Save Money While Heating Your Home this Winter with these Energy-Saving Tips
Chilly days and nights are on their way and will require the furnace. However, don’t turn it way up just to stay warm. That’s an expensive way to heat your home. By engaging in some home maintenance and being strategic with some activities, you can keep warm and keep your heating bills affordable at the same time.
Some great money-saving tips are to have a heating system tune-up, switch to a tankless water heater and install a programmable thermostat. Here are some more to add to your list:
Caulk Window Seals
You’ve got to close the gaps around the windows in order to keep the costly warm air inside. Inspect all of your windows to see if any need attention.
Also check out your doors, because their seals can come loose as well. Sometimes the home’s foundation shifts and the doorways may not sit level in their frames. You can even this out by putting in weather-stripping.
Another way to block those drafts is with a draft snake. You can fill a sock with dried beans and place it against the door or the window.
Insulate the Windows
It can be effective to seal up storm windows if you find you experience a lot of drafts. If you really want to be airtight with your windows, use film insulation.
Widely available at hardware stores and easy to install, window film drastically reduces heat loss. To install, simply tape the film on the window frame and use heat (preferably a hairdryer) to mold it in place.
To block heat loss, even more, hang insulated drapes on your windows. Leave them closed all night and take advantage of the natural heat during the day. The same goes for solar shades, which harness the power of the sun to heat your rooms, reducing the need for the furnace.
Reverse Ceiling Fan Direction
No doubt you run the ceiling fan in the Las Vegas, NV in the high heat of summer to try to stay cool, so that you don’t have to run the A/C as hard.
The same principle applies to your ceiling fans in the winter. You just simply change the direction from counterclockwise in the summer to clockwise in the winter.
Hot air rises, so running the fan will pull air upwards and then force it back down through the room. You can expect to cut your heating bills quite a bit by adopting this habit.
