KEEPING WARM THIS WINTER

These are all common sense, but since the temperatures were recently  hovering around 0°F, yes ZERO , I thought it might be a good time for a little refresher with respect to keeping our home warm without breaking the piggy bank!

What can be done that costs nothing but time?

• Block that drafty door!  This can easily be prevented by just laying a towel along the bottom.  
• Cover up those windows with drapes. Yes, it will be dark, but it will keep the drafts out!
• Put the window air conditioners away.  Why would you keep it in the window all year long?  They are made specifically to be able to put in and take out easily.
• Keep south windows uncovered during day to let the sun in!  Even in the winter the Sun can help heat up your home so let the sunshine in during the day!  Pull the drapes shut again at night.
• Switch the direction of your ceiling fan!  A ceiling fan should blow down in the winter. Why? Well, hot air rises due to lower density but what good is it doing you up near the ceiling?  
• Dress for the season! It's winter out folks.  This means we should be wearing long sleeves and layers such as sweaters.  You do not, and should not be wearing a t-shirt in your house!
• Close the fireplace flu and door!  Unless it has a tight door on the front heat will naturally go right up and out the chimney.  It is not even worth it to use the fireplace when it is really cold if it is not designed to minimize heat loss.
• Put out pans of water.  The water will evaporate and create humidity in the room. Why is this good?  Because water vapor has a high specific heat.  This means it has the ability to absorb and hold heat for a long time.  Humidity in your home will absorb and hold the heat keeping it warmer.
• Make sure the heaters are not blocked or covered with items that will prevent the heat from radiating outward into the house (and may also be a fire hazard).
• Minimize exhaust fan use in bathrooms and kitchens.  Unfortunately the exhaust fans suck the nice warm air up and out of your house!
• Baking in the oven?  When you are done and turn the oven off, just leave the door slightly ajar to let that nice warm air into the kitchen.

What can be done that requires some investment?
Note: some of these contain affiliate links. This means that if you click on a link and make a purchase I get a small percent of that sale.  For this reason I carefully choose every link to make sure that I really stand behind, and almost always, actually have used and or continue to use the product myself. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

• Find out where your drafts are with a Thermal Leak Detector.  Then decide whats necessary to stop those leaky drafts!
• Seal drafty windows with a Window Insulating Kit.
• Seal up drafty doors with a Double Sided Draft Blocker.
• Use rubber or foam weatherstripping in any gaps around windows or doors.  Here is one for large gaps that is self sealing: Heavy Duty Weatherstrip Seal
• Cover that air conditioner.  You can purchase either an interior or an exterior cover for your air conditioner if it must remain in place (wall or windows).
• Cover the attic door with an Attic Stairway Cover Kit.
• Buy a Programmable Thermostat for each zone (the more zones the better).  We purchased the same exact one for both zones in our home (upstairs and downstairs).  It allowed us to program the heat in separately for the weekdays when we are working and for the weekends when we are home.  It is easy to bypass if your schedule changes too!
• Wrap those pipes with Tube Insulation.  If you have heat that uses hot water and it has to travel from the basement, you might want to wrap those pipes to keep some of the heat from escaping on the way up!  However....that said, we do use one side of our basement regularly.  On the side we use we painted the cast iron heating pipes black so that they will actually help to heat the area.  They get so hot we can't even touch them sometimes!
• Wrap the hot water heater with a Heater Blanket.  Again, our heat uses the hot water tank so insulating it definitely helps!
• Install radiator reflectors.  Here is an Instructables on how to make them on the cheap!
• Keep the oil or gas burner CLEAN.  If you keep it clean and replace filters etc. regularly, it will burn the oil or gas more efficiently.  It's that simple.
• Use a humidifier.  For the same reasons as stated earlier, only an actual humidifier will force the evaporation thereby working much quicker. 

I hope some of these suggestions were helpful and that you have a warm and wonderful winter :-)

You can read more on our website at
​Minimizing Heating & Cooling Bills

Thanks for visiting.

Sincerely,

Sources:

• http://energy.gov/energysaver/tips-heating-and-cooling