For all its frosted beauty, winter can be a difficult time for many. With the rising cost of living coupled with escalating energy bills, many of us will be feeling the pinch and searching for ways to heat our homes without breaking the bank.

So, to help you stay warm while keeping your gas and electricity bills to a minimum, we've rounded up the best products, hacks and home improvements to keep you cosy this winter. Click or scroll on to find out more...

If you've noticed cold draughts in certain parts of your home, then you may have some gaps or cracks somewhere that need to be sealed up. Walk around your home, feeling out any draughts and identifying where they're coming from.

Cold air could be seeping in from poorly sealed windows, ill-fitting skirting boards and even tiny gaps around your front door. These should be filled using expanding spray foam, decorator's caulk or weather stripping and could see a big reduction in your energy bills as well as your interior temperature.

Rather than focusing on heating your property’s square footage, it’s worth considering how you can warm yourself as you go about your daily routine at home.

An important area to focus on is your bed. Swapping out lighter summer blankets for a cosy winter duvet can make a big difference to how warm you feel at night. For maximum warmth, opt for a 15-tog duvet and pile on plenty of blankets.

Carpet isn't for everyone and there's nothing nicer than a cool bare floor on a hot day, but what happens when the weather is more suited to a balaclava than a bikini?

Think about small occasional rugs and other fabulous flooring ideas that you can layer up according to your needs, for example, soft sheepskin or faux fur on top of flatter base textiles, like jute or straw. A nice rug will also block out any draughts that might be creeping through your floorboards.

One fantastic way of stopping cold breezes from entering your home is by ensuring any external doors are given an added layer of insulation. Often, external doors open directly into a living space, so cold air could be coming straight into the heart of your home.

Keep draughts out with a thermal curtain, hung across the whole area – your letter box, for example, could easily be letting in cold air. It will make a small but significant difference to the air temperature in the room and will stop any cold draughts in their tracks.

This thrifty little device from Egloo isn't just an oil diffuser, an air purifier and a nice home décor accessory, it's also a mobile heater. The terracotta dome is warmed by placing a few tealight candles beneath, storing the heat and then releasing it slowly, heating the air around it.

If used in a small room, where draughts have been sealed off, you'll certainly notice the difference. Just remember, you should never leave a candle unattended.

If one of your rooms feels particularly cool, then take a look at the layout. It might be that some of your larger pieces of furniture, such as the sofa, are blocking the radiator, sucking up the heat and stopping it from circulating to other parts of the room.

Likewise, if your sofa is positioned too close to a window, you could be feeling a cold draught coming in. It may be time for a little creative redesign – where could your main pieces of furniture go to ensure proper air circulation?

They say that prevention is better than cure and a home without heating or hot water is no laughing matter. Look after your boiler and your boiler will look after you. It’s advisable to get your boiler checked every 12 months, so if you haven’t already done so this year, it’s time to call in a Gas Safe-registered plumber.

If your heating is turned up high but your home is far from cosy, check your radiators. If the top is cool to the touch, there may be air trapped inside preventing the hot water from rising – a common heating system problem.

Make sure the heating is off and then, using a radiator key – available cheaply from any hardware shop – open the valve and release some air (you’ll hear a hissing sound). Once you see water dripping, quickly close it up again and turn the heating back on.

Thermal blinds or curtains are a great way to add even more insulating power to your home. Put simply, the more layers of material between your living spaces and the great outdoors, the more heat you’ll manage to keep inside.

These specially crafted window dressings come with a special thermal layer that helps to retain heat. You could even layer thermal curtains with thermal blinds, to maximise your home’s insulation and prevent all that precious heat from escaping. 

The best way to keep heat in a specific room is by limiting the areas where the warmth can escape. A draught excluder, placed along the bottom of a door, is a great way to keep warm air inside a room and stop any cold draughts from seeping in.

Nothing beats the feeling of a warm, cosy bed. Rather than keeping the heating on all night during the colder months, invest in an electric blanket to keep you snug.

A low-wattage electric blanket uses much less energy than a portable heater, as it warms your bed, as opposed to the entire room. You can expect the average model to use somewhere between 100 and 150 watts, though some products with energy-saving settings may use less.

Don’t let all that lovely heat go back into your walls; place a thin piece of cardboard covered with tin foil behind your radiators to reflect the heat back into the room.

This simple science trick can have fantastic results. You can also buy ready-made foil insulation from almost any hardware shop, or order it online. 

We've all heard the reprimand: "Do you live in a barn? Shut the door!" In other words, have the sense to keep heat where it's needed by closing all internal doors. The room you're in will heat up far more quickly and efficiently if you limit the routes where heat can escape.

While closed curtains can help insulate windows when the temperature drops, during the day when the sun's out, be sure to open your window dressings fully to let the warming rays flood in.

Radiators are often located under windows so doing this will keep them clear to heat the room without obstruction, too. We recommend keeping your curtains or blinds open until around 3pm, since the sun sets around 4pm during the depths of winter. Keep them closed until the following morning.

If you're leaving your property empty for a significant period, don’t forget about the home fires while you’re away. It's recommended by the Met Office that you set your heating to a minimum of 18°C throughout winter (even when you’re not there), to avoid frost damage and frozen pipes and to ensure you create a healthy interior environment.

It may sound like the stuff of science fiction, but heated desks are the latest innovation in homeworking. Plus, they’re surprisingly affordable to run.

This design by ökoform heats the desk and its occupant, rather than the surrounding air, so you needn’t heat your whole home to feel the benefit on a chilly day. Thanks to their infrared radiant heat technology, ökoform desks require a mere 260 watts to run, a big saving compared to your typical 1,500-watt space heater. 

Dress your living spaces with plenty of warming tactile layers by adding lots of throws and cushions. Opt for soft, natural materials that are allergen-free. Not only will the extra soft furnishings work to keep the space warm, but they'll also transform your rooms into inviting and cosy retreats – perfect for the winter months.

From contemporary schemes to traditional homes, panelled walls are having a moment in the interiors world, so the fact that they can double up as insulation and soundproofing, as well as a decorative finish, is a bonus. For extra protection from the cold, secure self-adhesive foil between the wall and the panel before mounting. 

Choose convertible furniture that will create a cosy, cocooning effect. This luxurious bed with a customisable headboard acts in the same way as curtains around a traditional four-poster bed – it encircles the sleeper and fends off any draughts. You can fold the wings inwards or outwards to create the perfect temperature as the seasons change.

Have you ever seen snow melting faster on one roof than another? If a property still has a mound of white powder on the top, it's a good indication that its attic has been insulated and hot air isn't escaping through the rafters. It's visible proof that laying a barrier material above the rooms in your house will trap the heat down where it's needed. 

It goes without saying that when temperatures drop outside, the water inside your pipes is at risk of freezing – leading to damage and problems accessing hot water. If one of your pipes freezes, turn off the water and run the taps to drain the system. Then, once you’ve located the blockage, you need to warm the pipe using either a hairdryer or a hot water bottle until it melts and the water flow is unobstructed.

While keeping the temperature in your house from dropping too low will help prevent burst pipes, an added precaution is to insulate pipes that run through unheated parts of your home, such as attics and basements. You can buy pipe lagging from most DIY shops and it’s fairly easy to cut to size and wrap around the pipe.

It’s not just your duvet that might benefit from a seasonal change. If you usually opt for lightweight sheets in the summer, you might find yourself shivering a little come winter.

Swap out your bedding set for a thicker material such as brushed cotton or, for an even warmer sleep, a snug fleece set. You’re sure to notice the difference when the mercury drops.

Many homes these days have merely decorative fireplaces, but the flue remains open, drawing the cold air down through the chimney into your room. Install a chimney balloon to block the draft and stop heat from escaping.

These wool or laminate devices are placed just out of sight above the fireplace and then inflated until they fill the gap. You can pick one up fairly inexpensively and you'll be rewarded by lower energy bills.

Fighting your way back from the supermarket in the snow or sleet? Make sure you have the warm welcome you deserve by investing in a smart thermostat, such as Hive, Nest or Honeywell, which will enable you to get the heating to the optimal temperature by the time your key goes in the door, all at the touch of a mobile app.

These nifty gadgets will allow you to turn off your heating from anywhere, too, and you'll be able to better monitor your usage and spending.

In Sweden, where winter temperatures can drop as low as -30°C (-22°F), wood-burning stoves are a brilliant source of heat. Because they are sealed with controlled airflow, they need much less fuel to create much more heat.

In fact, depending on the model, they can be up to three times more efficient than fireplaces and can emit 90% fewer carbon emissions.

Power cuts are prevalent during freezing weather. Make sure you have a couple of strategically placed torches (with working batteries) around your home to help you manage. It's also a good idea to have a couple of portable phone chargers in case you need to contact someone and you don't have a landline.

If you are worried about when power might be restored, call 105 or use your smartphone to go to powercut105.com to get updates in your area.

It’s not the nicest of tasks, but ensuring your gutters are cleared of leaves and other debris will help water flow freely and prevent them from icing up, or causing damp or leaks inside your home. Keep an eye open for ‘ice dams’ – frozen ridges on the edge of your roof, which should be chipped away at if safe to do so.

When ice builds up on your terrace or driveway, it can make getting in and out of your home a treacherous task. One or two strategically placed infrared heaters mounted on the external walls of your property can make all the difference and help to quickly thaw the ice.

Better yet, if your heaters are connected to a smart home hub, all you need to do is flick a button on your app and the driveway will start defrosting while you’re still tucked up in bed. Infrared heaters typically have a lower power requirement than other types of heater too, making them a cost-effective option.

Preparing your garden for winter is a good way to indirectly protect your interior living spaces, too. Heavy snow on tree branches can weigh them down and cause them to fall.

Consider trimming any branches that could cause damage to your roof, windows, or other parts of your home if they were to fall. Dislodged roof tiles and damaged pointing can expose your house to the elements and lead to damp inside your property.

If you're stuck inside and the house feels cold, one of the best things you can do is get baking! After you have used your oven, leave the door open to warm up the kitchen. Simple but effective! This also applies to a tumble dryer and even using a vacuum emits warm air.

There's a reason hot water bottles, commodified by the Victorians before the arrival of central heating, are still popular today – they work! Luckily for us, they've been modernised and rubberised and now come in all sorts of gorgeous colours, textures and designs to suit your style. 

While this hack doesn’t actually produce more heat in your home, it can help to increase the heat circulation in your living spaces. In the summer, ceiling fans should turn anticlockwise, which moves the air down and out, circulating cooler pockets of air near the floor.

We all know that heat rises, so in the winter, try reversing your fan and setting it to clockwise on a low speed. This way, air will be pulled up to the warmest part of the room and circulated, more evenly distributing the heat.

If you're lucky enough to have rooms with cosy carpets, then you'll want to ensure they have underlay beneath them. Good underlay won't just ensure your carpets remain plump and comfortable underfoot, but it will provide extra heat insulation.

Underlay adds a layer of insulation to help reduce the warm air escaping through your floors and acts as a barrier against cold air, too. If you have floorboards with lots of gaps, you could also consider using a durable sealant to fill them in.

Sometimes, when the temperature tumbles and the weather is bitter, all that’s left to do is batten down the hatches and wait for it all to blow over. Our top tip is to find a comfy chair, throw over a blanket and snuggle with a furry friend. You’ll soon forget about the snow.

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