TEMPERATURES are plummetting as Brits are bracing for winter, and some are racing to whack the heating up.

Many of us are wondering how to keep our homes warm, without breaking the bank, but leaving the radiator on all day isn't the answer.

There are a number of things you can do to reduce your bills, especially as Brits are facing hiked bills amid the current energy crisis, and colder months looming.

Insulation is one way to save HUNDREDS off your energy bill, and it's something you can do from as little as £3.

But, it doesn't matter how good your insulation is, a certain amount of energy is constantly leaking from your home.

If you have the heating on all day, you're constantly using energy trying to replace that lost heat, which leads to higher bills.

In some cases people are overpaying on their heating bills by as much as £246.

So while it might be more expensive in the short term to heat your home up from scratch every time you're in the house, in the long run you'll save money.

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Energy experts lke comparison site Uswitch recommend using a thermostat or timer to make sure that your home is only warm when you need it to be.

There are steps you can take room by room in your home to lower costs, and you'll notice major savings on your bill without having to break the bank, so long as you focus where the spends need to go.

It's a good idea to hone in on areas in your house to see where you can aford to turn a number of things off, or budget where yoy will need to spend on heating.

Using your boiler timer and room thermostat in combination with radiator temperature controls (TRVs), is thought to be the most energy-efficient approach to heating your home.

A thermostatic radiator valve will allow you to control the temperature of your individual radiators, so you can turn down the heat in rooms you are not using too.

This could save you as much as £75 a year Uswitch told The Sun.

Setting them to a lower setting uses less energy and so will save you money too.

You can usually access smart heating controls, if you have them, remotely too, making it easier to control your usage.

You can also play around with timing controls so the heating will come on automatically and you don't have to worry about when and if you remembered to turn it iff again.

If your home isn't insulated though, your house has to work harder to make up the difference in temperature.

What about my pet being left at home?

What should you do though if you own a pet, and are worried they’ll suffer in a freezing cold home while you’re away?

The Energy Saving Trust has said before that it could cost pet owners £140 extra each year for energy bills.

As a more cost-effective alternative, the trust suggested pet owners could use smart thermostats, to control the temperature via a smartphone app when not at home.

Or if you keep them refined to certain areas of the house while you're away with a safety gate or such, you can make sure just these rooms are heated using radiator controls.

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