I am always looking for different ways to save money and with the cold weather here, the heater seems to be running all the time. This means that once again it is time to start figuring out ways to save on heat, aka electricity in our house.
Ways to Save on Heat
- Plastic the windows – these window kits
are relatively simply to use and people couldn’t even tell I had plastic on them until I pointed it out.
- Buy a Programmable Thermostat
set it for when you are home, night, work, etc.
- Put draft catchers at all doors that don’t seal well along the bottom –Draft Stopper (cheap)
Draft Stopper (pretty)Draft Stopper DIY
- Add area rugs to wooden floors to help insulate between a basement and first floor.
- Lower your temperature at night and layer up.
- Lower the temperature by a few degrees in the house and add a warm layer and slippers for the day.
- If you use one room most of the time, keep the heat down and use a space heater to just heat that space.
- Make sure windows and doors are sealed well around the edges.
- Open blinds/curtains on a sunny day.
- Change or clean your furnace filter
- Close vents and doors in unused rooms – we actually shut the vents to the upstairs bedrooms most of the time to keep the heat from blowing up stairs while we are downstairs all day.
- After using the oven, open it a crack to let the heat escape into the house. Every little bit counts, right?
- Run ceiling fans on low in a clockwise direction to direct the warm air away from the ceiling.
- If you own your home make sure it is well insulated
- Replace an old furnace with an energy efficient furnace (Again, if you own your home.)
What are some ways you save on heat?
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Great tips! We always keep the heat down at night (and I usually wake up sweating anyway – must be pre-post menopause – ha!)
Living in AZ we are the opposite. 🙂 During the winter we get a break from the electricity bill but during the summer we get hit with a huge bill from the air conditioning. We do some of the tips you mentioned already but just the opposite way around like closing the vents and doors to rooms that we don’t use often; keeping the windows and blinds closed during the day; NOT (lord have mercy!) using the oven and cooking on the grill outside; and spending most time in the rooms that are naturally the coolest and running a ceiling fan.
We also have a large tree on the southwest facing part of the house (which gets the intense afternoon sun the worst) to help shade that part of the house. Lastly, we installed sunshade screens. They are screens which are darker and designed to provide air flow but also to block the sun(and heat) away from the windows.
Thanks for the post on frugal resolutions! We are going to try a few tips starting with cutting gas by planning trips better. 🙂
Thank you so much for your great tips!