Just weeks after many of us were basking in the sun, people across the UK are starting to notice temperatures dropping.
Frost is gathering in the streets and many Brits are looking out their winter clothes in anticipation of a cold few months. And although energy prices have finally started to fall, millions of us are still worried about how we will heat our homes.
There are hordes of tips online about how we can keep ourselves warm for less over the winter - but according to some experts, we're missing tricks that could slash our bills. One guru, Stephen Day of boiler company iHeat, told Metro the key to heating your house cheaper could lie in the fridge.
Day recommends that you run your vacuum cleaner nozzle over the back of your fridge to keep dust away from its coils, explaining the measure could cut the fridge's energy usage by a quarter. He said: "The coils can't work as well if they're covered in dust and dirt."
Greig Millar of Ovo said combi boiler-owners could save about £65 a year by cutting the flow temperature. Most boilers are set to run at 70C to 80C, but Greig says they will work more efficiently when turned to 60C.
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Leaving electrical appliances on standby can also hike your bills, according to SaveMoneyCutCarbon founder Mark Sait. TVs in particular can cost households up to £95 a year.
Another expert, Nathan Martin-Nicholls, told The Sun we should all be aware of a knob attached to the side of our radiators known as the Thermostatic Radiator Valve (TRV). Many believe ramping up the number dial will make it warmer but the plumber revealed this was not the case.
"The numbers actually relate to the temperature in the room, not the temperature of the radiator," he explained. According to how warm the room is, the TRV controls how much hot water flows into the radiator. It can tell if a room is cold and will therefore allow more hot water to flow into the radiator.
By the same token, it can tell if a room is warm and cut the hot water flow to maintain the temperature of the room. The numbers on the TRV should roughly correspond to the temperature of the room. As a guide: 0 = 0°C (off); * = 7°C (usually a snowflake symbol or full stop); 1 = 10°C; 2 = 15°C; 3 = 20°C; 4 = 25°C.
Utility Bidder CEO Chris Shaw shared more tips with the Daily Record. He said we should keep curtains and blinds open during the day to make the most of daylight over the winter.
Another piece of advice he offered involved moving furniture out the way of radiators so as to stop it from soaking up the heat. He also considers it important to check pet boxes and letterboxes in case any drafts are making their way into your home without you noticing.
Shaw said: "Simple tips such as knowing where to place furniture in your home, leaving the bathroom door open when showering and allowing as much sunlight in as possible throughout the day will enable people to feel warmer for longer and with financially uncertain times ahead, simple changes around the home could potentially go a long way."
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