, insulation strips, and weatherstripping can seal up those gaps in the meantime, keeping your home comfortable until you’re able to invest in more long-term measures.
Look Up To The Roof
Often, draughts start from the very top of the home. Your roof could be compromised by cracked tiles, broken flashing, and all sorts of other problems that let both air and moisture in. Not only does this make for a colder home, but it also opens up the risk of long-term damage by spreading moisture throughout the attic. Get in touch with a roof replacement team to see whether you might need a small fix or if you should start budgeting for a roof replacement.
Consider Your Windows
Aside from the roof, the biggest and most common source of air gaps, draughts, and heat loss is your windows. Old or poorly sealed windows can drastically impact the energy efficiency of your home. While weatherstripping or draught-proofing tape might offer a reasonable temporary solution, installing new UPVC windows can close the matter for good (or at least for many years into the future). Modern designs are much better at not just reducing heat transfer, but they have the added benefits of preventing condensation and blocking out exterior noise, too.
Check Your Insuation
If you have never done it before, or it has just been a while, then it’s definitely worth getting up into the attic to check your insulation. If it’s incomplete or, worse yet, you don’t have any, then you need to invest in insulating your attic fully, which might be easier with schemes to make it more affordable. You should pay extra attention to places like corners and hatch doors, whether gaps are easily formed and air can leak undetected for a long time. Good attic insulation maintains a stable temperature for the whole home, reducing your heating costs and making for a much more comfortable interior to weather out the winter.
If you feel a draught, then it’s imperative you do what you can to find it and stop it, whether you need to rely on short-term or permanent measures.
Note: This is a collaborative post
No Comments