Hey, we realise we’re writing this just as the depths of winter rear their ugly head, in a country that doesn’t traditionally use air conditioners at home, but with reports that increased heatwaves have pushed up demand for AC units in the UK, it never pays to be too prepared.

And considering the environmental impact of air conditioning units, if you do plan to have one in your home, it’s vital to make sure that it is running efficiently. Indeed, air conditioners consume huge amounts of energy, with inefficient AC systems having to work extra hard to maintain cold air in your home, which in turn uses more power – revealed in your energy bills and, sadly, via its impact on the planet, too. 

To help your AC unit make as environmentally low an impact as possible, here’s 8 top tips on improving air conditioning efficiency at home. 

Insulate Your Home

One of the biggest culprits of an AC working too overtime? A lack of proper insulation. All that effort to cool the air at home, only for you to basically throw it out of the window! It’s not the most sustainable approach, don’t you think?

Indeed, inefficient insulation means your heating and cooling systems have to work that much harder, which also results in increased wear and tear of your unit. The answer is simple; make sure your home – particularly your exterior walls – is properly insulated to maximise your home’s energy efficiency potential. 

Another chunk is lost through the roof if it’s not properly insulated, and another portion flies through windows that aren’t double-glazed. Insulation helps ensure an efficient air conditioning unit, and is surprisingly affordable, at just £400 on average for cavity wall insulation for a mid-terraced house or bungalow. Make it a priority today. 

Regular Maintenance

Whilst the idea of seeking air conditioning installation in the UK just a few years ago would’ve ago would have felt fanciful, now many homeowners are considering the move. Those who are should be aware that maintaining your air conditioner shouldn’t be a task that you only consider undertaking when there’s an obvious issue. Instead, regular, gentle upkeep ensures longevity from your unit.

Arrange a monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly appointment with a professional to give your AC a quick once over; these are complicated bits of kit and a professional will have a keener eye for any underlying issues.

Not only is this a wise idea for your safety and comfort, but regular maintenance will also save you money in the long run.

If you’re DIY kind of a guy or gal, rest assured that you probably don’t need to be a pro to replace the unit’s filters. When it’s time to replace them, you only need to buy filters that match your system and go ahead with the swap. Your unit’s manual will tell you the specifics of the filter’s exact size and model, and the rest is as easy as changing a lightbulb.

Increase Ventilation

Although your home’s AC is tasked with creating a comfortable home environment, ensuring that you have proper ventilation helps boost the unit’s efficiency. If some areas in your home aren’t well-ventilated, it means that your unit will have to work extra hard, costing you in higher energy bills in the long run. 

To improve the circulation of the air in your home, regularly open windows and leave doors open, too. Even during the winter, experts recommend that for good air circulation and ventilation, you should open your windows three times a day. 

And if you’re going all out, install ceiling fans as well as an extractor fan in the kitchen and bathroom. These fans help increase the airflow of the room by helping to move the hot air on. With an increase in airflow, your home will stay at a more desirable temperature, and hopefully, your need to have the AC on constantly will be lowered. In return, the fans will take the pressure off your AC. 

Close Curtains & Blinds During The Day

It’s good practice to make a habit of closing blinds and curtains when the sun is shining brightly outside, thus naturally bringing down the temperature in your house without the need for your AC to be on. Doing so also helps save your furniture from fading…talk about killing two birds with one stone! Actually, don’t; we’re trying to be environmentally friendly here.

Install A Programmable Thermostat

Do you ever forget to turn down your thermostat before leaving the house? A simple way to deal with this is by installing a ‘smart’, automated thermostat. Programmable thermostats can be timed to adjust the temperatures as per your requirement, only clicking into life when the temperature drops below – or exceeds – a certain temperature. Doing so helps cut energy bills and is considered by experts to be an environmentally friendly move.

Clear The Indoor Vents & Clean Around Your Outdoor Units

The vents of your unit play a significant role in its smooth operation, helping the distribution of cool air throughout your home. If not checked, your AC unit may end up getting blocked, or worse, distribute dust and dirt around your house.

Therefore, you must ensure that you keep the ducts and pipes clear. Vacuum the vents regularly to ensure that the air flows freely and to improve effectiveness, schedule the occasional professional clean, too.

The connecting outdoor units require free and clear air circulation, too. If your unit is blocked by external dust or fallen leaves, twigs and debris, it will have to work extra hard to extract warm air. Make it a habit to rake leaves, cut back tall grass and clear weeds and shrubs that may have grown around the unit to best ensure its longevity. Of course, an AC cleaning service can do this all for you, with significantly more expertise and efficiency.

Clean Or Replace Your Air Filters

Whilst changing your filters might seem like an obvious task, you’d be surprised how many homeowners neglect this simple yet crucial maintenance step. Your AC’s filters are its first line of defence against dust, pet hair, and other airborne particles, and when they become clogged, your unit has to work significantly harder to maintain the same level of cooling.

The harder your unit works, the more energy it consumes—and the higher your bills climb. Most manufacturers recommend checking your filters monthly and replacing them every three to six months, depending on usage and environmental factors. If you have pets or live in a particularly dusty area, you might need to change them more frequently.

A clean filter can lower your air conditioner’s energy consumption by 5 to 15 percent. Plus, clean filters help maintain better air quality in your home, which is particularly important for those with allergies or respiratory conditions. Pop a reminder in your mobile calendar—it’s a small task that can make a massive difference to both your wallet and the environment.

Switch To Cooler LED Bulbs

Are you still using the old fashioned incandescent light bulbs in your home? If your answer is yes, then it’s time to switch. Aside from being bad for the environment in themselves, these energy-guzzling bulbs can have an impact on how effective your AC is, too. 

Indeed, old incandescent bulbs can trigger your AC to consume more energy; the old-school bulbs are known to produce a significant amount of heat that can mess with your unit’s reading of room temperature. Modern energy efficient bulbs produce less heat and by switching to them, you will put less strain on your HVAC system and improve efficiency. 

Should you be keen to consider other ways to make your home run smoothly and efficiently whilst leaving the least environmental impact possible, then check out these 8 budget purchases that can boost your home’s energy efficiency and value. Now, that’s the spirit!

Sometimes, it feels like the walls are closing in. Having a small bedroom can feel a little oppressive if you’re used to a bigger space. But with many currently having to downsize to make room for a home office or a family member who has returned to live at home, it’s important to remember that having a small bedroom doesn’t mean that you’re automatically going to be short on space. 

In fact, you can maximise the space available to you, even in the most compact of rooms. With some simple yet savvy hacks and tips, your small bedroom can fulfil its potential without it feeling full or you overwhelmed. Here’s how; our 7 tips for organising a small bedroom for maximum space.

Streamline

Whether you’re a hoarder, a gatherer, or simply someone who’s accumulated a few treasured possessions on their travels, decluttering your bedroom is the first step in ensuring that you are maximising the space available to you in your bedroom.

You can’t get your bedroom looking tight and tidy when you have piles of unused clothes, books and other ‘stuff’ everywhere. You need to look at the items that you’re storing in your bedroom and figure out where else they could go – the recycling centre, eBay and the bin to name but a few! Be ruthless here; there’s no use in just moving items from one room to another. As Marie Kondo opines, if it doesn’t bring you joy, get rid.

Create Storage Space

So, we’ve established that your bedroom is on the more compact side of what estate agents might term ‘cosy’. But that doesn’t mean you won’t be able to eke out ample storage space within it. There are nooks, crannies shelves and storage spaces inside even the smallest of rooms; you just have to know where to look. 

Store your things inside the bed, under the bed, inside a window seat, and even on newly installed higher shelving which climbs the walls. Beds with built-in storage are particularly useful here, as are Ottoman storage chests at the end of the bed; both provide an answer to those pesky storage conundrums posed by a small bedroom. 

If your budget allows, and you want to make the most of the space you have in a room rather than just the space in your current wardrobe, think about investing in a built in wardrobe, which can be tailored to suit your needs and the space limitations of your bedroom.

Finally, remember to look above the floor line for storage solutions; there’s so much dead space in the higher reaches of the room just waiting to be filled…

It’s Getting Hot Up There

Speaking of looking above the floor line, have you considered that you’ll fit more into your room if you move the radiators up higher? Honestly, stick with us…

So many people are stuck with low radiators that are awkward to balance furniture around or against. This wastes energy and isn’t exactly economical with space, either. Instead, you can install radiators that are higher up the walls and out of the way of your bed and other furniture.

Sure, it’s a little different, but different doesn’t mean bad! It’s a great way to give yourself some extra space for storage and furniture, too. And that’s why you’re here, right?

Vertical Thinking

When floor space is at a premium, it’s time to think vertically. One of the most effective ways to maximise space in a small bedroom is to utilise the full height of your room. As the team at ReinforcedBeds.co.uk declare; “Bunk beds aren’t just for kids’ rooms anymore”. Indeed, modern, adult-friendly loft beds and high sleepers can create a whole new level of living space beneath your sleeping area. This space can be used for a desk, a seating area, or additional storage.

Even if you’re not ready to elevate your sleeping arrangements, consider installing floating shelves that stretch toward the ceiling or a tall, narrow bookcase that makes use of vertical space without eating up too much floor area. Wall-mounted lighting fixtures instead of table lamps can free up precious surface space on bedside tables, while hanging organizers on the back of doors can create storage space out of previously unused areas.

Smart Furniture Choices

The furniture you choose can make or break a small bedroom’s functionality. Opt for pieces that serve multiple purposes – a bedside table with charging ports built in, a headboard with hidden storage, or an ottoman that doubles as seating and storage. Consider furniture with legs rather than pieces that sit flush with the floor; this creates a sense of airiness and makes cleaning easier.

When selecting furniture, pay attention to scale. A king-size bed frame with chunky posts might be your dream piece, but in a small room, it could overwhelm the space. Instead, choose sleeker designs that provide the same function without the bulk. Remember that negative space – the empty areas between furniture pieces – is just as important as the furniture itself in creating a balanced, breathable room.

Get Your Drawers Organised

We all have that drawer or cupboard next to our bed, full of all sorts of bits’n’bobs, none of which are there to enhance the quality of your rest. Look further afield, to your clothes drawers, and the chaos within is enough to give you sleepless nights.

Get organised! The best way to make the most of your small room is to ensure that the inside of your furniture is organised, too. According to the fabled Marie Kondo method, vertical folding is the key to keeping your drawers perfectly organized. Check out this handy guide to KonMari folding here for more – but perhaps do so after finishing this article. Marie Kondo wouldn’t appreciate all those messy, incomplete tabs being open, after all.

Go further; adding drawer separators in your nightstand and dresser will mean that you have space to find homes for things and you’ll maintain a certain sense of order in areas sometimes left a little unloved.

Add Mirrors

We all know that mirrors can make a small space appear bigger. However, have you considered installing mirrors with built-in storage to really maximise both the appearance and the actual presence of more space? Think outside the box (and the bedroom) here and consider bringing a mirrored bathroom cabinet into the bedroom, which provides you with your make up mirror and additional space for storage, too.

Alternatively, full-length bedroom mirrors are available which provide hanging storage behind the visage, opening up space without taking up loads of prime floor real estate. Perfect! 

If the bedroom isn’t the only small space in your house, then check out our 10 commandments of small apartment decor for more useful tips and tricks on maximising the space in your home!

Last year, there were 266,489 burglaries reported in England and Wales, which represented a slight decline on the previous year and a major one in terms of the turn of the millenium’s burglary statistics, which pointed to almost four times that amount.

There are several reasons why this might be true; the increase in home working during the pandemic and has meant that homes are now more frequently occupied, perhaps. Or, a lack of faith in the police may mean victims simply aren’t reporting burglaries as frequently – convictions for burglary, it should be added, are well and truly down.

Another interesting reason put forward for the drop in burglary offences is the increasing smartification of our homes. Indeed, in recent years, home security has been given the modern tech treatment, helping to deter would-be burglars and give our properties an extra layer of safety.

Indeed, there are multiple benefits to ever-proliferating smart home systems – you can keep watch on your house even when miles away (sounds like a fun holiday!), the systems are sensitive and can easily trace unknown people and objects, and best of all, they can be customised to suit your needs. With that in mind, here are 7 smart security features available for your home.

Smart Lighting

The two key tenets of smart security systems for the home are prevention and cure. 

We’re surely all familiar with the classic intruder deterrent of ‘making it look like someone’s home’ while you’re out. 

Well, smart lighting solutions help you optimise this process, whether that’s through motion sensing lighting, which can sense whether or not a room is inhabited, or, most commonly, when you approach your house after dark and struggle with your keys at the front door. 

This is particularly useful when you’re on holiday or simply out at the shops, for instance, and want to give the impression your house is occupied from time to time to deter intruders. You can also control your smart lighting from afar – even, from abroad – helping you create the illusion of activity within your property any time of day or night.

But doing so can also improve your home’s energy efficiency; talk about killing two birds with one stone! 

Smart CCTV Systems

From prevention to cure, and once the preserve of mafia bosses on the run from the law, domestic CCTV systems have now gone mainstream, and recently, have also turned somewhat intelligent.

Installing cameras inside and out which can be monitored through your smartphone acts as both a deterrent and a way to keep your home safer. Many homeowners are even turning to freeware security camera software to manage their IP camera systems, making home surveillance more accessible than ever.

The best smart CCTV systems will send you alerts when there’s been a potential intruder, which doesn’t sound like much of a holiday for you, but may bring peace of mind, nonetheless.

Some smart CCTV systems can be aligned with motion sensor activated lights, enabling lights to come on around the home whenever a person is captured approaching the house. Or, of course, you could row back on the paranoia. Everything will be ok.

Smart Locks

Locking your doors for safety is a necessity, of course. You also need to ensure there is a way to open a door in an emergency. The best way to do this is to ensure that you have high-quality locks on all doors.

Having quality locks installed on the doors and windows of your property, preferably using fingerprint scanning or biometric smart lock technology for enabling secure, unique access, is another way to improve the security of your home via smart technology.

Not only will this avoid a threat to your property should your keys be stolen, but installing smart locks also puts an end to those panicked moments when you think you’ve misplaced your keys!

Smart Parcel Boxes

You may also want to install a smart parcel box on the exterior of your property. This will keep your parcels and packages safe and are a great option if you have frequent home deliveries, e.g., you regularly order items off Amazon. Don’t we all, hey?

Smart parcel boxes also prevent the build up of mail on your front doorstep; an enduring, tell-tale sign that the property is unoccupied.

Smart Sprinklers

Lawn care is also something that you can automate fully using robots and AI. Yep; we know what you’re thinking; what does lawn care have to do with home security? 

Well, as Reader’s Digest reported back in December of 2022, ‘’having a well-maintained yard indicates that you’re vigilant about your home and likely paying close attention to it.’’

What’s more, an unkempt, unruly looking front lawn and garden may imply your home has been unoccupied for some time. Best, then, to activate smart lawnmowers and sprinklers, to keep those high standards up at all times.

By using a robot lawnmower, it’s possible to take the time and effort out of mowing the lawn. Like a robot vacuum, these robots automatically roll around the garden while using sensors to detect the perimeters so that they know when to change direction. 

As for keeping your lawn from drying out in the summer, it’s possible to invest in smart sprinklers. These sprinklers are able to water your lawn daily while taking into account the heat and rainfall so that no water is wasted. 

Doorbell Cameras

Smart video doorbells are another way to monitor your smart home from anywhere in the world using an app on your smartphone, tablet, or laptop, assisting you in keeping your home safe from intruders.

Most devices allow you to set an alert that will be triggered whenever someone approaches your home or rings the doorbell. You can even see, hear, and speak to visitors through an app, giving you peace of mind that the only people who come to your door are welcome guests. With artificial intelligence capabilities improving by the day, video doorbells are evolving to be able to distinguish between real threats and the cat next door.

Smart Alarms

Gone are the days of those basic burglar alarms that would wake up the entire neighborhood when a leaf brushed against your window. Today’s smart alarm systems are bringing home security into the 21st century with impressive precision and customisation.

These intelligent systems can be controlled directly from your smartphone and often integrate seamlessly with other smart home devices you might already have installed. You can arm or disarm your system remotely, receive real-time notifications about any suspicious activity, and even set different security modes for different scenarios – perhaps a ‘Night Mode’ that only monitors the ground floor while you’re sleeping upstairs.

What makes these systems particularly clever is their ability to distinguish between genuine threats and false alarms. Using advanced sensors and AI technology, smart alarms are almost as good as humans at telling the difference between your teenager coming home late and an actual break-in attempt. Some systems even integrate with your smart speakers, allowing you to arm or disarm them using voice commands – though you might want to keep that feature on the down-low from any passersby!

Best of all, many smart alarm systems can be customised to work alongside your other smart security features, creating a comprehensive security network. For instance, when your alarm detects unusual activity, it can automatically trigger your smart lights and CCTV to kick into action, while sending an alert straight to your phone. Now that’s what we call a proper security team working overtime!