How to keep your home warm without heating it

Lectura 4 min
Cómo mantener el calor dentro de la casa

During the winter, when it is cold and dark most of the day, we tend to spend more time at home. This is also the time of year when the heating gets switched on and is set higher for longer to keep our homes warm and cosy. This uses more gas or electricity, meaning that the bills we have to pay are higher.

However, there are habits you can adopt and measures you can take to save gas and electricity and to avoid the excess use of heating, while keeping your home just as warm. Want to know how to keep your home warm without heating?

Insulate your home

Doors and windows are largely responsible for allowing warmth to escape and cold to get in. Checking for spots where heat can escape and correcting them is crucial to keeping your home warm. You can opt for more expensive but cost-effective solutions in the long term, such as double or triple-glazed insulated windows, or more economical ones, such as adhesive weatherstripping made of plastic or rubber.

Open the windows and ventilate

It might seem contradictory, but if you want to keep warmth in your home, one of the first steps is to let the sun in and ventilate your home. It renews the air and allows the natural heat of the sun to warm your rooms, helping to keep the temperature acceptable in your home. At night, you should do the opposite, closing the doors, windows and blinds to keep the heat in.

Prevent excessive humidity

Humidity above 60% has an impact on the sensory perception of heat and makes you feel colder. That’s why it is important to control the relative humidity in the home. If your home is not properly ventilated, you can buy a dehumidifier and place it somewhere strategic in the home to reduce the humidity in the main rooms and provide a comfortable feeling of warmth. 

Prevent drafts

How to keep a room warm without heating it. One popular method is to divide your home into zones. Close the internal doors of the house so that the cold does not spread to the different rooms. What’s more, if you compartmentalise the house you will make the area you occupy smaller and it will be easier and cheaper to heat.

A warm floor: wood and carpets.

The materials and colours of rooms help to retain heat or for it escaping. Wood floors and carpets retain the heat far more efficiently than marble and stone, thanks to their insulating qualities. Remember that the temperature of the floor during the winter is usually around 10 or 12 degrees, which cools the entire room. To avoid the expense of heating the floor, use thick pile woollen carpets to help with insulation, and keep your feet and room warm.

Your décor is your ally

The furnishings and other items you keep in your home are decisive when it comes to keeping your home warm. How to keep your house warm. Some thick curtains will help to insulate your home. Other decorative items like rugs will also help to dissipate cold and humidity.

Your choice of colour will help too. Darker colours absorb more heat in the same way as you find with clothing. If the sun comes into your house, dark furniture and walls painted in deeper colours will absorb the heat and keep the temperature in your home higher than lighter coloured items.

Light a fire

cómo mantener una casa cálida

Not everyone has a fireplace, but if you do have one, wood is a cheap option and you can burn it to keep the whole house warm. As well as saving money, you will have the pleasure of spending hours by the fireside. If you don’t have a fireplace and are wondering how to keep your house warm without central heating, there’s another option, which is to take advantage of the heat given off by other sources in the room.

Make the most of existing heat sources

Another way of keeping warm without central heating is to make the most of the residual heat from electrical appliances, for example, the oven. In winter you can leave the oven door partly open when you have finished cooking. 

You can burn candles in strategic points in other parts of the house, but be very careful and remember to snuff them out when you leave the room or start falling asleep. They will help to make you feel warm.

How else can you keep your house cosy without switching on the heating? Wear warm clothes and wrap yourself in a blanket

As well as our tips for keeping your house warm, you can also change your attitude and realise that during the winter there is no need to wear shorts and a strappy top to feel comfortable around the house. Choose warm, comfortable garments with long sleeves in warm materials to stop you from feeling cold at home. Wrapping up in a cosy blanket when you relax on the sofa is far more sustainable and economical that cranking up the heating. 

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