I turned my heating off for an entire weekend to test ‘heat you, not home’ hack – here’s how I got on in Scotland
THE coldest nights of winter are on the way with parts of Scotland set to plummet to -20C.
The Met Office has warned that the bone-chilling temperatures could sweep in on Friday night.
And with many households across the country struggling with the ongoing cost-of-living crisis and winter fuel payment cuts, keeping warm could be a struggle.
So it’s no surprise that families are on the hunt for affordable ways to stay cosy without further straining their budgets.
To lend a helping hand, award-winning money expert Chloe Carmichael, better known as Chloe’s Deal Club, tested out the “heat you, not the home” hack to see if it really works – and saves you money.
Indeed, a heated throw, duvet or mattress topper are all brilliant ways to stay warm over the colder months without heating the entire home.
Not only are they energy-efficient, but they are much cheaper to run and mean you don’t need to turn on your central heating or have it on high temperatures while in use.
But just how effective do they feel when you use them for a full 48 hours instead of any heating?
Chloe said: “I recently trialled turning off my heating for an entire weekend, which was a challenge living in Scotland in December.
“I kept warm with only these heated products from Dreamland, and I was amazed by the results.
“Not only was I extremely warm and cosy, but I saved £6.75 on my heating bill that weekend alone.”
Chloe used two heated blankets that “only take five minutes to heat up” to survive the weekend – one for her sofa and one for her mattress.
She added: “Of course, I wouldn’t recommend turning your heating off entirely for winter, but this trial showed how heated products are a great way to localise heat instead of heating larger areas in your home and allow you to be more sensible with the thermostat, so I can’t recommend these products enough.”
Based on her energy tariff at the time of her trial, the heated throw only cost Chloe 7p per hour to run, while the underblanket came in at 5p per hour.
She gushed: “We all know heated products were a great way to save money, but when you take a few moments to actually crunch the numbers and compare them to your heating bill it really hits home how big a saving you can make.”
And social media users have been left stunned over the savings.
One said: “Oh that’s more [of a saving] than I thought! I’m getting one of those mattress blankets!”
A second gushed: “Ohhhh this is fab!!!! I’d quite like to try this out for my family of six.”
A third added: “Wait I need this!!!! My heating bill is crazy scary!!!”
Meanwhile, a fourth wrote: “I got a dreamland throw last year and it is a lifesaver. Never realised it wasn’t even costing me a lot.”