As the weather drops, we all start asking ourselves: "Is it time to put the heating on?" And after months of not needing it, it's also when you might realize that your heating isn't doing as efficient a job as it was the year before.

I should know, my husband's a heating engineer and it's around the same time each year that his phone doesn't stop ringing with people wanting to know why their house isn't warming up like it used to.

But, before you call in a professional, there's a few things you can do around your home to make sure your property isn't losing heat – and they're pretty simple to do and fairly inexpensive. Add in the fact that you could also be saving yourself money on heating bills in the long term and this should become part of your fall/winter routine.

As Kaitlin Wood, Senior Category Manager for Bathrooms, Plumbing, Heating and Renewables at Travis Perkins says: "Homeowners often focus on their boiler or thermostat when preparing for winter, but heat can also escape through small gaps and poorly insulated areas around the property."

And one really important place to check is your windows. Fortunately, you can do so with just a simple strip of paper. All you have to do is place it between an open window and its frame before closing the window and locking it. If you can remove the paper once it's closed with little resistance, there's clearly an issue with the seal around the window.

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