Top 10 Cheap Ways to Warm Up Your House This Winter (Under £20 Each, UK)

Quick answer
You don’t need a smart thermostat or a new boiler to feel warmer this winter. Ten cheap fixes, each usually under £20, cover the biggest heat losses in a typical UK home — draughts, cold windows, radiators warming the wall behind them, and warm air pouring up unused chimneys. Do all of them and you’ll be genuinely warmer at the same thermostat setting.

Every one of these is available for under twenty pounds on Amazon or in your local hardware shop, most can be fitted with a screwdriver or nothing at all, and each links through to a full guide if you want to know more.

1. Foam door draught strip

Self-adhesive foam or rubber strip that goes around the inside of the door frame. Stops cold air pushing in through the gap between door and frame. Ten minutes to fit, works instantly. Our draught-proofing guide covers where else to look.

2. Letterbox brush

A cheap plastic housing with a brush across the letter slot. Sits on the inside of the door, screws in place. Stops the constant cold whistle through the letterbox, which is one of the most surprisingly draughty parts of a British front door.

3. Radiator reflector panels for external walls

Foil-faced foam panels that sit behind radiators on external walls to reflect heat back into the room. The Energy Saving Trust puts the saving at around £18 a year in Great Britain. Only worth doing on external walls, not internal. See our reflector panel guide.

4. A wool or balloon chimney draught excluder

University of Liverpool research puts the heat lost through an open chimney at around 5% of household heat. A chimney draught excluder blocks most of it for the price of a pub round. Never light a fire with one in place. See our chimney draught excluder guide.

5. Window insulation shrink film

Clear plastic film that sticks to the inside of a window frame and shrinks flat with a hair dryer, creating a still air gap that acts like temporary secondary glazing. Everest states a quality film can reflect up to 30% of a room’s heat back. Best on single-glazed windows. See our shrink-film guide.

6. A door draught excluder (snake)

A fabric tube laid along the bottom of a door where the gap is too big for a brush strip. Cheap, moves with the door if you use a fitted style, and doesn’t need any DIY. Also useful for unheated rooms — blocks the cold air from a spare bedroom leaking into a warm hallway.

A door draught excluder snake

The cheapest single upgrade you can make

Fabric tube filled with insulation
Some clip to the door, others lie loose
Machine-washable covers on many

Look for a fitted version that clips or slides onto the bottom of the door if you don’t want to keep moving it manually every time the door opens. Filled with polyester, cotton or dried grain (heavier stops it drifting) rather than tiny beads that pool at one end. A door twin-sealed with a brush strip and a snake at the bottom is the tightest cheap fix. Measure the width of the door before buying.

Good for: old doors with big under-door gaps; internal doors between heated and unheated rooms; renters who want a no-fixings fix.
Less good for: doors that already have a brush strip; doors that are opened constantly — a fitted style saves you moving it every time.

Check the current price on Amazon UK →

7. A cheap room thermometer

You cannot save money on heating without knowing what the room temperature actually is. The wall thermostat is often several degrees different from where you sit. A digital thermometer near the sofa is under a tenner and tells you the truth.

8. Thick or thermal curtains (from a charity shop, if you like)

A pair of thick or thermal-lined curtains closed at dusk stops warm air pooling against cold glass and condensing. Charity shops are full of them at the start of winter. Our thermal curtain guide covers what to look for if buying new.

9. A traditional hot water bottle (with a proper cover)

A rubber hot water bottle with a soft cover is still the cheapest personal heat there is. Follow RoSPA’s advice: fill to a maximum of two-thirds capacity with hot but not boiling water, and replace regularly (rubber degrades over time). Never sit on it. Our heated throws and hot water bottles guide covers this and the electric alternatives.

10. A rug on a cold floor

Suspended timber and tiled floors can be several degrees colder than the air in the room, and a lot of cold enters your body up through your feet. Even a cheap runner on a hallway or under a desk makes a room feel noticeably warmer. Cotton or wool feels warmer than synthetic under bare feet.

Frequently asked questions

What’s the single cheapest way to warm up a room?

Draught-proofing the door and window it sits in. A pack of foam strip and a door snake usually costs under a fiver and stops the biggest single loss you can fix in ten minutes.

Are cheap warmth fixes actually worth it?

Yes. The Energy Saving Trust puts radiator reflector panels on external walls at around £18 a year, and using heating controls well at around £100 — individual small changes add up. All ten of the above together will make a real difference for less than the cost of one boiler service.

Which one should I do first?

Draught-proofing the doors and windows in the room you use most. It’s the biggest single loss you can fix without professional help.