Keep Your House Warm in the Winter
I love the change of seasons, but one thing I do not care the cost of heating during the colder months of the year. It pains me to know that my friends and family members are writing that big check every month, especially when I think about how much the energy companies are profiting from payments being made by people who are just barely getting by.
But even for those who are still on the grid and are dependent on those companies to provide the heat they need, there are a number of easy steps that can be taken to reduce the monthly heating bill. All of them will mean more money in your bank account and less money in the hands of the fat cat power companies.
Here are seven actions you can start taking right away to reduce your heating bill during the colder months, even if you have an older home:
Capture the sun. Even if it’s cold outside, the sun still generates heat, so on sunny days allow as much of it as possible to enter your home and warm it up naturally by keeping blinds and curtains open. Closing them when the sun goes down will help keep some of that heat inside.
Install ceiling fans with winter settings. A clockwise spinning fan will push warm air back down so that it doesn’t gather near your ceilings. This is especially important if you have high or sloped ceilings.
Clear your vents. Make sure that nothing – including furniture, clothes, toys, etc. – is blocking a vent and keeping warm air from entering a room. If you have a seldom used room, close its vents and keep the door shut as well.
Be careful with space heaters. These are great for temporarily warming up a room, but they account for one-third of heating related house fires. Keep flammable material away from them and don’t leave them running when you leave the house.
Limit your fireplace usage. Sitting near a roaring fireplace in the winter can be fun and even romantic, but it also allows plenty of warm air to escape from your home. And, of course, keep the flue closed when the fireplace is not in use.
Dress in layers. It’s just as important to keep yourself warm as it is to keep the house warm. If you dress appropriately, you can probably lower your thermostat a couple of degrees.
Bake and broil. While you shouldn’t count on your oven for heat in the winter, it does warm the house somewhat, so spend some of your time baking and broiling to help provide some heat for your home.
What strategies do you use to help keep your home warmer in the winter? Please share them.
I run my electronic water distiller in the house to add moisture and heat in the house when it is cold.
Our 1970 era home has cathedral ceiling in the living room and cable ceiling electric heat throughout. Talk about inefficient! We installed a gas fireplace insert with a blower. By keeping the unused rooms closed we quickly and comfortably heat the areas we use. Cost is MUCH less than using that cable heat..
Have a Fuego fireplace installed. It operates in an entirely different manner than the traditional fireplace.and warms your entire house.
WE have used wood burning stove for ten years now, with great results. Our home is 2050 sq feet, single story. The stove is a wood burning stove, that takes enough wood to last through a night. We also use a heat operated fan, sitting on top of the stove, that automatically pumps the heated air down the hallways to the bedrooms. No power required. During a power outage, we can stay just as warm as we wish with the combination. It does require a small camp fire type coffee pot, to humidify the house, but as with the heating fan, the humidity is maintained using he heat from the wood stove. We can use the top of the wood stove to cook as well, It seems to be the perfect arrangement for us. By the way, we live on the northernmost border in the state of Washington at the base of some mountains.
Another hint comes from the old Whole Earth catalog — which no doubt dates me.
Movable insulation, of which the simplest form is a piece of R-Max (stiff foam insulation board), cut to fit the inside of your window opening. Make it a slightly stiff force-fit, then cover the edges with duct tape to keep it from wearing out from use. Use these after the sun goes down on as many windows as you can handle, and perhaps leave some in 24/7 for windows not needed for light during the day.
You can decorate these window screens with a piece of fabric or paint, if desired, but it raises that window opening’s insulation value from R-1 to about the same as your walls. It also stops drafts & leaks from that window area For storage when not in use, you can use duct-tape hinges and fold them into halves or thirds for convenience.
Windows are a giant hole for heat to leak out. Stop it where you can, even if it’s just overnight. And if you use a fireplace insert or other similar heating unit, remember to keep a pan or other container on top, filled with water. The extra humidity makes it seem several degrees warmer.
Dependng on the availability of wood — either your own, or cheap local firewood — a used fireplace insert might save you some bucks, too. They are far more efficient than fireplaces, even with glass doors or other devices that increase fireplace efficiency, and can often be found for $150-250, used, especially during the warm months. If they need work, often it’s only a $30 fan, or simply fixing a crack in the metal. Cracks are easy — just putty them over with furnace cement, which usually works for at least 5 years before needing another fill. Before you buy any brand, check online to see if parts are still readily available. Usually they are. Two I’ve had great success with: Black Bart and Treemont. Be sure to replace worn door gaskets to maximize efficiency, and avoid the newer units that have catalytic converters. After 12 years, we get through a Virginia Winter for 5 to 6 cords of hardwood, depending on the severity of that winter. At $150 a cord, that’s a lot cheaper than those in my area with oil or gas furnaces, and the only maintenance is a yearly chimney cleaning — which you can easily do yourselkf.
Also, only tangentially related, make certain you have adequate roof ventilation. A lot of houses built back in the 50s or 60s have NOTHING other than vents at either end of the roof, which means you’ll be replacing a lot of plywood when your rood=f inevitably goes bad — and that lack of insulationis often WHY your roof goes bad in the first place. Most modern roofers incorporate ridge vents to get rid of the hot air that builds up in the attic, but ignore the soffit vents that MUST be there to keep the airflow correct, After a bit of research I discovered that my roofers had ignored the roofing manufacturer’s guidelines and (if i hadn’t caught them) I’d have only had 20% of what is required for minimum soffit vents. Not sure about yout venting? Google it, and see if your current roof is likely to die on you years too early. You can always add soffit vents, very cheap0ly.
There are several ways of heating your home and save money in doing so.
1.) Make sure that the insulation in your attic/roof, depending your location and house, is adequately rated for your area and installed properly to your climate temperature needs. For example homes in the South and West usually don’t require heavy insulation to keep heat in. However, it may be the opposite for cooling a home.
2.) Make sure all cracks are filled or repaired properly. Nothing worst that heating the outside or have a major draft within your home.
3.) Double pane windows, solid doors, and storm doors help isolate the home from the outside environment. Check the eaves outside your home for any holes or damage that may affect your home. This includes cleaning your gutters. Anything that allows water to freeze on your home will allow the frozen water to expand and leak into and inside your home making your home colder and harder to keep warm. While you are at it check on your roof for any missing sheets or shingles for the same reason.
4.) Remember, the sun rises in the East and sets in the West. This means early in the morning you should have all your shades and curtains open to let the sun in. The rest of the house should have the curtains drawn until the sun reaches that part of the home. By keeping rooms that are not in use and you expect that they will not be in use throughout the day or night – just keep the door shut unless it is a very sunny room and you need it to warm up the home. As the sun goes from the East to the West then open the windows on the West side of the home and close the curtains and shades on the East side of the home. About an hour before the sun goes down close off the West side of the house too. This will keep the heat in until you go to bed. I know it sounds so complicated, but, if you do this out of habit you will find that you are saving a lot of money while staying warm.
5.) Insulating curtains are the curtains that you should be using. These curtains keep the heat or cold inside the home. They act as an added buffer between you and the outside.
6.) As the sun goes down isolate the rooms in your home that are not needed or in use. If not in use close the door, just as you would turn off a light when not in use. If you find yourself in a room alone then you can use a candle to keep the room warm and friendly. Also dressing warmly will keep you nice and toasty too. You can also keep the thermostat to 65 – 68 degrees F. This way if it becomes unusually cold in your home the heat from the day will still keep your home warm enough to use little energy to stay warm until you go to bed.
By following this routine you will find that you will not only stay warm; but, it won’t hurt you in the pocketbook so badly. I had to prove it to my wife and now she is a believer and so will you.
You forgot the easiest one, or I didn’t see it. I vent the dryer inside so I can utilize the humidity and heat from it in the winter, in the summer I dry my clothes on the line under the roof of my deck They have special vents at the hardware store that allow you to open them to the house or the outside as you wish.
If you are going to use the dryer exhaust to heat your house during the winter which I do, there is one very important thing to remember. You can only do this with an electric dryer. If you have a gas dryer you must vent it to the outside because it is the only way it vents the carbon monoxide and burned gases it creates during the drying process. It states this in the manual for the gas dryers. Be careful stay warm this winter.
All of these are great suggestions. If you really want to use the fireplace, install glass doors. This will prevent most of the household air from being sucked up the chimney. While you’re at it, you can get a fireplace blower installed where it takes the heated air in the coils/tubes and blows it into the room. Using the plastic window film that is stretched across your windows is also a good option. Ceiling fans on a flat ceiling should be switched so that it blows the air up and carries the heat from the ceiling and washes down the walls. Reverse it in the summertime.
If you can buy some hay or straw bales, place them along your foundation and covering your basement windows will keep the wind from penetrating even the smallest crack. You’ll lose the light from the windows but you’ll appreciate the lower heating bill.
Check the fit of your storm doors, if you have them. You shouldn’t see light coming through the edges. Weather stripping will take care of the air infiltration. While you’re at it, check the caulking and weather stripping around all the windows of your house. Check the insulation in the attic, walls and garage (if attached). Invest a bit of time in the fall and you’ll benefit with a cozier home all winter.
We use wood heater to heat whole home since 1979. Was using propane gas heater before but took it out. Installed what I call a ” space blanket ” in attic above R30 insulation, walls have R30 also, 2100 sq ft home. This space blanket covers all of attic above all ceiling. When I seen test of space blanket using a heat bulb, space blanket was placed on my hand palm up and large heat bulb turned on and placed on space blanket in my hand. I was holding bulb so it would not fall with same hand and ” did not feel any heat at all ” so I have space blanket in my ceiling. Replaced 12 yr old AC with heat pump in 2012, power bill when down 40% and yes heat pump will make heat if wife does not put wood in heater, replacing light bulbs with LEDs have seen $10 drop in power bill so far, about 1/2 finished replacing bulbs. Double pane windows help too. Have not did any thing to doors, front or back or side because we do need a little air flow for heater to work right. Heater wood size max length 22″ if filled up at 11 pm with temps outside of about 25* we are not cold all night. Oh and no heat blanket on bed. —- Oh Frank did I send you pictures of my firewood stacks ??? I did send canning pictures —