When you’re feeling under the weather, the warmth of your home can play a crucial role in your recovery. Not only does a cosy environment provide the comfort you need, but it also helps your body focus on healing.
Below, we’ll explore why keeping your home warm is essential when you’re sick, how warm your house should be, and practical tips to maintain warmth efficiently using your radiators.
Should I Keep My Body Warm When Sick?
Depending on the illness, keeping your body as warm as possible when sick can be vital. When your body fights off illness, it uses extra energy, and maintaining warmth helps conserve this energy for recovery. Wrapping up in layers of clothing or blankets helps retain body heat, reducing the strain on your immune system.
Staying warm can also alleviate symptoms such as shivering and muscle aches, making you feel much more comfortable. It’s essential to listen to your body and adjust your clothing and environment to maintain a consistent and comfortable warmth. This is where your radiators can really help ensure you stay at a good temperature.
How Warm Should Your House Be?
Maintaining the right indoor temperature is crucial when you’re unwell, so the NHS recommends keeping your home at a minimum of 18°C to ensure a comfortable and health-promoting environment.
This temperature helps your body conserve energy, which it can then use to fight off illness. If you feel colder, don’t hesitate to wrap yourself in extra blankets or even use a heating pad to provide additional warmth. Ensuring that your home remains consistently warm can prevent sudden chills and help maintain your body’s optimal temperature for recovery.
How To Keep Warm When Sick
Use Central Heating Efficiently
Your central heating is one the most effective and easiest ways to keep your home warm, and it doesn’t have to be expensive to do so. If you have good insulation in your home and address any issues with heat loss such as from draughts, you can ensure your home stays warm for longer without having the heating on for prolonged periods.
Investing in energy-efficient radiators, such as those we have here at Stelrad, can significantly reduce your heating expenses too, especially if you have older radiators that require an upgrade. Our radiators are designed to provide optimal warmth while consuming less energy, making them an excellent choice for maintaining a cosy home environment for less.
Using TRVs will also ensure you can turn off the radiators you don’t need to use, so if you are feeling unwell, you can ensure the living room or bedroom radiators are at a good temperature, for example, whilst other rooms are not wasting energy.
Blankets, Layers, and Closing the Curtains
As well as your central heating working efficiently to warm your home, you can also help yourself to feel warmer by using blankets and layering up clothing.
Layering blankets on your bed or sofa provides extra insulation, ensuring you stay warm, whilst closing the curtains helps retain heat by preventing it from escaping through windows. Thick, thermal curtains are especially effective at keeping the cold out and the warmth in, creating a snug environment for you to rest and recover.
If you don’t want to keep the heating on for too long, wearing layers is always a good idea. Look to wearing a few thin layers rather than one thick layer as this can help retain heat. Staying in bed when feeling ill is always recommended if you have a good duvet that keeps the cold out.
Electric Heaters & Indoor Fires
If you have a fireplace, consider lighting a fire. A fireplace can be an excellent source of additional heat, creating a warm and inviting atmosphere that avoids the need to use your central heating. Before you do, ensure that your fireplace is safe to use, or use an electric heater instead if you don’t have a fireplace.
The ambience of a crackling fire can also provide psychological comfort, making you feel more at ease as you recover from your illness. As long as you stay safe and your chimney is well-ventilated and maintained, this is a good alternative. If you are using an electric heater, these can be more expensive to run for prolonged periods compared to your central heating. We have suitable electric radiators that can be used independently from your central heating if you prefer this option.
Contact Us For Help With Choosing Radiators
Keeping your home warm when you’re feeling sick will certainly make you feel better. The last thing you want is to feel cold when trying to recover, so by maintaining an ideal indoor temperature and using energy-efficient heating solutions, you can be back to good health in no time.
If you have any questions or need more information about keeping your home warm, don’t hesitate to contact us. At Stelrad, we are here to help you create a comfortable and energy-efficient home all year round. Browse our radiator range to learn more. and if you have any questions, please ask.
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