Are You Ready For Winter?

So the Royal Borough are convinced they're all set for winter, but are you?

The clocks are about to go back, and the trees in the Great Park are looking spectacular but long nights and Autumn days are a recipe for chilly weather and central heating.

It's not cheap to heat your home through the winter, what with soaring fuel bills, but you can save yourself some time, trouble and money with just a few simple checks and changes.

A burst pipe or a faulty boiler can be vey expensive, eating up hard earned savings you'd rather spend on Christmas or a winter break in the sun. So what can you do to make sure you're not wasting money that could be better spent elsewhere?

First, you need to check all is well with your boiler and heating. Check it now before you really need it in a cold snap. Fire it up and make sure it's pumping well. Check the pressure bar is at least at one, and if not let more water into the system. Bleed all your radiators to get the air out and make them more efficient. Check all the valves are open and all the radiators are heating up all over. If there are cold patches that cannot be removed by bleeding the air out or by closing down then fully opening up the valve, then you may need an engineer. In any event, if your boiler or gas fire have not been serviced in a while, you should consider getting them checked out - especially their emissions. To be on the safe side you should look at getting a carbon monoxide detector. They're about £15 from supermarkets and DIY stores and can save your life.

Find yourself a good local engineer by using our Business Directory, and check their credentials on the Gas Safe Register. The Council will help you find ways to reduce your energy bills with a range of measures. They can send an Energy Awareness Officer to your home to advise you on changes you can make to save energy and cut bills. Visit the site here to book a visit.

You can also borrow an energy monitor from the library to check your energy consumption. Find out more about that here. 

Don't forget to lag your pipes. When water freezes inside pipes and forces them to burst, the damage and expense can be shocking. It's simple to buy foam to fit around at risk pipes, or a local plumber will do it for you.

There are also home improvement loans and advice on renewable energy sources that you may want to check out. There are grants available under a government scheme called Warmfront to help you pay for proper home insulation, and this is one of the best measures you can take to improve the efficiency of your home. Look into cavity wall insulation and make sure your loft insulation is the right thickness. It's fairly easy to buy and lay loft insulation yourself from a DIY store, or you can get a builder to sort it for you. Find builders here, and check them out here.And finally, you may want to consider upgrading your doors and windows. Yes, this is a big upfront cost, but switching to double glazing can halve the amount of heat you lose through your windows, and that's a big saving. Check out glaziers here. The very least you can do is visit your local DIY store and get some good draft excluder to plug any gaps you might have round doors.

All these things will help save you money in the long term, and home improvements will add value to your house. In the long run they can really drive your bills down and won't just make you ready for winter this year, they'll keep you ready every year!