The tips were shared by the official TikTok for the American Red Cross, which shares a number of useful hacks on the account @americanredcross. Many across the UK and the world will be cold this winter, how can they stay warm?
The Red Cross shared a number of tips in the video, which has 67.7K views. They suggested using a towel to block out the bottom of doors, where drafts can come in. Stay warm if your power goes out this winter by placing towels around doors to keep cold drafts out,” the charity said. It also suggested keeping doors closed to keep rooms warm.
The Red Cross said: “Keep the heat you do have from the rooms you aren’t using by shutting the doors to them. You can also shut your blinds or curtains.”
The charity added: “Remember to wear layers stay hydrated and to never use your oven as a heat source.” But why should you not use your oven for heating?
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Why shouldn’t you use your oven to heat your house?
It is not safe to use your oven to heat your house if you have a gas oven because it will release carbon monoxide into the home, which can be harmful. This can make conditions such as asthma worse.
In fact, over time carbon monoxide poisoning can be fatal. If this weren’t enough, using an oven to heat a home is ineffective and possibly more expensive than heating.
So what about trying it with an electric oven? This is not so dangerous, but it still is not advised.
Firstly, it will not be effective to heat a large space. What’s more, it would cost more to heat a small space with an electric oven than a small space heater, which will be much better at keeping you toasty.
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Keeping an electric oven on for a long period of time could cause it to break, overheat, or otherwise malfunction. It could even start a fire, so be careful.
Commenters offered their own advice to stay warm in the comments. One, Heather, said: “I take old towels and wedge them tightly between door and frame, and also same can be done with black contractor bags.”
Ryan Mulvihill said: “What my dad has done is he has bought the child-proof plugs for our plugs sockets that on walls facing outside to keep heat in.”
Mia said, “Put aluminium foil behind your radiator to reflect the heat back into the room,” while another said, “I use tape on windows.”
Red Cross’s tips to stay warm
- Place towels around doors to block out drafts
- Keep heat in by closing off unsued rooms
- Close your blinds or curtains
- Wear layers in the home
- Stay hydrated
Another woman shared her “free heat” hack to stay warm, which converts claim can make your room feel like 20C. She advises sitting by the windows in your house on a sunny day to benefit from heat without turning the heating.
She said: “I’m going to drag myself up a chair and I’m going to sit in this little sunny spot and take full advantage of the free heat in my house because it actually likes it’s about 20C sat here and I can feel the sun immediately warming my arms.”
