The winter chill is preparing to take a bite from our bank accounts. Here’s a short list of simple options that will yield the most immediate results. Do your part and put a few, such as insulation, to use in your home today.
save money on energy costs this winter
The winter chill ispreparing to take a bite from our bank accounts. Here’s a short list of simple options that will yield the most immediate results. Do your part and put a few to use in your home today.
Let’s start with one of the simplest ways to keep warm air moving inside your home: Reverse the direction of your ceiling fans. In the colder months, your fan blades should turn in the clockwise direction to force warmer air collecting at the ceiling down toward the floor. You can tell that the blades are turning in the wrong direction for the colder months if you feel a breeze pushing down on you when standing directly under the fan.
A smart place to check for leaks is in your attic. First, make sure the attic door itself is insulated and seals when shut. As for the actual attic space, if you can see the ceiling joists, you probably need more insulation. And, if your fireplace is more ornamental rather than functional, use a chimney plug to prevent warm air from escaping.
Windows and doors are the biggest places where warm air escapes. Use a match or lit candle to search for leaks. If the flame blows out when held next to windowsills or door frames — there’s a problem. Incense sticks serve the same purpose — if the wisps of smoke start moving quickly, you can see where the air flows.
Replacing windows and doors with efficient new ones are your best bet, but it’s also costly.
One alternative is to put up insulating storm windows and doors. You can also use window-insulating kits or heavy drapery to help keep winter drafts from entering your home through windows. And, weather-stripping is an inexpensive solution for filling gaps in door frames. For high-traffic areas, rubber weather-stripping is your best bet.
Don’t forget to keep up with the maintenance of central heating units. Furnaces should be checked each year to make sure they are operating at maximum efficiency and with clean filters. A clogged filter makes the unit work harder, costing more to operate and creating a fire hazard. Another good idea is to check the ductwork in your home to make sure there aren’t any leaks. You can easily fix any that you find with metal-backed tape found at any hardware store.
And finally, if your hot-water heater is located in a cold garage or closet, invest in a water heater insulating blanket. This keeps your unit from having to work so hard to heat the water. Of course, your water heater might come insulated — if it’s always cool to the touch, you don’t need to do anything.
These do-it-yourself jobs can be as big or as little as you want and they all add up to energy and money savings.
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One Response
We are like the cartoon couple illustrations. We each have an arctic sleeping bag we bundle into as we sit and read or watch a DVD movie. Unfortunately we forgot that water pipes link the kitchen taps to the bathroom taps. Because we do not live in the bathroom there is no separate heat source there. During a cold snap last week the interior pipes in the bathroom froze. Yes they were wrapped in insulation but when we limit heat to only the living room there was not enough heat in bathroom to keep the pipes from freezing during -30 teperatures. So now we have to waste energy heating the bathroom or do without water for next six months of winter. ( bummer!)