Cold is one of those experiences you can only really know the effect of when you’re in it. While most of us intellectually know that having a cold house can be unhealthy for long periods, we only really understand the impact when our house is freezing on a morning, or when we can’t sleep because the insulation in our bedroom and our bedsheets just aren’t fit for purpose. Unfortunately, it’s an experience many elderly individuals are only too familiar with, which is why it’s important to take care of our loved ones during these cold seasonal periods.
But of course, you don’t have to be elderly to notice your house is less capable than you had assumed of dealing with the winter of 2025. In the northern hemisphere, we’re right in the middle of it, with cold months still promised after the beginning of the new year .
But what if you notice your house is much colder than you had envisioned, and your heating solutions don’t seem to be contending with it? In this post, we’ll discuss some advice to assist you:
Call Heating Service Specialists
Your heating system might be working overtime without much effect, perhaps it’s packed up from the pressure, or it’s just not functioning as well as it once did thanks to age. Sometimes the issue isn't that your heating is broken, but that it needs a proper service. It’s easy to learn this the hard way when your own system is running constantly but barely warming the house.
A specialist in heating and cooling may find that years of dust and debris built up inside, making the whole system work much harder than it needed to. They can also spot issues you might miss, like whether your radiators need bleeding or if certain pipes are struggling to circulate heat properly. Sometimes this is all you need to make the winter much more tolerable than it was over the festive period.
Consider Electric Heated Blankets
Electric blankets are fantastic now, much better than the slightly sketchy devices our grandparents used. Modern versions have multiple heat settings, timers, and safety features that automatically switch them off. Keeping one on your couch and another on your bed could be a good stop-gap measure while you have your heating or other house improvements worked on.
They use surprisingly little electricity and warm you directly rather than trying to heat the whole room. Of course, they’re also portable, so you can move them around the house as needed, or heat a child and elderly relative that might be struggling with the biting cold. They’re also very comforting if you feel anxious or are relaxing in the evening.
Add Layers To Your Bedspread
If you can’t be warm and cosy in your bed, where can you? Adding an extra blanket or two to your bed is not only a nice design choice but can help increase how easily your body heat is trapped underneatth, especially if you layer them properly.
Start with a fitted sheet, add your regular duvet, then top it with a wool blanket. You can add other coverings if you find it necessary. A good tip to remember is that natural materials like wool and cotton trap heat better than synthetic ones. Even better, these extra layers will still keep working if your power goes out, and you can wrap them around you in a pinch if needed.
Check Any Door Drafts
Those tiny gaps under your doors may as well be open windows for letting heat escape, but we tend not to think about it unless the breeze is highly obvious, because a closed door doesn’t look as obviously vulnerable as an open window.
That said, it’s quite incredible how much warm air sneaks out through these spaces. Door sweeps or draft excluders are cheap and easy to install, so it’s a good place to start if you don’t want to replace the entire door right now. Even a rolled-up towel works in a pinch. Just remember to check interior doors too, not just the ones leading outside, because you might have a small living room opening up onto a huge dining space, and the cold from that unheated room might be flowing in.
Consider Your Garage Door Seal
Your garage might be letting more cold air into your house than you realize, not only because it’s rare for these to be fully insulated and heated, but those rubber seals around garage doors tend to crack and shrink over time, especially in cold weather.
So, we’d recommend taking time to give yours a good look over. If you can see daylight around the edges when it's closed, or if the rubber feels brittle, it's time for a replacement. This is one of those fixes that cost little but saves a lot. Just never, ever try to replace your garage door yourself, the chain holds a great deal of tension and can cause real injury if you try to remove it personally without specialist tools and training.
Refit Roofing Insulation
Heat rises, and if your roof isn't properly insulated, that's exactly where all your expensive warmth is going. It’s not nice to know that you’ve paid for energy leaking out of the household.
Checking your roof insulation isn't the most exciting job, but it's worth doing, and you can always have a contractor perform an appropriate inspection. Look for any spots where the insulation has gotten compressed or moved around because these gaps act like chimneys, and pull warm air right out of your house. If you need better internal insulation like roofing felt, it’s a wise investment and could help your heating feel a lot more effective. This, combined with our aforementioned servicing could make a massive difference.
Inspect Window Fittings
We tend to think of windows as being cold on the surface but not really a problem, and that’s true, a cold window isn’t necessarily going to turn your house into an ice cube, and if properly sealed it keeps a good deal of it out. This also works for heat, which is why many health authorities recommend closing windows during a heatwave.
That said, even double-glazed windows can develop problems over time. Run your hand around the frames on a cold day to see if you feel air moving, as that's heat escaping. Temporary fixes like clear plastic window insulation kits can help until you can get them properly repaired. They look a bit silly, but they work surprisingly well, and can offset an immediate cost for later.
Frozen Guttering & Pipes
Never is a house more cold tan when you can’t get access to hot water, and especially if a pipe bursts. Water expands when it freezes, which can crack pipes and lead to serious damage when they thaw, so keep an eye on that, and on your gutters too. If they're blocked with leaves and freeze up, the weight can pull them right off your house. Running your taps at a slow trickle during very cold nights helps prevent freezing, and it's cheaper than dealing with burst pipes, but you can always call out a plumber if you feel that the system is working as intended, or if your boiler perhaps need to be serviced.
With this advice, we hope you can avoid the winter struggles especially as the cold moves in and you start to notice the difficult you have in the house. Perhaps this way you can find the comfort you really do deserve to enjoy.
