The heat is gone: what to do when your house seems inexplicably cold

Struggling to keep warm is a persistent problem for millions of households. In the UK alone, 2.38m households are in fuel poverty, according to an article published by The Conversation.

In other words, roughly a tenth of British homes are financially incapable of keeping warm. However, even if you can afford to heat your own home, there could be occasions when it feels strangely cold but you can’t quite determine the source of the problem – or at least not immediately. What steps should you take in this situation?

Check that your boiler is getting serviced yearly 

If your boiler was installed longer ago than you can remember, chances are it has become less efficient with age, forcing it to work much harder simply to generate the same kind of heat as before. 

In adhering to a recommendation mentioned by Real Home, you can have your boiler serviced every 12 months, resulting in a boiler that runs both efficiently and safely. The heating engineer who inspects your boiler will also be able to let you know if it should be replaced outright.

Consider upgrading your home’s thermostat 

You might not have realised that thermostats, too, can degrade over time. One possible consequence of this is the boiler failing to switch on quite as soon as you instruct it to via the thermostat.

By replacing your thermostat with a newer, more up-to-date unit, you can help your domestic thermostat and boiler to communicate much more harmoniously. You could even opt for a ‘smart’ thermostat you would be able to control from your smartphone.

Insulate your loft 

Did you know that, as relayed by TheGreenAge, roughly 25% of the heat produced by a domestic boiler vanishes through the home’s roof? This is a strong incentive for you to install loft insulation – especially as it is inexpensive and easy to put in place and can pay for itself in less than two years.

One word of warning, though: if you will be converting the loft, remember to protect its insulation by adding raised loft boarding. Instaloft provides a great loft boarding service that would fit the bill.

Be careful where you place the furniture 

The positioning of your furniture can make a surprisingly big impact on your heating’s effectiveness. If a sofa or bed blocks the radiator, it could struggle to heat up the room as a whole.

The trick is to place commonly-used furniture pieces near heat sources without blocking them. That way, the heat these sources produce can flow freely throughout the room.

Seal any draughty spots 

You might already know where some of those are if, when you sit down in certain places, you suddenly feel a chill despite the overall room or home feeling perfectly warm.

Once you do know where they are, you could have surprising success with plugging them in a DIY fashion, such as by affixing self-adhesive rubber seals around doors and windows. Door draught excluders are another option – and all of the draught remedies mentioned here come relatively cheap.