Woman's Poundland warm home trick has seen her 'live without heating for years'

17 October 2023 , 11:31

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The TikToker said she puts bricks in the oven - but people have been warned this could be unsafe (Image: Getty Images)

A woman who claims to have lived without heating for four years – saving thousands of pounds – has shared some tricks that could also help others as the weather turns colder and people look for ways to stay warm.

TikToker Klaire de Lys said she has a unique trip for anyone who is trying to use "as little electricity as possible" as energy bills leave Brits out of pocket. She told her followers that putting bricks in your oven, on top of a cheap tray such as a Poundland one, can help you stay warm for a little longer.

She explained that bricks retain heat from the oven, which means that you can then use them to keep warm air circulating around your house. However, Klaire did warn that you should use only bricks and not just any old rocks as they could explode.

Sharing her tip with viewers, she said: "Today's video is another tip on how to stay warm if you're using as little electricity as possible. And one of the things that I do every winter is, whenever I'm cooking in the oven - or at least just at the beginning of winter - what I do is I get three bricks and I put them up on a stand like this."

Klaire then showed three bricks sitting in her oven, on top of a small wire baking tray. She continued: "You want to use bricks, don't use stone and don't use rocks. And the reason I say this is that some stones and rocks, especially if they're near a riverbed, can be very porous and they will have absorbed a lot of water.

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"And when you put them in the oven, and if they heat up too fast and too quickly, they can actually explode. So, don't just use any rock that you found in the garden; use bricks, try and let them dry out first before you put them in the oven and also put them on a tray like what you saw I used in the oven."

She said that she uses a wire cookie tray, which can be purchased from Poundland, reports BristolLive. "They're not expensive", Klaire added. The TikToker explained that she put the bricks in the oven when she cooked and then she opened the oven's door and the bricks still radiated heat.

She added: "They're going to keep that heat a lot longer than the actual oven is, because the oven loses its heat pretty quickly but the bricks don't. So, it might only be an extra 15 or 20 minutes of heat radiating out, but when you don't have any kind of central heating those 15 and 20 minutes make a huge, huge difference."

Some people praised Klaire after she posted with video with one saying: "That's a good idea." One more commented: "Clever idea. No heating in my kitchen so will come in handy. Thanks!"

But her trick raised some eyebrows too, with some warning that since energy is used to heat the bricks, people are not actually saving money. One wrote: "The additional mass in the oven means the oven has to work harder to get up to temp. Surely costing more?" Another added: "This is not free heat guys, it will take you longer to cook your food and cost you more, this is not cost-efficient."

Some users offered their own suggestions on better ways to save money, considering that the trick can be dangerous if you do not use the right type of brick. "Make a huge pot of soup for the week, and just add ingredients through the week. The bigger the pot, the longer it continues to heat and humidify", said one user. While another suggested: "If you have a bathtub, especially a cast iron tub, and you take a bath, don't drain the water til it reaches room temperature, it will radiate heat."

Emma Grimshaw