#Collaborative post
With energy prices going through the roof, booting up your central heating is the most expensive way to stay warm in a cold bedroom.
Following Ofgem’s price cap increase, it costs around £1.20 to run central heating for one hour. That’s a lot of dough!
Thankfully, there are ways to stay warm in a cold bedroom, although you will need a few things to do it. All the recommendations below pay off in the long term by reducing your dependency on expensive central heating.
Let’s jump in! Here are eight ways to stay warm:
- Turn on your hairdryer
Believe it or not, a hairdryer turned on full whack will heat your bedroom by 2-3 Celsius within five minutes. It’s the cheapest, most straightforward way to heat your bedroom quickly, and the best part is you probably have a hairdryer ready to go.
Don’t believe it’ll work? Get a digital thermometer and try it out. You can also hold the hairdryer under your duvet to heat up your bed.
- Heat your bedroom with an electric radiator
A free-standing electric radiator costs around 6p per hour to run, so having it on all night won’t add a significant amount to your energy bills.
Electric radiators plug into a 3-pin socket, and they are portable, weighing around 2.5kg, letting you move them around easily. You only need a 2.5kW electric radiator to heat a 5m3 bedroom by 5-10 Celsius and 2kW for smaller bedrooms.
- Heat your bed with an electric mattress topper
Electric mattress toppers have adjustable heat settings, letting you warm up your bed before you get in it. You can also run a heated mattress topper all night on a low setting, although most people don’t need to do this to stay warm.
You don’t need to spend more than £40 on a good electric mattress topper. Don’t bother with heated blankets because they don’t heat your bed.
- Blast warm air into your bedroom with a fan heater
Nothing beats a fan heater if you need to heat your bedroom quickly. A fan heater will warm up your bedroom within minutes and cost around 5p to run for 10 minutes.
The downside to fan heaters is they can smell a little from dust on the heated element burning. But this is a small price to pay for warmth!
- Get a memory foam mattress
Memory foam mattresses are fantastic at retaining heat, staying warm even when the duvet is pulled back for several minutes. They also contour to your body, relieving pressure on your back, hips and joints for a painless sleep.
Pictured: Giltedge Beds Sirocco Mattress, Deep layer of Memory foam for body molding comfort, Cool touch fabric cover to help keep the body temperature regulated at the right level.
The downside to memory foam is excess heat in summer, but you can get mattresses with a layer of cooling gel and open-pore foams for breathability.
- Wear thicker pyjamas
Thick pyjamas make an enormous difference on cold nights! Cotton pyjamas are always a good choice, but fleece pyjamas are even better for warmth.
Onesies are also a good option, especially if you don’t like it when pyjama bottoms ride up into places they shouldn’t. Avoid silk and satin pyjamas because these don’t trap heat. They can also feel cold when exposed to air.
- Get your bedroom the right temperature before bedtime
Picture credit: OVO Energy
If your bedroom is cold when you are getting ready for bed, this makes it twice as hard to get warm with other efforts. It’s best to heat your bedroom before bedtime so that when you get into bed, you aren’t shivering.
You could turn on your central heating and only heat one room, but this is still more expensive than an electric radiator or fan heater.
- Stop heat escaping from your bedroom
All the efforts above will be for nothing if heat escapes your bedroom quickly.
The biggest source of heat loss in most bedrooms is through the door into a cold hallway. Insulate your bedroom door with foam strips and get a draught excluder so that warm air stays in your bedroom.
Windows are another area of heat loss. Try thermal curtains or blinds to trap heat but consider new windows if yours are old.
