Save up to £50 a year by draught proofing your home. Use our quick, expert draught-proofing tips to help keep your home cosy without compromising on ventilation. Keeping warm air in and cold air out is a quick and affordable way to cut your energy bills and warm up your home. The amount you save on your bills means that draught proofing can pay for itself in a few years. Our expert advice on draught proofing will help you find out what you can do in your own home – from filling in gaps around pipes to insulating your loft hatch. Plus, learn how to keep warm air in without compromising on ventilation. Make sure you’re not paying too much to heat your home in the first place. Use our independent energy switching service, Which? Switch, to get a cheap energy deal. It could cost between £200 and £580 to hire an installer to draught proof your home. It can be cheaper to do it yourself and, depending on what needs doing, could cost around £120-£290. Full draught proofing could save you up to £50 a year.

And as well as cutting your heating bills, draught-free homes are more comfortable to live in. Turning down the thermostat by just one degree in a typical home could save you £85-£90 per year. Draught proofing costs and savings Look around your house for unwanted gaps and uncovered outside openings. If you are applying a total package of insulation, it’s important not to completely seal the building. Make sure you keep good ventilation in areas where there are open fires or open flues and in rooms where moisture is produced. Don’t seal kitchen and bathroom windows – this lets out the steam and helps create ventilation. Instead, seal the inner doors to these rooms. Draught proofing shouldn’t be too much of a problem if you can deal with simple DIY jobs. Most products should be available from good DIY shops. However, some homes, especially older buildings with single glazing, will be more difficult to draught proof than others. This is when you could do with the help of a professional.

To find a trustworthy, local installer, you can use Which? The Draught Proofing Advisory Association also lists installers. Sash windows, especially old single-glazed ones, are notorious for being draughty. Not everyone wants to replace their traditional sash windows, but if you do then installing A-rated double glazing could save between £85 and £110 a year on the heating bill of a typical home. To make sure you don’t get overcharged for double glazing, read our guide to double glazing prices. If you don’t want to install double glazing, you can still cut down on draughts: We recommend you avoid insulating window film – also known as secondary-glazing film. You tape this transparent film onto the window to create a double-glazing effect. We tested one of these films and concluded that there are better options available. We found that the film may need to be re-stretched periodically (with a hairdryer), which can be inconvenient. It can easily tear, and you would have to buy a new pack if it did.

Draughts from external doors can come from a gap under the door, letterboxes and even keyholes. If you can feel cold air coming in from under your door, you can fit a weatherbar or a door brush strip. These act as a seal at the bottom of your door when it’s closed. They are easy to fit yourself and are available online and in most large DIY stores – prices start from around £6.curtains kawana Alternatively, you could use a draught excluder. curtain eyelet rings suppliers in indiaYou can also fit one at the bottom of a draughty sash window. blinds and curtains manukauAll sorts of shops sell draught excluders, and you could even make one yourself by filling a piece of fabric with old clothes or rice.eclipse curtains dewey

However, a draught excluder isn't fixed to the door. So depending on where it lands when you close the door behind you, it may let in draughts when you’re out. If cold air is coming in from around the door, you can buy a brush door seal – a pack of five seals starts from around £7. Letterbox draught excluders are also popular. blackout curtains hobby lobbyYou can also fit a letterbox plate to stop cold air getting in without stopping your mail – they cost under £10.timms curtains And you can buy a keyhole cover. tulip curtains puneThis is a metallic disc that stops the draught and slides to the side when you put your key in –  they cost about £3. As heat rises, it can escape through any gaps around your loft hatch.

Insulate it using foam strips, as you would for doors or windows. If you want to save even more money on heating, loft insulation can cut the energy bills in a typical house by about £140 a year. Find out more in our guide to loft insulation. Fill in any holes around pipes leading to a loft or outside. Silicone filler should be fine for small gaps, while larger gaps might require expanding polyurethane foam. You can pick these products up from any decent DIY store. Draughts can appear in all sorts of places. Other key trouble spots include: Following these draught-proofing tips will help make your home cosier and cut your energy bill. Now see other ways to save on your energy bill.Edit ArticleHow to Buy Soundproofing Curtains If you live on a busy city street, next to a loud construction site or in an apartment building with thin walls, you might have a lot of outside noise invading your residential space. There are many ways to keep outside noise out, and one way is to buy soundproofing curtains.

Soundproof curtains are thicker than regular curtains, and they often have heavy panels that absorb sound before it reaches the interior of a room or home. Buy soundproof curtains that match your decor and effectively minimize the sound coming into your house from outside. Determine where the noise is coming from. Measure the area you will hang your curtains. This will help you determine what size of curtains you need to buy. Use a tape measure to get the height and width of the space you will cover. Most soundproof curtains hang over windows, but you can hang them against a wall or a door you do not use as well. Pay attention to the thickness of the curtains. In order to provide a barrier against noise, soundproof curtains should be at least 2 to 3 inches (5.08 to 7.62 cm) thick. Feel or hold the curtains in your hands. Soundproof curtains should be heavy and weigh at least 15 to 20 lbs. (6.8 to 9.07 kg). Look for a layer of vinyl backing. Soundproof curtains look like any decorative curtain, but the back of the curtains should contain mass loaded vinyl material.

Make sure the mass loaded vinyl is constructed from high quality vinyl and includes silica and sand. This is what creates the soundproof barrier in the curtains. Check the packaging, or ask a sales associate. Shop online or in specialty acoustic stores. You will not find soundproof curtains in home decorating stores or retailers such as Home Depot. Check your local phone director or online listings for retailers in your area that specialize in soundproofing materials or acoustic curtains. Conduct an Internet search for soundproofing curtains to find online retailers that sell custom soundproof curtains. Check sites such as eBay and Craigslist for soundproof curtains for sale. They will be cheaper if you buy them used from people who already had them made. Remember to buy rods and hardware that will support the curtains. Because they are so heavy, you cannot hang soundproof curtains from regular curtain rods. Shop in hardware stores for the rods and hardware necessary to hang soundproof curtains.