Simple household item costing less than £2 could slash energy bills as cold weather hits

A SIMPLE household item could end up keeping your bills down as the temperature outside plummets.

Shared to Facebook group Energy Saving Tips, one savvy saver revealed how they keep warm by putting foil blankets on their windows.

While millions of bill payers will get a £400 discount on bills this winter, many are still looking for ways to cut back on costs.

Recent figures from CheckaTrade show that the average cost of running your heating per hour is 11.51p.

This means that if you have a 24 kW boiler, it might cost you £2.76 an hour.

So if you have your heating on overnight for eight hours, it could cost you £22.08.

And if you were to leave it on for 24 hours it would cost £66.24.

Multiply that by seven and you’d be paying £463.68 for the week.

Of course, the overall cost of running your central heating will depend on a number of factors, such as the type of boiler you have, the number of rooms in your house and how often you switch it on.

But one DIY fan has found a hack - they've started using foil blankets on their windows to help keep energy bills down.

Posting to the Facebook group, they said: "The double glazing in my new house is the absolute pits with all of the seals gone and all of the glazed units popped.

"We are in the process of fully refurbishing the house and didn't even have curtains up for the last cold snap. So in desperation I taped some foil blankets I keep in the car for emergencies over some windows and it made a huge difference.

"The heat just bounces back off them instead of being neutralised by the rubbish windows."

Others in the comments were convinced by the hack, with some posting: "Great idea."

Another wrote: "May give a go."

And one more responded: "I did the same to my windows in the conservatory, makes a big difference."

According to heating experts SurvivalFrog, foil blankets can be effective in heating your home.

On its website, it says: "Taping the blanket over the window sill will help trap air and adds a layer of insulation between that’ll help keep heat in.

"Plus, the blanket can reflect heat back into the home."

But as for how much energy you'll save, that largely depends on the size of your home, how often you have the heating on normally and who your energy supplier is.

Les Roberts, content manager at energy expert firm Bionic, reckons it could save £80-£100 a year in a semi-detached house.

He said: "Government data has found that 18% of a home's heat is lost through the windows and single glazed windows let heat escape at double the rate of single glazed.

"The amount of money investing in double glazed panes could save you will depend on the size of your home and the overall energy efficiency of the building , but for a semi-detached house with an energy rating of A, £80-100 could be saved a year.

"Although the use of foil blankets might mean your heating has to be on for less time, the amount saved will be minimal compared to more robust insulation."

He said it's also good to note it's not a replacement way to heat your home, and a room will already need to have heating inside it for the foil to reflect it back.

When we checked for the cheapest price, we spotted one foil blanket on sale from Amazon for just £1.79.

But remember you'll need to factor in delivery costs too.

You can also buy a pack of six foil blankets from Screwfix for £5.29, but it's plus another fiver for delivery.

You might be better heading to your nearest store - you can find that using the store locator on its website.

Decathlon also sell foil blankets for £2.99 each - just keep in mind how many you'll need depending on how many windows you want to cover.

How else can I heat my home?

Most people use electric blankets under their sheets to heat their bed before they get in it.

According to research from Uswitch, these gadgets use 100 watts of energy to warm a double bed before switching to a sleep setting or being turned off.

A 100W electric blanket run for seven hours a week would use 0.7kWh.

Based on the current cap, it costs 24p to run a 100W electric blanket for one hour a day for seven days.

If you were to use an electric blanket for one hour a day, every day of the week for a year, it would cost you £12.48 in total.

Also, don't forget to factor in the cost of buying the item in the first place too.

We recently did a round-up of the best heated blankets on sale now, and the cheapest was just £19.

And remember, the actual cost of energy will depend on your tariff and how long you use your appliances for.

And a log burner seems like an obvious alternative to turning the heating - it’s much cosier too. 

The Stove Industry Alliance (SIA) estimates that a wood burning stove uses about five logs to heat, compared to a open fire which uses 16.

This saving will further increase as fuel prices continue to rise, it adds. 

Of course, it’s worth pointing out that a log burner won’t heat your entire home, just the room it's in. 

But residual heat will spread to other rooms too. 

When working out costings, you need to look at the price of wood. 

According to the SIA, the cost of burning kiln dried logs is between £150 to £190 per cubic meter (loose fill).

We also spotted another household item to help dry your clothes for less - and it only costs £3.

One gadget whizz used a clothes airer covered with a bedsheet and tucked over the radiator to dry their laundry.

Using this method as an alternative to running a tumble dryer could help to save you money.

Using a tumble dryer costs around 85p per hour of use.

As ever, it will depend on the exact device you have, how often you use it and for how long, but this estimate is based on one using 2,500w.