Heating Tips for Working at Home

Are you aware of how much energy you’re using while working from home?

For millions of UK workers, our homes have become our workplaces and a mass return to offices appears unlikely for the foreseeable future. A survey in May found that 91% of the working population would like to continue working from home at least some of the time.

Previously, employees who worked in an office were used to only turning their heating on for a few hours a day. But now that they work from home, they need to keep their house warm 24/7 and it’s their heating bill that is affected.

As we enter the winter months, here are some tips for reducing your energy bills while comfortably working from home:

1. Be smart with your thermostat – Use timing controls to choose what hours the heating comes on rather than having it on 24/7. A smart thermostat can sense when the temperature is dropping from a set value and will switch on and off You could save over £100 a year by only heating your home and water when you need it.

2. Decrease your boiler temperature - Check the temperature your boiler is set to for hot water. Even decreasing it by 1°C could save up to 10% on your heating bill while not impacting your comfort too much. It also reduces your impact on the environment.

3. Hunt out and exclude any drafts around windows and doors. Keep internal doors closed to keep heat in rooms.

4. Place a rug under your desk or wear thick socks to keep your feet warm. 

5. If you are not alone in working from home, setting up a shared office space will mean you use less electricity for lighting and will stay warmer without heating the whole house. If you need to take a call, temporarily move to a different room.

6. Create an emergency fund – with bars and restaurants closed, now is a good time to save small amounts of money to build up an emergency fund in case your heating breaks down and needs fixing.

7. Use auto-switching for your utilities - The concept here is that your gas and electricity switches to a new supplier when a better deal pops up - without you doing anything. This produces marginal gains but if you are at home all the time and use your heating constantly, this may be worth it. Find out more here.

8. If you are struggling to pay your heating bills this winter, there is plenty help available. For information on how to get help with paying your heating bills, click here.

Even after following the above tips, you are still going to end up paying more than usual if you are now working from home this winter. That is why it is the absolute best time to improve the efficiency of your heating system. A more efficient heating system uses less fuel and therefore, costs less to run.

ThermaFY Eco Solutions offer a heating efficiency survey that analyses the energy efficiency of a home. We use thermal analysis to identify any issues affecting the efficiency of a property after which we recommend the work needed to solve any inefficiencies. Here we provide information on discounts on work cost e.g. the Green Homes Grant. A second survey is done after the works have been completed to verify that the heating system is running more efficient and it will cost less to run.

To find out more, click here.