Heating your home

With this winter feeling colder than previous years, families around the country are forced to get more and more creative when it comes to heating their homes, especially in light of the rising cost of living that leaves less resources available to heat your house using electricity.

This is even more difficult during the months of June and July, with the latter being the coldest month experienced annually.

To help consumers mitigate the cold while managing their budgets, the My.Na Property team has put together an expanded list of tips and tricks you can employ to help you keep the heat in your home.

Insulate your house. Cover walls, floors and your windows with insulating materials such as thick curtains, extra drapes, a blanket or clear plastic for extra insulation at night.

Weather-strip doors and windows. Caulk any holes or cracks in window frames, door frames, pipes and ducts. Check for and plug any gaps around pipes, ducts, fans and vents that go through walls, ceilings and floors from heated to unheated spaces. To check for leaks, hold a lit incense stick next to the opening and watch the smoke, or walk around with a damp hand to feel for air flow.

Close off rooms that don’t need heat. It is easier to heat your bedroom than the whole house.

Use passive solar heating on sunnier days. Open curtains to let in sunlight. That sunlight will add a few degrees to the temperature.

Install plastic film on the inside of windows to improve their efficiency. The film is available at most home improvement stores.

Keep warm indoors by wearing layers of lightweight clothing.

Turn off the stove plate or the oven a few minutes before the food is done. The residual heat that has built up will be plenty to finish cooking the food, and it cuts your electricity bill. It will take trial and error to figure out your specific stove or oven needs, but once you do, it will save you money in the long run.

Get an electric blanket for each bed in your house. You can stay warm during the night without blasting the heat and wasting energy.

Leave the oven door open after baking in the winter to let the heat out. (Unless, of course, you have toddlers or pets)

Unplug electronic devices and switch off your plugs when not in use to avoid ‘phantom’ energy loss.

Check all exterior doors for air leaks and use draft stoppers or door sweeps to help insulate any gaps between the door and the frame.

Poorly insulated hot water heaters, geysers and pipes lose a lot of heat and can cost you serious money. To mitigate the loss of heat through conduction, wrap your geyser in an insulating blanket and insulate the first lengths of exposed hot water piping.

If your family members are always leaving exterior doors open, consider installing door closing mechanisms. This one-time investment could help to save money on energy consumption.

When searching for a home to buy or rent, there are a few considerations to keep in mind:

Where possible, choose homes which have floors constructed with high thermal mass materials in order to collect heat from the winter sun and release it slowly, thus heating the house at night.

Design the house so that north-facing windows let through maximum sun energy in winter. Avoid window areas on the east and west sides. Use small glass areas on the south side of the house.

Add insulation to roof and ceilings to slow down heat loss in winter and heat gain in summer.

Consult engineers and architects on the best and most cost-effective ways to build an energy efficient home, both for the warmer and colder months of the year.

Besides these passive heat retention methods, there are a multitude of active heating methods one can employ at home, but these do come with a cost implication one should consider.

These and safety factors should all be taken into account.

– Additional reporting by the ministry of mines and energy’s Energy Efficiency Capacity Building Programme, and the Habitat Research and Development Centre of Namibia.