Did you keep warm this winter?

Recently several articles have been published describing things you can do to keep warm in winter. At first glance is easy to be impressed by these astute people who figure out ways to keep warm that don’t involve turning their heating up excessively. One, they are saving money on their energy bills, and two, they are supporting the environment by reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions.

So why was the house still cold?

But on closer analysis, it seems like these people are missing the point altogether. If they are in fact heating their house, then why is it still cold? If they have actually sealed all the gaps, left the oven door open after cooking, opened the curtains to let in the natural sunlight and closed them after sun down, then why the need for flannel sheets, hot water bottles and woollen socks? It doesn’t make sense. Hot air doesn’t simply disappear, it rises. And if nothing is there to stop it, it will (almost) literally travel through the roof. So it sounds like the homes these people are living in are not insulated. Or if they are, the “R-value” isn’t sufficient for their climate. Not surprisingly, the higher the cost of energy for heating and cooling, the higher the R-value required to make a significant dent on energy bills.

Installing home insulation – the real solution

If your home doesn’t have adequate ceiling insulation, then you will constantly be striving to heat up your house, trying to stay warm and the problem will never be fully resolved. However, getting to the core of the matter and installing a sufficient level of insulation correctly (this level will vary depending on the climate in your area) removes much of the need for all these special modifications. You can simply turn your thermostat to the desired temperature, confident that the heat you are paying for is (to a much larger extent) remaining within the four walls of your house.