By Alliance Communications Coordinator Amy Durr
The first few morning frosts have arrived where I live in the mountains of central Pennsylvania, and it’s gotten me planning for the days of winter. My drafty old rental can be cold, and like most of us I’m hoping to minimize my heating bills.
I’ve found these ten smart solutions from Bob Vila to be helpful in planning how to minimize winter’s impact on my budget.
1. Bubble Wrap Your Windows
Windows are some of the biggest culprits when it comes to heat loss, which is why it’s important to insulate them properly. For an inexpensive fix, cut a piece of bubble wrap to fit perfectly inside the window frame, spray a thin film of water on the window, and press the bubble wrap on the glass. The layer of plastic will let the sunlight in while keeping the warmth where it belongs: inside.
2. Switch Your Fan’s Direction
Warm air rises, which isn’t great news for our heating bills. Although it might seem as though switching your ceiling fan on would make your room colder rather than warmer, turning on the fan can actually make a room toastier so long as you set the blades to spin in a clockwise manner.
To reverse the direction of your ceiling fan, check for a switch at the base of your fan. This change of direction creates a slight updraft that will push the warm air toward the walls and back down into the room.
3. Stick on Weatherstripping
Air leaks are a major source of heat loss. Check your home for possible gaps with this easy test: Hold a piece of toilet paper in front of your window and door frames. If the toilet paper moves, you’ve found a crack that needs to be sealed. Use weatherstripping to fill the gaps so that the heat stays tucked inside, and consider adding foam insulation to outlets to reduce heat loss even more.
Caulk, too, is a useful weapon against leaks. “Use caulk for stationary cracks and gaps, especially around window frames or where siding meets the home’s foundation,” says HVAC technician Josh Mitchell, who works with AirConditionerLab.
4. Reflect Your Radiator
If you have radiators in your home, try fashioning reflective plates out of aluminum foil and placing one behind each unit. Instead of just heating up your wall, the radiator will heat the foil, which will reflect warmth back into the room and allow you to maximize the unit’s output.
5. Consider the Cost of Exhaust
Exhaust fans are effective at ridding your bathroom of humid air during and after a hot shower. But running the fan continuously can actually run up your monthly heating bills, because as the fans pull warm air out of the room, that air is replaced by colder air that then needs to be heated.
In fact, leaving the fan off altogether when you shower is a strategy for room heat generation. This works particularly well if you can leave the bathroom door open while you shower. The steam warms the air in the bathroom, as well as in adjacent halls and rooms.
6. Stop Drafty Doors
If you have drafty doors, craft an inexpensive DIY fix from foam pipe insulation. Cut the foam to size, and wrap it around the bottom of your doors—yes, even the interior ones!—to prevent heat from escaping and utility costs from going up.
If you’re not up for a project, there are plenty of affordable draft dodgers you can purchase. Draft dodgers are easy to slide off the door when the weather warms up.
7. Insulate the Water Heater
If you don’t have a jacket for your water heater, odds are you’re letting its warmth go to waste. Consider insulating your unit to reduce heat loss and save a little cash — about $20 a month, according to the US Department of Energy. To see if your water heater needs additional insulation, just touch it. If it feels warm, it could probably use a water heater blanket, but check your owner’s manual first to make sure it’s safe to cover your model.
8. Let the Sunshine In
This is by far the easiest thing you can do to lower home heating bills: Raise the blinds and open the curtains when the sun is out. It’s especially important to keep window coverings open on south-facing windows, because they bring in the warmest afternoon sun. Just remember to close your curtains again at night to keep all the toasty air inside until the sun returns.
9. Upgrade to a Smart Thermostat
Consider replacing your thermostat with a smart thermostat, which allows you to set different temperature schedules throughout the day based on your occupancy patterns. By utilizing setback temperatures during times of lower demand, such as when you’re at work or sleeping, you can save energy and reduce heating costs.
10. Don’t Block Air Vents
Check all your air vents to make sure they aren’t covered by window treatments or furniture. “Rearranging furniture is a surprisingly effective way to reduce home heating bills,” says Guy Sharp, a relocation manager at Andorra Guides. “When you position your furniture away from radiators, baseboard heaters, and vents, you allow the heat to circulate freely throughout the room,” he adds.
Blocked vents also makes your furnace work harder than it should and increases air pressure in the ductwork, which can lead to cracks. If it’s not possible to rearrange your furniture, you can use vent extenders to direct air around obstructions.