Cheap (Or Free) Energy Crisis Survival Tips

(This post focuses on cold-weather survival and the UK energy crisis – for a more general beginner’s guide to prepping in the UK, check out How To Start Prepping In The UK)

It’s now December, and the cold has really hit. Everyone I know is worried about staying warm this winter. General price inflation is the highest on record, food inflation has just hit 14.7%, and energy prices are going through the roof. The energy crisis is only growing in the UK, and a huge number of ordinary people are left looking for winter survival tips and ways to stay warm that wouldn’t seem out of place in some post-apocalyptic survival guide.

The problem with many of the existing tips online is that they require an investment – insulating window films, attic insulation and heavy curtains aren’t cheap – and many of them involve ownership of your living space.

If you’re renting, you can’t just do some insulation DIY, and for many of the worst-hit this winter, the tools and materials would be too expensive anyway.

So here are some of my best low-cost energy crisis survival tips for this winter in the UK – they might not be pretty but they’re cheap (or free), they don’t take much time or effort to implement, and you can use them without losing your rental deposit. Here’s what you can do:

Note: This article wound up being much longer than I’d originally planned, so I’ve added a contents section to help navigate it. If you want to bookmark it and come back later, or skip to the bit that sounds interesting, you can!

– Contents (You Are Here)
– Heat The Human, Not The Home
– Choose One Room To Live In
– Portion Off A Space
– Layer Up
– Babies
– Toddlers
– Free Energy Crisis Tips For Increasing Your Home Insulation
– Boost Your Window Insulation
– Boost Your Floor Insulation
– Some Stuff You Might Not Have Thought Of
– Fight Damp Wherever You Can
– Don’t Run Extractor Fans Longer Than Necessary
– Cuddling A Dog Is Legitimately A Survival Strategy
– Stay Clean
– Some Things You Should NOT Do
– Have I Missed Anything?

Start Prepping UK’s Cheap (Or Free) Winter Energy Crisis Survival Tips

Heat The Human, Not The Home

MoneySavingExpert published an absolutely excellent guide when the energy crisis first appeared on the horizon, titled “Heat The Human, Not The Home“. I’ve linked it here, because I think you should read it.

The basic idea is that it’s far more energy-efficient – and far cheaper – to warm an individual person, rather than warming the room that person is in. A tiny bit of energy can be used to heat a heated gilet, for example, and when combined with layered, warm clothing, that tiny bit of energy is all it takes to keep a person warm in even a freezing room. Vastly more energy would be needed to bring the entire room up to a comfortable temperature.

That’s not all that’s in there, though – the whole article is full of information on the best ways to stay warm without resorting to grid energy, and all of it is tailored towards being as cheap as possible – they’ve even included a well-researched table showing how much various warming devices cost to buy, and how much they cost to run per week.

It’s a really in-depth article that provides a tonne of information about various ways to stay warm, and everything is price-checked to ensure they’re recommending the most affordable options. It’s also updated regularly, so you know the pricing information is as current and accurate as possible.

Finally, it includes a lot of links to support services and options you may wish to access if you find yourself severely struggling – support for bills, articles on navigating the benefits system, food resource information, and lots more. If you only read one energy crisis article, make it this one.

And the Start Prepping UK article you’re on right now is in that list too, so you know I really mean it.

Choose One Room To Live In – Or Portion Off A Space

The smaller the space you need to heat, the further your heat source is going to go – and you count as a heat source, so even if you have no external heater, this will still be effective.

Choose a room in the house to live in – for many people this will be either the living room or their bedroom, but for families, it makes more sense for it to be a central space. It should be somewhere where you can comfortably exist, so that places a limit on just how small you can make it – you might be warm enough with three people in the box room, but you will go insane in short order.

If your only available space is too large, then it might make sense to reduce it down – for example, a living room/dining room knockthrough will be hard to heat effectively, so portion off the living room section with a blanket, duvet, cardboard boxes, whatever you’ve got, and just live in there. By the same token, if you have a tent, you can set it up in the room, creating another layer of insulation between you and the cold outside, and providing you with a smaller, more sheltered space to sleep in.

This is because:

Heating Smaller Spaces Is More Efficient

I know, you just read a whole section about that, but it’s really very important to remember.

The smaller the space you need to heat, the easier it’ll be. Think creatively about how to create warmer spaces in your home – you could even make a blanket fort in your living room! I’m not even slightly joking. Remember how uncomfortably warm it would get in those when you were a kid?

No-one said winter survival had to be boring.

Also, there’s historical precedent for sleeping in a blanket fort when it’s freezing cold – that’s what a four-poster bed is, like you’d see in any castle and most Jane Austen films.

You may also want to isolate your living space from the rest of your home with the use of blankets or sheets hung up over the doors, draught excluders at the bottom of the door (this could be as simple as a rolled-up towel or a pillow) and something over the windows – but don’t block off ALL the ventilation or you’ll begin to suffer from condensation and damp, which will make the cold worse, and DON’T BLOCK YOUR ESCAPE ROUTE. If there’s a big problem (and with all your neighbours burning the furniture to stay warm there might well be a massive problem) then a blocked exit WILL KILL YOU. Whatever you do to boost your insulation, make sure you have a clear and easy way out of the room.

Right, onto, if you’ll pardon the pun, a warmer subject: what you can do.

If You Can Afford It:

– Inexpensive spare duvets or blankets make an excellent room divider and can be nailed up or hung from clothes pegs.

– A small tent (2-man or so) set up in an indoor space will make for a much cosier place to sleep. You can get these second-hand for pennies in the winter – when a lot of people are regretting giving storage space to such a summery item when it’s so dark and miserable outside.

– Draft excluders don’t cost much and can save a lot of heat. Place them under draughty exterior doors, or at the doors of rooms you’ve sealed off and aren’t using in the cold.

– Alternatively, a roll of masking tape will allow you to seal off doors you don’t plan to use, and stop warm air from your living space from escaping into the cold rooms.

The Free Option:

Use spare towels, bedding or old clothes in place of bought draft excluders: they’ll work just as well.

Remember that blanket fort I talked about before? Might as well give it a go if it’s too cold to get a good night’s sleep or if you need somewhere warm to sit and watch a film. Get creative about what to make it out of – cardboard walls, towels, sofa cushions, it all counts.

In the absence of thick duvets and blankets or a movable room divider, a normal bedsheet will work too – although not quite as effectively. You’ll still get a lot of benefit from doing that just from airflow restriction alone.

Now that’s all well and good, but if you have to move around and, you know, live your life, you’ll need a more mobile solution. So it’s time for step 2:

Layer Up

There’s an art to layering. It’s all about trapping air between the layers, so multiple loose layers will keep you much warmer than a single large layer or several layers of tight-fitting clothing.

Since the air is what keeps you warm, it works best to keep fluffy layers close to you, where their air-trapping power can be put to best use, and put tighter weave materials on the outside, where they can protect the fluffier stuff. That’s why those unbelievably cosy sheepskin jackets you sometimes see have the fleece on the inside and the suedey layer on the outside.

For this same reason, a thick-weave, knitted blanket under a tight-weave blanket will trap much more heat and keep you warmer than the other way around, and a big fluffy duvet underneath a thin, dense blanket will do the same thing.

When layering your clothing, it’s best to follow the lead of outdoors experts when going outside – a moisture-wicking base layer, a thermal layer to keep you warm, and an outer shell to stop the wind from piercing the fabric of your outfit and to keep the rain off.

When inside your home, you can ditch the windproofing and waterproofs (hopefully) and just layer for pure warmth.

Outdoors, it might look like this: (I’ll leave it up to the experts at Dick’s Sporting Goods to show us, the model is so keen and it’d be a shame not to post him)

Indoors, I tend to go for something a little softer. My absolute gold-standard at the minute is thermals (including long johns if you can find them), then a t-shirt and trousers, sometimes another longer-sleeved shirt over that, a jumper or hoody, and a dressing gown, with thick socks, slippers and maybe fingerless gloves if it’s really cold and I need to work, or hands in pockets if I don’t need them. I got the long johns for pennies in Primark years ago, and they’re still good, and you’ll notice that everything else I’d be wearing to keep warm is something I already had. No specialist gear, no expensive purchases. Just combining the things I already own to increase their insulating power and keep warm.

Where kids are involved, it gets trickier – older children can understand the need to layer and wrap up to keep out the cold, but toddlers might not be so reasonable. Getting my two-year-old to wear his coat in the house is a battle I’m not likely to win.

In that case, you can still use layering techniques for clothes, with vests, tops and jumpers, sleep suits etc, but be aware that smaller bodies generate and store heat differently to larger ones – monitor your small children closely to make sure they aren’t overheating or losing too much warmth.

Babies

The general rule of thumb is that babies should be wearing one more layer than you do – so if you’re wearing 3 layers in the cold, they’ll most likely appreciate a 4th layer. The official NCT website guide for keeping a baby warm backs this up, and talks about using natural fibres like wool to keep a baby warm and let their skin breathe. Hats or hoods are very important (if your baby will ever allow you to put one on them, which mine did not, even in a deep freeze).

If you’re out and about, the activity of walking will be helping you warm up – but a baby in a buggy isn’t getting the same benefit, so make sure they’re adequately wrapped up. A sling or carrier keeps them against your body, so your body heat will help to warm them, but ironically you need to check often to ensure they don’t OVER heat.

When checking to make sure that a baby is warm enough, or too warm, touch their tummy or back, rather than their hands – its a much more reliable way to assess body temperature.

Don’t Forget To Dress Your Baby Down When Going To A Warmer Place

If you take your baby somewhere warmer, like a community warm bank, a library, or a museum (which are all free and heated, by the way), then make sure to remove layers as the environment warms up. Those same layers that are keeping your baby cosy outside will cause them to overheat in warm places, which is just as dangerous as the cold.

Toddlers

Toddlers are similar to babies, but they can run, they’re much more willful, and they can be more in need of convincing to wear coats and gloves – especially in the house, if you need to cut down on energy use.

Their ability to move and explore means that you’ll need to go for options with mobility and durability in mind – one splash in an icy puddle and your day could be derailed.

The NCT website guide for keeping toddlers warm recommends snowsuits or similar water-resistant suits, and waterproof or water-resistant boots to allow exploration without the risk of cold water and mud getting in to chill your child. I can tell you from bitter, bitter experience just how necessary this really is.

Similarly to babies, the risk of overheating or chilling down are increased because the child is too young to communicate effectively or to notice that their temperature is wrong if they’re busy having fun. Make sure to check regularly, just to be safe, and if your toddler is sweating, lose a layer. Just like with adults, sweating will ruin the insulating ability of your layers, and may result in quite a sudden and unexpected loss of heat.

Gloves and hats are still very important at the toddler stage, and it’s a very good idea to sew a connecting string of elastic onto the cuff of both gloves and put it through the sleeves of your toddler’s coat or snowsuit, so when the gloves inevitably come off, they aren’t lost or dropped on the wet ground.

Sometimes YoU Can’t Win Against A Toddler

Beyond a certain point, I was forced by my son to concede that I need to try to focus on warming the space itself, not just him, as there were too many reasons why he desperately needed to not be wearing a shirt.

A Note On Baby Safety

Don’t put your baby or toddler in their car seat while they’re wearing a coat, snowsuit or other puffy clothes – it can render the car seat all but useless in a crash. It can be freezing in the car but it will soon warm up with driving – but if you’re worried about the cold, you can always cover them with warm blankets on top of their seatbelts, once they’re safely belted in.

If You Can Afford It:

– Proper winter thermals and a fleece will boost your insulating ability a lot. Coupled with a rain coat or even a poncho, you’ll be much more able to resist wind, rain and sleet.

– Rechargable heated clothes are cheaper than you’d think, can charge off a USB and use very little electricity to run – try some gloves, slippers or a gilet.

The Free Option:

– Experiment with ways to layer up the clothes you already have. If you’ve got a dressing gown, they used to be called “house coats”, and for good reason – they’re perfect as the outer layer of a warm in-house outfit.

– If it gets really cold, don’t be afraid to get creative – a safety pin and blanket could make a brilliant poncho-type thing. I know, I can’t believe it’s come to this either. This is apparently one of the richest nations in the world. We have got to do something about energy company pricing and the cost of living.

– The fluffy surface of a dry towel makes it an excellent substitute for a blanket – include one in between blankets or even use a small one as part of your worn layers for some extra insulation.

– The old T-Shirt Ninja Mask Trick is a great way to keep your face and head warm if you don’t have a ski mask, and is also great if you wear too much black, like me, or if you can’t resist pretending the Christmas wrapping paper tubes are swords.

– There are charities and mutual aid organisations that can help you get warm clothes for a baby or toddler – Google baby clothing charities in your area, ask on your local area’s subreddit, or look on Facebook Marketplace and Nextdoor for people getting rid of bags of baby and toddler clothes that their child has grown out of. Often, you’ll be able to get them completely for free.

Free Energy Crisis Survival Tips For Increasing Your Home Insulation

Boost Your Window Insulation

Windows are a pain in the winter. They’re often the coldest part of the house and can be a source of serious heat loss, even if properly insulated. If you’re living in an old house, there’s a chance they’ll be single-glazed and sitting in drafty frames, which is a dire situation in the depths of winter, but even a perfect double-glazed window will seep heat out far more than any wall would.

You can help prevent the energy crisis from coming in through the windows, though, by beefing up the amount of cover on the window, trapping layers of air against it, or increasing the insulating power of the windowpane itself.

If you have control over your space and the money to do so, curtains, blinds, and window films are great ways to accomplish this – some blinds types are even specifically designed with this in mind.

If you need something more temporary or that won’t lose you your rental deposit, then hanging or taping blankets over a window works just as well as curtains, and a cheap duvet would be even better.

If you don’t care about light getting in, then cardboard is a free option, but will be less effective at trapping air – though still, if it’s the corrugated sort with space between its layers, the insulation provided will be nothing to sniff at.

If you want to keep light coming in – and fair enough if you do, that is the point of having a window – then my personal favourite is bubble wrap over the glass.

Tape it in place with masking tape so as not to damage whatever you’ve stuck it to, and use layers if necessary – it will trap a lot of air and greatly boost the window’s insulating power, while still allowing lots of light in. It’s also very cheap or free – you can buy lots of bubble wrap for very little, or just collect it from parcels and presents, ask for it on Nextdoor or other community apps, or ask if you can have the packaging bubble wrap from a department store or supermarket – you might wind up walking away with more than you can carry.

If You Can Afford It:

– Layers of blinds, curtains and even shutters are fantastic for trapping layers of air between you and the outside.

– Hanging up a duvet or blanket over the windows is cheaper than proper curtains and just as good, warmth-wise.

– You can buy large rolls of bubble wrap and masking tape very cheaply, and stick them up to make your windows considerably warmer without losing the light they let in.

The Free Option:

– Spare sheets will work as drapes – just not as effectively as a blanket or duvet would.

– Bubble wrap or plastic wrap that will allow light in while trapping air can be had for free from anywhere that’s getting rid of it – it helps them free up bin space and cut down waste, so don’t be afraid to ask, and don’t be disheartened if you get a few ‘no’s. There are plenty of other businesses you can ask and you’ll get lucky eventually. This is how I get all my cardboard, bubble wrap and other “waste” materials for projects.

Boost Your Floor Insulation

The ground will sap heat too – everything does, apparently. Under-floor insulation is usually the way that homes deal with this, but even with it, you’ll still lose heat through the ground, and a LOT of homes don’t have adequate floor insulation in any case.

One way of keeping yourself warm is to wear slippers or shoes, but if you want to keep the space warm, you’ll have to augment the floor itself.

Rugs, carpets, bath mats, yoga mats, and even dry towels can be used to keep a floor warmer, but make sure you aren’t creating any slip or trip hazards – double-sided tape can be useful to keep things from sliding around, and carpets or rugs can be held in place by putting furniture on top of them.

Pay special attention to that, and please be careful – the extra warmth isn’t worth it if you slip and break something.

If You Can Afford It:

– Rugs and carpets are the gold standard for a reason. On hard floors, bath mats might be a better call as they’re often anti-slip. If you have lots of these, you can layer them for extra protection.

The Free Option:

– Cardboard is a great option if you need something free – large boxes are the best for square footage and the corrugation between their layers, but lots of kinds will work for this. Make sure not to use slippery or glossy cardboard, and stick your cardboard down with double-sided tape or something that will prevent it from sliding. If you aren’t careful, you could just be creating a serious fall hazard.

Some Stuff You Might Not Have Thought Of

Fight Damp Wherever You Can

I’m not sure if you noticed this, but the climate in the UK can be a little on the damp side.

And in an unheated home, damp can become a problem quickly. If you’ve ever lived in a crappy rental or a student house (and I know I have) then you’ll already be familiar with damp, and aware of how much trouble it can cause.

For starters, it further saps what little heat is in the house, making it even colder and more inhospitable. It causes damage to walls and ceilings, can destroy stored goods and allows black mould to thrive, which, if left unchecked, will release spores that ruin the air quality in your home and can make people sick.

It’s important to fight damp wherever you can – and the keys to doing so are:

– Ventilation

– Raising the temperature so that water doesn’t condense on the walls

– Insulating areas to prevent them from reaching a cold enough temperature to gather condensation in the first place

– Removing water vapour from the air

When blocking draughts in your house, don’t block the ventilation system – that may feel like a good idea, but it will invite damp. Use extractor fans when cooking and showering, and if you can afford it, consider drying laundry at a laundromat rather than leaving it to dry in your home.

If your windows have vents, you may want to open them for a while in the afternoon, when the outside air is at its warmest, to allow moist air in your home to escape.

If You Can Afford It:

A dehumidifier is one of the best damp-busting and energy-saving purchases I ever made. I got it as a student, since our damp, uninsulated student house had no tumble dryer and we needed to be able to dry laundry, but I’ve used it ever since to help keep damp at bay in the cold. It’s also an energy-saving device – hanging clean washing in a small room with the dehumidifier running will dry the clothes at a lower energy cost than using a tumble dryer would – although it does take a few hours longer.

They’re also much more affordable than you’d think – for small spaces, apartments or drying laundry you can get one from Amazon for just £45.49 or for larger spaces, there’s a bigger model for £76.99.

Even though fighting damp is very important, it’s also important to remember the next tip:

Don’t Run Extractor Fans Longer Than Necessary

This one flies under the radar for a lot of people, but an extractor fan’s job is to suck air out of your house, causing fresh air from outside to flow in. If you’re trying to preserve warmth in the house, this means that your extractor fans are siphoning away your warm air and replacing it with cold.

Forgetting about a bathroom extractor fan or leaving the kitchen one on when you don’t need it will quietly and steadily pull heat out of the house, so when you’re finished with your extractors, make sure to turn them off!

(Note: don’t just stop using them altogether – the heat lost is worth it to escape damp and condensation, which are a much worse problem)

Cuddling A Dog Under A Blanket Is Legitimately A Survival Strategy Here

I am, once again, not joking. Dogs have higher normal body temperatures than humans, and love a cuddle under a blanket – snuggling up with one will have you feeling extremely cosy in no time. It’ll help keep them safe and warm, reassure them that even though it’s cold, it’s ok, and also provide you with a big hit of feel-good hormones.

If you don’t have a dog, you could substitute a loved one, or someone you’ve got a crush on but haven’t had the courage to tell yet (surviving the bitter cold is a great excuse to broach the subject of a cuddle). Failing that, try a hot water bottle, which has no romantic possibilities but will provide plenty of heat.

Stay Clean

I can never understand why the survivors in their settlement in a post-apocalyptic movie are always filthy, wearing filthy clothes. They’ve got a settlement now! They’re making their own bullets! Why can’t they wash their clothes or themselves?

Dirt and sweat make clothes less effective insulators, clogging the fibres together, preventing the clothing from effectively trapping air, and acting as channels for heat to be conducted away from the body.

Dirty clothes are just much worse at keeping you warm, and so it’s important to keep yourself and your clothing clean, even in the bitterest winters. You might think you’re too cold to sweat, but your body is still making those clothes dirty. Even just changing out your underlayers can make a big difference, and socks will feel less warm during the day as they absorb sweat, so a change of socks can have you feeling much warmer.

You will need the same care – for the analytical-sounding reason that you don’t want to foul your insulation, but also for the warmer and more human reason that it’s horrible enough being cold all the time. Being cold and dirty is even worse, and no-one should go through that if they don’t have to.

Take care of yourself – for warmth, sure, but also because you’re a human and you deserve to feel like one.

A Few Things You Should *NOT* Do:

I am so worried that this winter’s newspapers will be full of stories of tragedies caused by people attempting to keep warm using unsafe methods. Please research any heating method you attempt to use, and don’t attempt anything when you aren’t completely sure you can do it safely.

Fire and carbon monoxide can both kill you and your entire family. Do not take risks with them.

DON’T take a barbecue or outdoor grill inside
DON’T try to light a fire in a fireplace that hasn’t had its chimney checked by a professional chimneysweep. I’m serious you could burn your house down and your neighbours’ houses too
DON’T try to burn things for warmth anywhere other than a properly vetted fireplace (or outdoor fire pit I guess, but that’s not going to keep your home warm)
DON’T try to use one of those terracotta pot tea light heaters that are everywhere on the internet, they only appear to work but don’t give off meaningful heat and can be dangerous
DON’T burn charcoal for heat
DON’T run your car in a garage or other enclosed space to keep warm
DON’T block your home’s ventilation
DON’T use a gas heater in a space smaller than it’s rated for
DON’T take a generator inside
DON’T try to use ordinary bricks for a fireplace or as heat stores – they can explode
DON’T cover your face while sleeping
DON’T try to heat a room up with a large number of candles – they give off more carbon monoxide than you’d think and you’ll also be filling your room with lots and lots of fire hazards
DON’T NEGLECT YOUR CARBON MONOXIDE AND SMOKE ALARMS
DON’T DIE

Did I Miss Anything? Have You Got Any Great Winter Survival Tips? Let Me Know In The Comments!

I love talking about prepping and survival stuff, and I’m always happy to collect new tips and ideas. If I missed anything, let me know in the comments!

I usually plug my Patreon here, but that feels a little crass under an article about the cost-of-living crisis. If you want to support this site for free, I’d appreciate a share or two.

This article uses Amazon affiliate links where appropriate – if you make a purchase through these links, the products will cost the same for you, but Start Prepping UK may receive a small commission (a VERY small commission). It’s another great way to support the site that doesn’t cost you anything (anything more than you were going to spend anyway, that is), and it also removes a little prepper effort by allowing you to make a few relevant purchases while reading about a topic and have them delivered right to your door. I have chosen every item linked based on actual relevancy, not for financial reasons.