If you find your heating fails to keep temperatures up in chilly weather, I can sympathise. Up until a month ago, I found myself shivering at home; the heating was working overtime but the house never felt warm enough.
I live in a bungalow with some insulation issues, particularly in those rooms that have radiators under the windows. The heat would just go out the back of the wall and we’d be left freezing.
With rising energy bills, I was worried about the cost of the heating struggling to bring rooms up to temperature. I heard about radiator foil – I get served up a lot of household hacks on my social media channels – and decided to give it a go when I knew a particularly cold snap was coming.
For the uninitiated, it’s usually comes as a roll of shiny padded laminated aluminium – think foil-covered bubble wrap – that sits behind the radiator, kept in place with sticky pads. It reflects the heat away from the wall and back into the living space.
In theory, this means much less heat escapes, your rooms stay warmer for longer and the more efficient heating could save money on your bills.
You can buy radiator foil from most hardware stores but I couldn’t get to the shops so picked Blostm radiator insulation foil, the product with the best reviews that I could find on Amazon. I needed to use it on four of my radiators, so I plumped for a 5m x 60cm roll, which says it can cover at least three.
The package arrived the next day (God bless Amazon Prime!) but the first appearances were not promising. The roll didn’t look big enough and it appeared a little flimsy. It’s safe to say I was sceptical.
As there was five metres on the roll, I had to cut it to the size of my radiators. I just held it up against them for guidance – the more precise among you could use a tape measure – and laid it on the bedroom floor to snip.
One thing I did have to check was how to fit it around the brackets. I’ll admit I did look that up on YouTube as it wasn’t covered in the brand’s video.
Note that you need to measure the distance between the brackets and cut slits so that the sheet fits around them. The whole thing took me a matter of minutes and they have stayed in place.
My package didn’t include double-sided sticky pads so to be sure to select that version, which we have featured above.
And what was the result? I could feel the difference immediately. The foil has now been in place for a month and there have been temperatures down to -3 and we have found the house getting up to temperature more quickly and retaining heat longer.
There have been no issues so far; I’ve just put it behind the radiators and forgotten about it. The brand suggests giving it an occasional dusting, but that’s it.
And don’t worry if you have a radiator cover, just unclip it, slip the sheet in behind, stick in place and put the cover back on – plus it doesn’t matter if your cutting is a bit dodgy as nothing will show.
If you have more radiators to cover, Blostm also has 10-metre and 60-metre rolls available in the same width.
My wife who was dismissive at first quickly changed her tune: “It really does work, doesn’t it? It’s much warmer in here,” she said a few hours after install.
While you can do a DIY job with tin foil and cardboard, that is a faff and feels flimsy to me. Yes, the Blostm foil is a bigger initial outlay but the bubble wrap-style sheeting will have more longevity.
It remains to be seen whether we will have saved money on our energy bills but it feels so much more comfortable at home and that’s a big win in my book.
