OF ALL the elements in your home to blame on rising energy costs, it could be your SOFA that's pushing up bills.
If the living room staple is in the wrong place then it's going to mean you fork out a lot more than you need to on your heating.
Which is the worst thing anyone could face right now as energy bills continue to climb.
Households have already been clobbered with rocketing costs as bills shot up by almost £700 last month.
Regulator Ofgem has warned that bills could hit £2,800 in October, adding yet ANOTHER £800 to families' tariffs.
There's a simple fix that could see you save a huge chunk of money the next time a bill comes through the door though.
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You need to move your sofa away from the radiator.
This is because the large piece of furniture is soaking up all the precious heat that your forking out for every month.
Uswitch energy expert Will Owen said: "It’s always advisable to keep your radiators as free from obstruction as possible.
"Objects that are in the way can absorb some of the heat from your radiator, costing you more money – and one of the biggest culprits for this is the sofa."
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The heat should be circulating around the room to fill the space with warmth quickly – which would mean you get to switch off the temperature sooner, stopping the pennies on your bill stacking up.
Instead your sofa is acting like a barricade, blocking hot air from moving around.
This could see you leave your heating on for longer or turn it up to compensate.
And anything that stops your heating system from running efficiently will only be costing you more in energy bills.
If you place the sofa, an armchair, or any furniture in front of your radiator, it stops it from working as effectively as it should.
That could add an EXTRA £114 a year on to your bills.
But moving the lumbersome furniture and you could stand to save over £100 on your tariff.
It's not the only way your radiator could be pushing up costs though.
Many people go into autopilot mode when the weather gets colder, and instantly turn up the heating to battle nippier temperatures.
Most households will regularly set their thermostat above 22°C, but that's higher than you need.
Turn the temperature down by just one degree and you could reduce your bills and potentially save over £100 a year.
You can also get creative with DIY hacks like putting foil behind the radiator to reflect heat back into the room.
In just the same way that your sofa may be sucking up all the good heat expelled from the radiator, a wall behind it will also take a big chunk of the energy generated.
Nobody is hugging the wall for warmth though, so if you redirect the direction heat is escaping from you can warm up the room much quicker and more efficiently.
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You can also save as much as £400 just by pulling on a jumper instead of reaching for the temperature gauge.
And it's a good idea to plug up gaps in your home letting in any nasty draughts – they only cost as little as £3 to install and will keep your toasty and stop you wasting energy on escaped hot air.
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