21 TIPS TO SAVE MONEY ON HOME HEATING BILLS
The typical U.S. family spends close to $1,300 a year on their home's utility bills. Unfortunately, a large portion of that energy is wasted. The amount of energy wasted just through poorly insulated windows and doors is about as much energy as we get from the Alaskan pipeline each year.
Electricity generated by fossil fuels for a single home puts more carbon dioxide into the air than two average cars. By using a few low cost energy efficient ideas, you can reduce your energy bills by 10% to 50%. At the same time, you reduce air pollution.
The key to getting savings is a whole house energy efficiency plan. To take a whole house approach, view your home as an energy system with separate parts.
For example, your heating system is not just a furnace. It is a heat-delivery system that starts at the furnace and delivers heat throughout your home using a network of ducts.
You may have an efficient furnace, but if the ducts leak and are un-insulated, and your walls, attic, windows, and doors are un-insulated, your energy bills will remain high. Taking a whole-house approach to saving energy ensures that dollars you invest in energy efficiency are wisely spent.
Energy saving improvements not only makes your home more comfortable, they can yield long-term money savings. Reduced utility bills, over time, more than make up for the price of energy efficient improvements. In addition, your home will likely have a higher resale value.
These tips shows you how easy it is to reduce your home energy use. They will save you energy and money. In many cases, they will help the environment by reducing pollution and conserving our natural resources.
Money Saving Tips
- Set your thermostat as low as is comfortable in the winter. I recommend 68 degrees during the day and lower at night.
- Clean or replace filters on furnaces once a month or as needed.
- Clean
warm-air registers, baseboard heaters, and radiators as needed. Make sure
they're not blocked by furniture, carpeting, or drapes.
- Bleed trapped air from
hot-water radiators once or twice a season. If in doubt about how to perform
this task, call a professional.
- Place heat-resistant radiator reflectors
between exterior walls and the radiators.
- Use kitchen, bath, and other
ventilating fans wisely. In just one hour, these fans can pull out a houseful
of warmed air. Turn fans off as soon as they have done the job.
- Close an
unoccupied room that is isolated from the rest of the house. An unused corner
bedroom is a good one to close off. Turn down the thermostat or turn off the
heating for that room or zone. However, do not turn the heating off if you heat
your house with a heat pump. Closing the vents could harm the heat pump
- On a windy day, hold a lit incense stick next to your
windows, doors, electrical boxes, plumbing fixtures, electrical outlets,
ceiling fixtures, attic hatches, and other locations where there is a possible
air path to the outside. If the smoke blows in or out from the wall, you have
located an air leak that may need caulking, sealing, or weather-stripping
- Caulk
and weather-strip doors and windows that leak air.
- Caulk and seal air leaks
where plumbing, ducting, or electrical wiring penetrates through exterior
walls, floors, ceilings, and soffits over cabinets.
- Install rubber gaskets
behind outlet and switch plates on exterior and interior walls.
- Look for dirty
spots in your attic insulation. They often indicate holes where air leaks into and
out of your house. You can seal the holes by stapling sheets of plastic over
the holes and caulking the edges of the plastic. Or, use a can of spray
insulation foam to fill and seal the gaps.
- When the fireplace is not in use,
keep the flue damper tightly closed. A chimney is designed specifically for warm
smoke to escape, so until you close it, warm air escapes—24 hours a day!
- New windows should be double-pane windows with
low-e coating on the glass reflect heat back into the room during the winter
months.
- Install storm windows over single-pane windows or replace them with
double-pane windows. Storm windows as much as double the R-value of single-pane
windows and they can help reduce drafts. They also can stop water condensation,
and frost formation.
- As a less costly and less permanent alternative, you can
use a clear plastic sheet on a frame or tape clear plastic film to the inside
of your window frames during the cold winter months. Leave the bottom edge of
the plastic sheet loose so moisture can get out stopping the window from
fogging.
- Storm windows should have weather-stripping at all movable joints.
Repair and weatherize your storm windows, if necessary.
- Install tight-fitting,
insulating window shades on windows that feel drafty after weatherizing. Better
yet, make window quilts for your windows.
- During the heating season, keep the
draperies and shades on your south-facing windows open during the day to allow
sunlight to enter your home and closed at night to reduce the chill from cold
windows.
- Keep windows on the south side of your house clean to maximize solar heat
gain.
- Deflect cold winter
winds by planting evergreen trees and shrubs on the north and west sides of
your house.
Click here for a free money saving report written by the Energy Boomer titled HOW SAVE MONEY ON YOUR NEXT HEATING BILL
Related Posts:
EASY ADD ON STORM WINDOWS FROM THE INSIDE
HOW TO MAKE ENERGY SAVING WINDOW QUILTS
Weather-strip now to Save on Your Heating Bill
HOW TO SAVE ENERGY WITH A DOOR SWEEP
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