Five Home Heating Tips That Won't Cost You A Penny
When cold weather comes around, we all dread the walk to the mailbox. The reason is obvious—the frightening heating bill awaits. The cost to heat your home soars as the temperature drops, and your bank account always seems to mimic the declining thermometer. But this winter, things can change.
With just a few free tricks, you can quickly trim down your bloated heating costs into something a little more appetizing. Oh, did I mention these tricks are free?
1. Use your blinds
Use the sun to your advantage. After all, it’s the best source of energy we have. To maximize the sun’s heat, keep your blinds open during the day. This will allow the natural sunlight to heat the air inside your house. But once night rolls around be sure to close those blinds, otherwise warm air will escape back through your windows, leaving you to shiver under the cold winter’s moon.
2. Spare the spare
Don’t pump costly warm air into your spare and vacant rooms. Simply close ducts in unused rooms to ensure you won’t blow a gasket when you open your heating bill.
3. Keep air moving
Hot air rises. But that doesn’t exactly keep your toes warm, or any part of you for that matter. To redistribute the warmth in your house, just turn your ceiling fans on low. The ceiling fans will ensure that the hard-to-find warm air moves to heights a little closer to your heart.
4. Turn it down
Sometimes we can surprise even ourselves. Test out your temperature tolerance by dropping your thermostat one degree each day. Keep going until the temperature in the house is just too chilly for you. Once the house gets too cold, turn it back up a degree. You can easily save some cash just by testing out your comfort zone.
5. Just bundle up
Woolly socks. A tuque. That old sweater. It doesn’t matter what your clothing of choice is, just bundle up with your preferred warm and fuzzy favorites. Because there is no reason to heat the whole house when you are the one who really needs to stay warm.
Posted: 9/21/2009 3:54:07 PM by Sam