I love living in the Costa Blanca on Spain’s glorious southern coast. I love the beach. I love the blue skies. I love the food. I love the people. I love it. What I don’t love that much is that even with a history of people living in the area for over 1.2 million years they haven’t yet managed to develop a home that can stay cool in the summer and warm in the winter!
With the ever rising cost of gas and electricity and the ever falling temperatures, I have done a little internet digging and come up with a few nifty and inexpensive ideas to warm up your pad and keep you a bit toastier this Christmas.
1. Warm up before getting in! If you own a hot water bottle, boiling up some water uses a lot less electric than heating your whole room. Place it in your bed a little bit before you get in and avoid those cold sheets. In the morning do it again but put it on the clothes you are going to wear to give them that lovely just ironed warmth. Alternatively, put some rice/wheat in a bag and pop it in the microwave for exactly the same effect. Here’s a wonderful tutorial if you fancy something a little fancier.
2. Hot Shower or Bath. A hot shower will not only warm you up but the steam will act as a humidifier and warm things up all round. If you are lucky enough to have a bath in your home, don’t drain the water until it gets cool, use the heat that comes off it. However, bear in mind that this is only worth doing if you were going to use up that hot water anyway – it would be expensive, inefficient, and a waste of water to run a hot bath just for the sole purpose of heating your house a bit.
3. Stop the Drafts. This is an oldy but goody. Door snakes are fun to make and such a simple way to stop those nasty unwelcome cold draughts. If you need a quick fix you can run a thick towel along the bottom of a door for a makeshift draught stopper but there are endless methods on Pinterest to make a DIY draught stopper for doors and windows. If sewing doesn’t appeal to you use pipe insulation or even those pool noodles you don’t need right now. Cut them down one side and slot them to the bottom of the door.
4. Bubble wrap your windows for better insulation. Yes, I said bubble wrap! You need to be able to utilize the sun while its out by opening the curtains and blinds, especially to your south facing windows. The problem is that glass just isn’t a very good insulator and even if you are one of the few who has double glazing you are still likely to be losing heat through them.
The ferreterias will no doubt have the removable film insulators specifically designed to add a clear layer to your windows to help stop you losing heat through them but they can be expensive and bubble wrap is not – it all depends on if it’s a window you particularly enjoy the view out of or not. The little pockets of air in bubble wrap act like tiny little buffer zones that keep heat from escaping through the glass and all you need to put it up is a little spray bottle of water. Just cut out strips to match the size of each pane, and use a spray bottle to apply a light mist on the window. The water should create a seal that effectively holds the bubble wrap against your window. If it falls off, just give it another light spray and reapply. If you have judgmental guests coming over, you can peel it off and reapply it easily once they’ve gone. Here’s a quick tutorial.
5. Make your Fireplace More Efficient. Most fireplaces are wonderfully cozy to sit around in the colder parts of the year, but are unfortunately not actually that great at heating up your home. Boost the efficiency of your fireplace by making sure your damper is in good working order - years of heating and cooling may have caused it to warp creating problems with updrafts. Also if you don’t have one, install a fireback. These are generally just sheets of reflective material placed against the rear wall of your fireplace in order to radiate heat back into your house. If you feel like splashing out you can get these in stainless steel, but you can get the same effect at a fraction of the cost by coating the back wall of the fireplace with a heat resistant metallic silver spray paint. If you have a very deep fireplace with room between the fire and the back wall you can even pin up a sheet of aluminum foil to do the job.
6. Improve the performance of your radiators. A lot of heat from your radiators ends up being absorbed into the walls behind them. Deflect it back into the room with tin foil. You can buy foil specially designed for this purpose or even use regular high quality kitchen foil. Radiators need space to do their job, so make sure yours aren’t blocked by furniture, which will prevent the warm air from circulating around the room. Also, try to avoid leaving clothes and towels over them – as lovely as it is to dry off with a hot towel or slip on a pair of warm pj bottoms, that is heat that could be used to warm your house instead.
7.Got a wood stove? Put a pot of water on top to create a low-tech humidifier! Having even just a little bit of moisture in the air helps it retain heat longer, so if you’ve got a wood stove blazing away all the time, all you need to do is put a pot full of water on top. As it heats up, the water will slowly begin to evaporate and humidify the room. In fact, lets be honest, even if you don’t have a fancy wood stove you can do the same thing on your regular stove top. Just make sure to keep checking the pot to make sure it isn't low or boiled dry. This is especially useful if you house is heated with forced air heat.
*Pro tip: a little bit of apple cider vinegar in the water will help keep the pot from developing mineral rings on the sides over time. Dropping in some orange or lemon rinds with some cinnamon will create a wonderful Christmas scent around your home as the water boils.
8. Be a Material girl…or boy! Rugs and curtains aren’t just for decoration. They actually have a purpose. Get yourself to a Rastro and purchase some cheap rugs or carpet to help prevent heat loss through the floor and keep your toes toasty. Old blankets or quilts can work too but remember to put some rubber no slide mats underneath them to prevent accidents.
Hang curtains over every window in your home. I know you probably have blinds but a set of thick curtains will help to keep heat in and cold air out. Again the Rastro’s or charity shops are perfect places to find curtains but if you can’t find thick ones, try getting thinner ones and lining them – you could even use a PVC shower curtain for this. It's also worth hanging curtains or blankets in open door frames or hallway entrances. Many of our nice Mediterranean homes are open-plan and don't have barriers between certain rooms, which makes it difficult to keep heat in an enclosed space. Buy some large 3M command hooks that you can stick to the wall to hang your curtain pole on and easily take down again in the summer to solve this problem. Be sure to close your curtains and blinds as soon as dusk falls, but keep them open during the day to make the most of the sunlight, which will help gently warm your house, even if it’s cold out.
9. Come On, Baby, Light My Fire. Not only cozy and romantic but also practical and money saving – what more could you want? Save on the electric and heating bills by filling your house with candles. Not only do they provide light and heat, candles add ambiance to your home with a variety of shapes, colors, and aromas. Go that one step further with this gorgeous idea – a terra cotta pot heater. This baby can heat up an entire room. All you need is a clay pot, large stones, and some candles. Get full instructions here.
10. Multitask whilst cooking! Cooking is a great way to warm up the air in your home. Once you’ve finished cooking instead of closing the oven door to cool, leave it open to make the most of the leftover heat. But be careful if you’ve got curious kids or playful pets.