Wiltshire homeowners urged to sort insulation to help keep bills down
Warm and Safe Wiltshire has given advice on reducing costs
People in Wiltshire are being urged to make sure their homes retain as much heat as possible this winter in a bid to keep bills down.
With the energy price cap set to increase in October, advice service Warm and Safe Wiltshire are encouraging us to ensure our homes are sufficiently insulated.
Mark Franklin from the advice service says a lot of the heat in a property escapes through the walls.
"35% of the heat in a property goes out the walls, 15 to 20% goes out through the roof, so if you can that heat in, you're going to start to keep yourself warmer and the costs down," he said.
He told Greatest Hits Radio that insulation can be a challenge, but there is support available for eligible home owners in the form of grants to help keep homes insulation.
Mr Franklin said historically, we'd aimed to keep the whole house warm, but growing energy costs are making that unaffordable now.
He said: "It's about keeping the person warm. So there's things like electric throws, which are very cheap options to you can plug them in, they cost 2 to 3 pence an hour and keeps your whole body warm."
Mark added: "You can isolate rooms that you don't use so close the doors in those so that they're not being heated, and that will keep the cost down as well. But it's no one-size-fits-all, unfortunately, it depends on the household and the people living within it."
There's also advice for those in rented accommodation to build a strong relationship with their landlord.
"The best thing you can try and do is build a rapport with your landlord and try and get them bought into the fact that having a damp in their properties is actually affecting the fabric of that property and if not addressed could end up being long term costs for them," Mark said.
He added that landlords with private tenants can access funding to help insulate their properties.
In the case of a dispute with their landlord, Mark advises tenants to speak to the housing Ombudsman to raise a formal complaint.