Decrease Winter Gas Bills by Using a Woodburner
Here are some things I do to try to decrease my winter gas bill.
First off, we use a wood burner so we don’t need to get the gas tanks refilled as often. this has saved me a great deal of money and it is also a good way to get some exercise during the winter! Make sure if you have one installed you go by the codes in your area and that your wood burner is installed properly. A lot of people use black pipe on their wood burner because it’s very inexpensive. However, double and triple walled piping is well worth it’s cost. The double and triple wall piping is pretty self explanatory by name, but the point of the double and triple layers is to keep the hear in your home rather than letting it go out the chimney!
Which brings me to the chimney discussion. Make sure your chimney has a cap on it. Otherwise, birds and squirrels will nest in it and it will allow water to get inside your chimney. Now, when it snows or rains and water drips down your chimney, it also goes into your piping. Now you are cooking water on metal pipes. Let’s just say it’s not the best way to maintain your wood burner!
I do not recommend putting plastic on the windows if you are using a wood burner. While it may help ease the strength of the wind, it’s going to be a problem. no matter how experienced you are with a wood burner, at some point you are going to get it too hot inside the house. It’s nice to be able to open a window and let some of that heat out. However, there is an expanding foam spray that is very good when applied around the windows. This is a good choice if you can easily remove the trim on your windows. You put the foam around the edge of the windows to fill in any cracks. Caulk is also an effective barrier. In fact, you can buy caulk that is easily removed after winter! Caulk is very inexpensive and can reduce your heating needs a great deal.
Make sure to clean your chimney before lighting it for the winter. I personally actually burn a cleaning log in my chimney first and then I clean the chimney before putting any regular loads in it.
While many people keep their split wood covered, I don’t feel that this is an effective use of the wood. Of course you do need some dry wood and kindling to get the fire going, but damp wood burns longer so you can get the maximum time out of your wood!
If you decorate your house for Halloween with bales of hay or straw, you can use them after the holiday to go around the base of the house, creating further insulation.
Remember to make sure your wood burner has a good seal around the door and no leaks in any of the piping. Place heat pads or deflectors in their proper position and above all, put new batteries in the smoke detectors! Hope this information is helpful!
