Easy and affordable tips to heat up your home this winter

ESKOM has shared some simple tips to keep households warm and comfortable during the cold winter months – and won’t break your bank.

Understanding the various heating options listed below will help consumers make informed decisions about how best to keep their homes warm, while still being energy efficient.

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The most important thing to remember with heating is that insulation is the single most important factor.

An insulated room requires 51% less energy than an uninsulated room.

Insulating the home’s ceiling is the most effective and simplest way to prevent warm air generated by heaters from escaping.

Take a look at the six options listed below and make up your own mind.

Underfloor heating
According to energy experts, underfloor heating is the most ineffective way to heat up your home.
In homes without roof insulation, underfloor heating will lose the battle against the cold.

Wall-mounted heaters
Most wall-mounted heaters are low in heating capacity, and for them to heat up a room to a comfortable temperature requires them to be left on for a long time.
Then there’s the battle of the heaters. While many people use gas heaters, they aren’t necessarily more effective than electrical heaters.
Given the cost parity of bottled gas versus electricity, and the frequency at which one has to replace the gas bottles, electric heating is more convenient and controllable.
The one advantage of gas heaters is that they have the ability to give off heat at higher heating capacity rates and can warm a room almost immediately.
Should you only have an electric heater, then ensure that you insulate the room by closing windows, blocking all possible draughts coming through. Once the room is warm, switch it off and use only what you need.

Oil heaters 
When looking at options to heat your home this winter, one of the options to consider is an oil heater equipped with a thermostat.
Oil heaters are most effective in contained spaces such as single rooms.
Open-plan living areas are simply too big for an oil heater to make a real impact.

Fan heaters
A typical fan heater is another option to consider.
Fan heaters provide heat and comfort immediately and they can be directed to where the hot air is most needed.

Air-conditioner
An air conditioner with a heating cycle can be very effective and cost-efficient.
Typically, an air conditioner would use about half the power of an electric heater.

Wood-fired heating
Of course, of all these heating options, none beats the old fashioned fireplace, fuelled by wood.
Over time wood always works out to be the cheapest heating option when covering the bigger spaces.

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