How To Make Your Home Warmer Without Turning The Heat On

It's cold outside and it's cold indoors. 

You're starting to see frost on the grass each morning, and your house feels like an igloo. You didn't sign up to life as a penguin, but you sure feel like one now. As a result, you traipse downstairs to turn the heating on. Ah, relief. Sweet warm relief. The furnace is blazing and your home is hot once more, problem solved. 

True, but another problem arises. 

You can't afford to have your heating on all the time as it burns through energy and will leave you with an energy bill so high nobody will be getting presents this Christmas. However, you also can't let everyone in your home freeze as it's bad for their health. If only there was a way to make your home warmer without turning the heating on. 

Oh wait there is! Or, more accurately, there are! Here are some ideas to help you heat up your home without touching the heating system:

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Keep your kitchen door open when you cook

Cooking generates so much heat, largely from your oven. If you keep the kitchen door open, all of that heat travels throughout your home and acts as a mini furnace. When you've finished cooking, leave the oven door open so all the heat can spread forth from it, further heating your home. When the oven is no longer hot, you can close the door – and close all the other doors in your home too, this will trap heat in each room, keeping them toasty. If there pets, babies, toddlers or small children in your home, be sure to keep them back and away from the oven when you do this to ensure their safety.

Use a different type of insulation

When was the last time you checked the insulation in your home? It's supposed to last forever, but some insulation deteriorates quicker than others. Not only that, but a lot of homes are using old insulation styles that are nowhere near as effective as the modern variants. 

Your best bet is to get an insulation company to look at what you're currently rocking. If you have open-cell insulation, it is better to switch to closed cell foam insulation. This type of insulation has been designed to be firmer and more rigid, trapping more heat in your home. The more heat you trap, the warmer your house will be. I know you are imagining holes in your walls to make this happen, but often this can be done in the attic or lower level and no holes are needed.

Install carpets, rugs, and curtains

Add some fluffiness and softness to your home with carpets, rugs, and curtains. Carpet is the most insulative flooring option around, instantly making your home warmer by keeping more heat in every room. Or, if you prefer, you can use rugs on hard flooring instead. They'll work like carpets, keeping your house warm. You can also invest in storage units, so you can pull out your warm rugs and throws just in winter, when you need them.

Curtains do the same thing, but they're particularly effective at preventing heat from being lost through the windows. This is painfully common and is one of the main reasons your house feels cold. Room darkening or insulated curtains are the best long-term investment when you are shopping for them.

There you go; three ways to make your home warmer without turning the heating on. Ultimately, it's all about making sure your house doesn't leak heat. A home full of humans is going to always heat up because of our body temperatures, cooking, showering, and the heat we generate from moving around. If you can keep as much of this heat inside your home as possible, it'll be warm without the need for your central heating system. 

This is a contributed post.

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