What Are the Biggest Causes Of Heat Loss In Homes?

With energy bills continuing to rise and the winter months feeling more arctic as the years go on, you may be thinking to yourself ‘is my house ready to deal with these cold conditions?’  Some of you may be living in houses that seemingly bleed out every form of warmth as soon as you turn the heating on, while others may live in homes that feel as if they are just miles away from the sun. If you wish to get your house to these toasty conditions then you must address the causes of why your home is losing so much heat. In this article we’ll be pointing out how to identify heat loss in homes, whilst suggesting some solutions to help you maintain a warm and welcoming environment for you and your loved ones.

When preventing heat loss in homes it is important that you firstly make clear where it is in your home that you are losing heat from the most. Windows, walls, doors, ceilings, and even your floor are typical avenues of heat loss in a home, and can act like vents which dissipate heat into the outside world. For older houses, you may find that all of these factors are unfortunately contributing to the overall loss of heat in the home, while newer houses with improved building quality may only suffer from one or two weak spots in their insulation. If you do have weak spots in your home, then there are several upgrades you could install in your home to improve both its heat retention, while also improving the efficiency by which you generate said heat.

Walls

Walls, when not insulated properly, can account for nearly 35-45% of heat loss in homes, so it’s imperative that you invest in the proper maintenance and insulation for these areas. Make sure that there are no holes or cracks as these will act like a drain on your heating, and invest in good quality insulation so that you can trap as much heat inside as possible. To take advantage of your now new and improved insulation, investing in new aluminium radiators will also allow you to generate heat at a more cost-effective rate, whilst creating an even distribution of heat throughout the room.

Doors and windows

Any opening to the outside world is going to be a weak point in your defence against heat loss, so to prevent heat escaping from the home you should make sure these areas are up to scratch. Double-glazing is a must in this day and age for preventing heat loss in homes, and doors should be fitted well so as to minimise the air escaping through them. You can also place draught excluders next to windows and doors to help with this. 

Ceilings and roofs

With heat naturally rising it should come as no surprise that your roof is an important area to consider when considering how to find heat loss in your home, and correct it accordingly. Similar to your walls, make sure there are no cracks or holes in your ceilings and roofs, and invest in good roof and loft insulation to trap as much hot air inside as possible.

Floors

Although not the biggest offender of heat loss in homes, a cold floor is arguably the thing you will notice the most during the winter months. While insulation is always the safe option, if you are looking to both treat yourself and save on your energy bills, you may want to invest in underfloor heating. Not only is it a luxurious improvement for your home, but the all-encompassing nature of the heating coming from every part of your floor means that you are heating more space for less energy.

As you may have noticed, it is all well and good having good insulation in the home, but to truly benefit from preventing heat loss in the home you must also couple these efforts with the added extras of improved heating solutions. Underfloor heating and improved radiators are a good start, but if you want to save some serious money then investing in a complete system upgrade is the way to go. Air to water heat pumps provide the most eco (and wallet) friendly solution for heating your home, as they can run at colder temperatures for a fraction of the price of traditional heating systems, like oil or gas boilers. If you combine all of these with a smart control system then you can digitally control the temperature of your home, so as to make sure you are not necessarily heating up an empty home while you are out and about.

With these tips and tricks for how to prevent heat loss in homes you can heat your home for way less than before, meaning that you can save money from both ends of the house-heating spectrum – Not to mention, you’ll be feeling a lot cosier throughout the winter months!