£6 trick raised the temperature in my house by 5 degrees and other ways to reduce energy bills

MORE cold weather this week will be bad news for an estimated ten million people living in drafty homes in England.

These energy-hungry homes lose a third or more of the warm air when the heating is on.

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The average private renter pays an extra £350 a year to heat poorly insulated and damp homes, with those worst affected paying £1,000 more, according to Citizens Advice.

Major work to make your home more energy efficient can be expensive or difficult if you rent.

But if you take small steps you could save £105 or more a year on bills, according to the Energy Saving Trust.

This week, Rosie Taylor tries out cheap DIY hacks to block drafts – and uses the FLIR ONE Edge Pro thermal imaging camera to test how effective they are.

Heat loss is shown in blue, while warmer areas are orange or yellow.

BLOCK DRUGY HOLES

Drafts occur when there are small holes in the structure of your home or when openings to the outside are left uncovered.

The most obvious simple solution is to cover any cracks with weatherstripping.

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You can buy Dunelm's long, tubular cushions from €6 each.

Or make your own for next to nothing by stuffing rags down the leg of an old pantyhose and tying the top closed.

Exterior doors are particularly susceptible to drafts around the edges, where small openings let cold air in and warm air out.

The thermal camera showed that the air temperature at the bottom of my door was a crisp 15.3 degrees Celsius.

But adding a cheap weatherstrip immediately raised the temperature by three degrees to 18.3 degrees Celsius.

THEY ARE CURTAINS FOR COLD

FRONT and rear doors are one of the main culprits for heat loss in any home.

Heat can escape from door edges or through keyholes and letterboxes.

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You can buy adhesive foam tape for the edges from €6, keyhole covers from €3 and letterbox brushes from €8.

But an even cheaper solution is a door curtain.

I bought an old one from a charity shop for £1 and put it in place using screw-in hooks and wooden dowels from B&Q, which cost less than £5 in total.

The camera image showed a huge difference with the entire door being cold purple without a curtain and warm orange with it.

The area around the keyhole rose from 13.8 degrees Celsius to 19 degrees Celsius.

A thicker, lined curtain and a draft stopper would be even better protection.

CHEAT'S DOUBLE GLAZING

WITH single glazing, windows are a major source of heat loss.

If installing double glazing at a cost of over £600 per window isn't an option, you can create a similar effect using a shrink wrap window kit.

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Cut the transparent film (similar to cling film) to size and cover the window by sticking it to the frame with the supplied tape.

Then heat the foil with a hairdryer to stretch it tightly, creating a clear, flat surface that you can see through clearly.

I used the Duck Shrink Film Indoor Insulation Kit (£30.99 for ten windows, Amazon).

It led to a 1°C increase on the surface of the single-glazed window.

It may not sound like much, but the reduction in draft made every room feel much warmer.

RESTRICT LOFT LEAKS

If you have a hatch to access your attic or roof space, you are likely losing a significant amount of heat as a result.

Phil Steele, future technologies specialist at Octopus Energy, says lofts tend to be colder and damper than the rest of the property, so warm air will escape and cold air will enter if there are “even small gaps” around the edges of the shutters of your loft.

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You can use a thermal camera to identify any problem areas.

The FLIR version I used showed that there was a lot of cold air around the edges of the coop hatch.

But sticking self-adhesive draughtproofing tape (£4.79 for 6 meters from B&Q) around the edges showed an immediate improvement in air temperature, from 15.2°C to 18.5°C.

• Hack €4.79 Heat rise +3.3°C

HOOD VENTS

PROPER ventilation is essential to prevent the build-up of mould, damp and condensation in homes, so ensure that all purpose-built vents and air bricks remain unobstructed.

But when bathroom exhaust fans are not in use, covering them can prevent additional heat loss.

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You can place a cheap shower cap (mine cost £3.50 on Amazon) over the vent to stop draughts.

This trick immediately caused the air temperature next to the vent to increase by more than 3 degrees Celsius, from 12.5 degrees Celsius to 15.9 degrees Celsius.

Make sure all moist air is gone before turning off the fan and never cover a fan opening that turns on automatically.

And don't forget to take off the hood and turn on the extractor hood when you run hot water.

• Hack £3.50 Heat rise +3.4C

FILL FLOORBOARDS WITH FOAM

Cracks in floors or under baseboards on the ground floor can allow cold air to rise from basements or the ground beneath your home.

The Energy Saving Trust says you can save up to £145 a year by fully insulating your floor, but that can cost up to £5,000.

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A cheap alternative is to use foam expansion strips.

You can buy 20m for £10 from B&Q, which is enough to fill under all the skirting boards in a large room.

It can be easily pressed into place with a blunt knife.

When I placed a strip in a gap between the floorboards in my hallway, it immediately reduced heat loss.

The 'after' image was warmer, with the temperature in the opening increasing by 1 degree Celsius.

That was just one floorboard, so filling an entire room could make a big difference.