10 Ways to Reduce Your Heating Bill

You know when  a sweatshirt, coat, mittens, hat, gloves, scarf, moon boots, etc. are no longer cutting it, that it’s time to turn on the heat.  I hate the thought of having to pay for warm air–I get it, but I don’t like it.  Keeping costs down, so that I have more money to spend on things that I love, like travel and cupcakes, is priority one for me.  If you are in the same unheated boat, here’s a couple of tips to keep costs low this winter:

1. Make sure furniture isn’t blocking any heating vents.  No reason to pay for heating the underside of your couch.
2. Use all of the heat your pay for.  Whenever I bake in the winter, I leave the oven door cracked after I turn it off.  I figure, I already paid for the heat, I might as well disperse it out into the room.  {Probably not a good idea if you have little ones, though.}
3. Replace your furnace filter religiously.  It seems like a bummer of an upfront cost to buy filters, but a blocked filter will cost you way more than a new one.
4. Install a programmable thermostat.  Seriously, if you do one thing, do this one.  You can program it to kick on 30 minutes before you wake, or to drop the temperature when you are at work.  You just set it and forget it, using valuable heat only when you need it most.
5. Seal all of the leaks around the windows, door, etc.  A tube of weather caulking is super cheap.  About 1/3 of a house’s total heat loss is lost through the windows and doors.  Seal ‘em up.
6. Use the sun to your advantage.  That’s a little harder for me here, but I hear tale of places where the sun still shines in the winter.  Open up the blinds on those days and take advantage of the earth’s free heat.
7. On the flip side, pull the blinds and drapes when it is dark outside.  It will create one more layer of insulation to heat loss.
8. Lower your thermostat at night.  Supposedly, we sleep better when it’s cooler anyway.  Invest in a down comforter and drop the temperature.  If you have a programmable thermostat, you can set it to start warming up about 1/2 hour before your feet even hit the cold floor.  Ain’t technology grand?
9. Make sure to change your ceiling fan direction {so it pushes the air down} and turn it on low.
10. Close off rooms and vents that are not used regularly.