This winter don’t let your heating bill be a fear factor. Use these 7 Ways To Save On Your Heating Bill to help cut back on winter expenses. Not only will you still be warm, you’ll find your budget is a lot easier to handle in the colder months.
Use Wood Heat: If your home already has a fireplace, take advantage of the lower cost of wood heat. Cut your own firewood or trade with neighbors and family. Using wood heat takes a little more work, but is well worth the savings on your utility bills.
Cover Your Windows: While mini blinds, or fashionable curtains may be your preference, winter months with cold temperatures mean it may be time to go a step further and cover your windows. That doesn’t mean boarding them up. It simply means adding a thicker curtain you keep closed at all times, or even covering with heavy blankets or quilts if there are drafts.
Seal Windows & Doors: Weather stripping and sealant go a long way toward keeping cold air out of your home. A few dollars at a hardware store and an afternoon going from window to window can save you tons of money since your heat unit won’t be working overtime to compensate for the cool draft coming in.
Shut Vents & Doors To Rooms Not In Use: If you have spare rooms, guest rooms, storage rooms or craft rooms that aren’t used on a daily basis, shut the vents off and shut the doors. The heat will direct on to the next vent/room in the house and you won’t be needlessly heating a room you aren’t using.
Dress Warmer: While this may seem a given, many people come home and immediately strip off their layers for comfy pajamas that may not provide much warmth. Invest in some nice flannel lounge wear, double up on shirts and socks and don’t hesitate to wrap up in a blanket while snuggling on the couch. Keeping your heat setting around 65-68 in winter months is not unacceptable when you choose to dress warmer.
Use Area Rugs: If your home has tile or wooden floors, you are much more likely to feel the cold on your feet. Invest in some nice area rugs to cover the areas you spend the most time in. This will protect your feet from the cold and insulate the floor against drafts flowing underneath your home as well.
Add Extra Insulation: Many older homes simply don’t have enough insulation in the walls and attic. While you don’t want to rip down walls to add new insulation, you can invest in new or upgraded insulation in your attic. This will help protect your home from the elements, and the one time investment is something that will save money in the long run. Many people can even suit up and install this on their own easily saving money on a serviceman doing it for them.
Utilizing some simple ways to save on your heating bill this winter will help reduce your financial stress as well as emotional stress this winter. Rather than worrying about how you will pay your heating bill, you can enjoy the beautiful snow and winter weather with your family.
How do you save on your heating bill?
We cover our windows. We have an old house and the windows are drafty!
Area rugs are smart and that is something we do not have enough of! We have floor heater and bundle up. .I love it!
I do some of these already but will several of these ideas like putting plastic on the windows and definitely be getting more area rugs. The hardwood floors freeze my feet!
These are such great tips. It’s amazing how quickly heating bills can rise in the winter.
Great tips. I stayed in an older home and we would put tape around our windows for extra insulation.
Years ago we had the county weatherization program come out and winterize our house. It was so helpful. We did get new windows put in but I think it made it worse cause the windows didn’t fit really well in the old , odd farmhouse windows. So we have these spots where they hammered in extra wood to make them fit. It looks awful. We have forced air, hot water heat and it’s so sticking hard to control. Its either super hot you suffocate or its freezing. There is no comfortable meeting in the middle.
These are great tips. Area rugs are especially good if you’ve got a basement. It keeps the cooler air from making its way up to the rest of your living space so easily.
Great tips that I will be passing around. Going to make sure windows are sealed too
We always turn the heat down when we are not there during the day.
I have the same thermometer in my two bedroom apartment they new owners finally installed a digital one.
I need to close off some rooms as you suggest and get that heat to go where I want it! I also need to cover my windows and seal off the drafts.
We are looking into a woodburning fireplace. It is going to be a pricey undertaking but I think worth it.
These are some great ways to save on your heating bill. I know our bill always goes up in the winter.
Great ideas! We live in Florida, so we don’t hardly ever even turn ours on. But lots of these would work for saving on the AC bill!
We’ve invested in a few extra blankets. Our bill was outrageous last year! I am thinking of even lowing the temp a bit more and buying an electric blanket too!
I have never sealed windows but I think that would be really helpful where we are living now! I am going to have to do it soon too. We are supposed to get snow this weekend.
I am not going to lie my heat is blasting right now on 80 but I like to heat my house up for a couple of hours and then I turn it all the way down and the heat last for awhile. Great tips.
Such good tips, I surely need to do my best to save on my heating bills this year!
Great tips! Sometimes our heating bill can be a real shock!
Thank you for these tips. I have looked for ways to cut our heating bills.
Awesome tips to save heating bill. I think adding an extra insulation is a great idea as it is going to be an one-time investment. Other than that wood heating is the cheaper solution as well.
This year we are in a new house. I have been trying to get it ready for winter making sure all the windows have a good seal. I also put insulation in my chimney because we can not use the fireplace.
My mom would seal off parts of the home that weren’t in use.
I didn’t know all of these actually. Thank you for sharing (and I’m off to buy some area rugs!).
awesome tips to save on heating bill 🙂
Great tips! We do most of these, but I didn’t think about area rugs helping so much. I’ll have to get more.