Heat properly: save heating costs and improve indoor air quality.

by Pramith

With proper heating, you not only save heating costs. If you follow a few rules, you will improve the indoor air at the same time. Here we show you how to keep your house and flat warm at low cost.

Whether it’s a flat or a house: proper heating saves money

You can save on heating costs with fairly simple measures.

  • Consider whether you really need to turn up the heating in all the rooms in your house or flat. Rooms that you do not spend time in or only rarely spend time in can be a little cooler. Every degree of room temperature that you don’t heat saves 6 percent in heating costs.
  • You don’t really “live” in the hallway or bathroom, for example. You only spend a short time there. That’s why you don’t need to heat these areas very much, if at all.
  • The ideal temperature in the living room is 20 to 21 degrees, in the bedroom 18 degrees and in the hallway 16 degrees.
  • Since you normally only stay in the bedroom at night, you can switch off the heating one hour before going to bed. The room temperature will then drop by about five degrees, but you will save up to 30 percent on heating costs.

Keep warm in your house and apartment

If heat escapes easily, you have to heat more.

  • Use your shutters to save on heating costs. In the evening, you should lower them. That way, the heat cannot escape as easily. If you pull them up during the day, the sun – if it is shining – heats up the rooms even in winter.
  • You should of course keep the doors closed to keep the heat in the heated rooms. If the doors do not close well at the bottom, use draught excluders.
  • Weak points in energy-conscious heating are often the windows. So check whether cold air is coming in through joints. If this is the case, you should seal the windows. You can find tips on this in another article.
  • Curtains on the windows help save up to 10 percent on heating costs. If you use floor-length curtains, the saving increases to up to 25 percent.

Maintain heating and radiators regularly

If heating and radiators are not working properly, it costs energy and the flat still does not get comfortably warm.

  • Check whether the radiators are also getting warm. If it gurgles, you need to bleed the radiators.
  • Have your heating system serviced regularly. If the burner is incorrectly adjusted or soot has built up, heating costs will quickly increase by 10 to 15 percent.
  • If you have an older heating system, it may be worth considering buying a new one.

Fresh air despite heating

A pleasant indoor climate includes not only the right room temperature, but also good indoor air.

  • That’s why regular ventilation is also important in winter. To do this, you must ventilate intermittently, tilting the windows does not help.
  • Turn the radiators off beforehand and only turn them up again when the windows are closed again.
  • When you ventilate regularly, you not only ensure fresh air in the rooms. You also prevent the formation of mould, as moisture can escape from the flat.

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