With winter starting to make its presence felt, temperatures outside are falling but unfortunately remain stubbornly high. There are numerous ways to save a bit of extra cash on your energy bills this winter if you are worried about the cost over the cold season.

There are all sorts of strange tips and bits of folklore about keeping warm in winter, from painting your radiators black to putting tea lights inside plant pots. In response to these claim ’ team at the Money Saving Expert website put togetherof heating myths to bust.

Interestingly one of the commonly recommended heating hacks they said actually worked was using radiator panels to keep heat in. “Radiator panels can save energy, but not very much,” the team said. “It's more important that your walls are insulated, to prevent the heat leaking out of your home altogether.”

“As for putting reflective panels behind radiators, yes, the Energy Saving Trust agrees that these could help cut energy use,” they added. “They reflect heat from the radiator back into the room, so it doesn't escape through external walls. The trust says homes with uninsulated walls will get most benefit.”

As well as putting reflective panels behind radiators, Brits also like to switch to thicker duvets and bleed the radiators to try and keep warm as we head into winter. In a piece of research commissioned by Ofgem the energy regulator asked 2,049 Brits how they got ready for the winter season.

Top of the ‘winter rituals’ list is swapping to thicker duvets (47%) while practical energy saving actions such as bleeding radiators (27%), and buying draft excluders (10%) also featured in answers. Adjusting heating systems (e.g. swapping air conditioning/fans for heating) was something 34% of respondents said they did in preparation for winter while setting times on lamps and lights around the house came in at number 10.