AS the temperature drops and we turn our heaters up, most of us will also start to think about how much it’s costing us.
The mercury is now regularly below zero in parts of the country and radiators are being switched on to help us stay warm.
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Running your radiator at its best can create more warmth for your home and save you hundreds of pounds on your energy bill.
One heating expert, Matthew Jenkins from MyJobQuote, even thinks cleaning your radiator could save you £600 over the winter on your energy bill.
Jenkins says cleaning your radiator, specifically getting the dust off the fan, will make it run more efficiently.
The expert says you can clean the fan easily by using a wet towel to wipe away the dust.
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If there are places you can’t reach, Jenkins says you can use a hair dryer or a vacuum to blow away the dust.
Using a towel again, place it under the radiator to catch any dust falling away.
Experts have discovered that dirty radiators can increase energy bills by 25 per cent.
Giving your radiator a deep clean with soapy water – only 30p at Tesco– is a cheap an effective way to get the radiator running hot.
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Signs of other issues to fix are often clunking or groaning sounds when radiators are on as air has crept inside, making them less efficient.
But you can also fix it yourself, with a 70p tool that is able to give your radiator another lease on life and clean away the “sludge” that builds up.
That tool, a radiator key, can ‘bleed’ the unit of all the air that isn’t supposed to be in the unit, and it’s available at all major homeware stores.
There are plenty of other cheap ways to warm the home too.
Radiator foil – which can be bought for around £7 – goes behind your radiator and reflects any heat going towards it back into the room.
You can find fairly priced radiator foil in stores like B&Q, Screwfix and B&M.
And while it may seem like an effort, tips which allow you to drop your thermostat by just one degree ‘correlates to a 10% saving on your bill,’ he claims.
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