When winter arrives and it gets freezing cold, we also know that it’s this time of year when energy bills can soar. We’ve put together a quick guide on tips and tricks to help you keep those energy levels down:

1. Keep your curtains drawn at night – you’d be amazed at how much heat escapes from your windows!
2. If you’ve got blinds, unfortunately, they do not stop heat escaping… if you’re able to get some curtains up, we would highly recommend it!
3. Make sure all your appliances are switched off when you go to bed or leave your home. This means the TV, radio, any heaters, lights etc. – leaving them on when you don’t need them is a huge waste of energy!
4. Setup your central heating system on a timer, so you only use it when you’re likely to be in. Setting it to come on for a couple of hours in the morning around when you’re waking up and a couple of hours at night before you go to bed are sensible options, but this can be worked around your own schedule. If you’re unsure of how to set up a timer on your boiler, take a look at this guide.
5. If you do time your central heating system to come on only when you are in the house and off when you leave, switch the heating off 30 minutes before you leave the house. The radiators will still stay warm until you leave – saving you energy.
6. Use energy saving lightbulbs – they use 80% less energy, so each one can save you around £10 a year. You can check with your landlord if this is something that they offer.
7. Fit radiator panels behind radiators that are on outside facing walls so that warmth is reflected back into the room instead of being absorbed by the walls – they are cheap and you can fit them yourself.
8. It might also be worth looking into your current energy provider to see if you’re able to get a cheaper tariff by switching. An easy way to check is by visiting Simply Switch, where you can enter your postcode and take a look at the best providers for your area.

The HomeSwapper Customer Support team are always on hand to give advice and tips on how to get the most from HomeSwapper. They deal with Swappers every day and have a unique insight and view on the thousands of successful swaps that take place on HomeSwapper.