We all make mistakes with our house, we can’t be perfect (it would be too boring). So, like everyone else, we need advice and if there’s one thing no one really understands, it’s radiators. We won’t talk about draining in this top because no one has a heating engineer’s diploma in the editorial staff, but we hope to help you a little anyway.
1. Close the shutters all day
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When it starts to get very cold in winter, we are tempted to close the shutters and the curtains all day to keep the heat in like big cheapskates. The problem is that it doesn’t work at all. In fact, it does not seal the heating leaks and it especially prevents the sun from heating the room. Even if you live in Normandy, where no one has ever seen the sun.
2. Never open the windows
No one wants to ventilate when it’s 2°C, is clean air really important? Well yes in fact, and it also saves heating costs. Ventilating your home helps to evacuate humidity and therefore eliminate odors, dust mites and mould. A dry place requires less energy to be heated, so please ventilate your home.
3. Put the radiator on full when you get home
If it’s really cold outside, don’t turn off the heat completely when you leave home for the day. It is better to lower it a little so that the room is not icy when you return. Why ? Because otherwise, you’ll be tempted to put the heating on fully when you get home and this generates an overconsumption of electricity without heating the room faster. Of course, you have the right to turn off the heating if you go on vacation for a month (lucky one).
4. Heat to the same temperature in all rooms
Out of laziness, we often heat all the rooms to the same temperature or we turn the radiator valve randomly and that’s a shame. In fact, it is better to have a temperature adapted to each room and not touch the taps all winter long: Between 18°C and 20°C in the living rooms, between 16°C and 18°C in the bedrooms and 22°C in the bathroom. Obviously, this point is useless if you live in a 12m2 studio.
5. Use a space heater
A small mobile radiator is practical for heating quickly and from time to time, but it should not be the main heating for an apartment. Easy to say when you don’t have anything better to hand, but you have to be careful not to leave it on for too long. A space heater can dry out the air and therefore irritate the eyes and the respiratory tract (not phew). In addition, it spends much much more energy than a real radiator.
6. Clutter the radiators
We all know not to clutter the radiators and we do it anyway because we never learn from our mistakes. We dry the towels on it or even the laundry, we put furniture in front of it and we even stick magnets. In truth, you shouldn’t do that because you lose a lot of heat and that’s wasted energy.
7. Messing around with insulation
If you want to heat properly, you must already have a well-insulated home. If a radiator is placed in front of a cold and badly insulated wall, it will lose a lot of heat via this wall and it is a bit stupid. To remedy this, you can install a reflector panel with a layer of aluminum and an insulating layer.
8. Having your bed too close to a radiator
When it’s freezing outside and 12 sweaters and 3 plaids aren’t enough to warm your toes, you’re tempted to sleep glued to the radiator to become one with the heating. Very bad idea: sleeping with your head close to a radiator is the best thing to do to catch the cold during the night. Don’t ask me why, I’m not a doctor, but I am.
Enjoy your well-deserved heating while thinking a little about the planet anyway (you don’t have to heat to 30°C).