Winter Home Essentials: Staying Warm and Dry for Less in Ireland

The cheapest ways to stay comfortable in an Irish winter are to stop heat escaping (draught-proofing), heat people rather than empty rooms (electric blankets, heated airers, a thermostat on a timer), and keep humidity down, because damp air feels colder and feeds mould. Portable electric heaters are the most expensive way to make heat: a 2 kW heater costs around 64c for every hour it runs flat out at today's typical unit rates. Below we set out what each option really costs and where it makes sense.

All costs here use around 32c per kWh including VAT, roughly the average standard urban unit rate in Ireland at the time of writing. Cheaper plans are available, and night or smart tariffs can cut the cost of anything you can run off-peak, so check your bill for your own rate.

The pattern is clear: anything that turns electricity directly into room heat costs the same per kWh of heat, whether it is a fan heater, oil-filled radiator or convector. A 2 kW heater is a 2 kW heater. What differs is how the heat is delivered and controlled, which is why a good thermostat matters more than the type of heater.

Oil-filled radiators take 15–30 minutes to warm up, then give steady, silent radiant and convected heat and stay warm for a while after the thermostat clicks off. They suit a home office or bedroom where you will be for several hours. Look for a reliable thermostat, a timer, several power settings (so you can run at 1 kW rather than 2 kW) and a tip-over cut-out.

Fan heaters warm a small space quickly and are cheap to buy, which makes them fine for a quick burst in a cold bathroom or utility room. They are noisy, dry the air and stop warming the moment they switch off, so they are a poor choice for heating a room for hours.

Heat pumps are the exception to the rule above: they move heat from outside air rather than making it, typically delivering around three units of heat for each unit of electricity in reasonable conditions. A whole-house air-to-water heat pump is a building project with SEAI grant support rather than an Amazon purchase, and it needs a well-insulated home to work well. Portable "heat pump" or reverse-cycle air conditioners exist, but they need a window hose and are far less efficient than a properly installed system.

Drying a wash on a clothes horse releases several litres of water into the house, and that water ends up on your windows and walls. A heated clothes airer speeds things up for a few cent an hour, but on its own it just moves the moisture into the air faster. The cheapest reliable combination is a heated airer (or ordinary horse) and a dehumidifier in a small closed room. Covering the airer with its cover or a sheet helps trap the warmth around the clothes.

Best for laundry and condensation

Meaco Arete One 20L Dehumidifier and Medical-Grade H13 HEPA Air Purifier (Low Energy)

Best for: Households drying most laundry indoors

The Arete One 20L is a compressor dehumidifier with a dedicated laundry mode and an H13 HEPA filter. Its rated draw of around 216 W works out at about 7c an hour at typical Irish rates, far less than a conventional tumble dryer, and it tackles window condensation at the same time. In a cold, unheated room a desiccant model may work better; our dehumidifier guide explains the trade-off.

Pros

• Low running cost per hour
• Laundry mode plus humidistat for everyday use
• Doubles as an air purifier

Cons

• Less effective in unheated rooms below about 15°C
• Heavy to carry between floors

Check price on Amazon.ieFull details

An electric blanket uses a fraction of the power of a room heater and lets you keep the bedroom cooler. Use it to pre-heat the bed for 20–30 minutes, then switch it off. Look for a model with multiple heat settings, an auto-off timer and overheat protection, and machine-washable is a bonus.

Draught-proofing is the cheapest heating upgrade there is. Door-bottom draught excluders, self-adhesive foam or rubber strips around doors and opening windows, letterbox brushes and keyhole covers stop warm air leaking out. Do not block wall vents, trickle vents or the vents that rooms with gas or solid-fuel appliances need for safe combustion; draught-proofing means sealing gaps that should not be there, not ventilation that should.

A smart thermostat lets you heat the house only when someone is home, schedule rooms differently and turn the heating on from your phone on the way back. A smart plug with energy monitoring is useful for timing a heated airer or dehumidifier to run on a night rate and for seeing exactly what an appliance costs. Check the plug's maximum rated load before using it with anything that heats, and follow the heater manufacturer's instructions; many advise against controlling heaters through timers or smart plugs at all.

More smart-home ideas are in our smart home and streaming guide.

Make sure your smoke alarms work and you have a carbon monoxide alarm if you use gas, oil or solid fuel. Test them monthly through the winter.