Save Money Heating: Ten Things You Can Do
No one likes to be cold. Heating your home for the winter can be a struggle in many ways. Mainly financially. Every year families spend and spend to keep their homes warm. Luckily, there are several things that you can do to help save money. Here are ten ways that you can lower your heating costs this winter.
1. The first thing to do is to make sure that your home is going to hold the heat that you put into it. You can have a great heating system and a full tank of fuel but if your home is not insulated you are still not going to be able to heat it well. You will always feel the cold and the drafts. Insulation was not the same back when the houses we call old now were built. If you have an older home chances are that you have older insulation. Re-insulating the walls of your home will help to hold the heat in. When you aren’t losing heat through the outer walls of your home, the roof, the door, or the windows you will save a ton of money. How so? Your furnace will not be running constantly trying to heat a home that lets the heat right out. Your furnace will kick on a quarter of the time because the heat is not escaping and the temperature is your home is not constantly dropping. When the heat stays in the temperature remains at what the thermostat is set at and takes a while to go down.
2. If insulating is the first thing on the to do list then filling in cracks is the next. You’ve seen cracks in the wall, right? Many times they’re in corners or where wall and ceiling or wall and floor meet. They’re better called gaps. Little gaps between pieces of wood that let in drafts and let out heat. You would be remarkably surprised at how much better your home will hold heat if you fill these all in with mud. Here’s what to do. Go to your local hardware store and get some sheetrock compound. We all call it sheetrock mud. Get a mudding knife, and some sheetrock tape. Use the tape over the cracks, seems, and gaps. You can also use it on small holes while your at it, to improve the walls. Mud over the tape once then let dry and do again. Lightly sand and see it sealed. No air goes in or out. Paint or wall paper over top[ and you’re good to go. You’ll save a lot of money just by doing that alone.
3. The third thing you can do to increase the amount of heat your home holds and to decrease the amount of money you spend heating is to replace your windows. Older homes often and most likely have older windows. These windows just are not energy efficient. They let the heat out and the cold in. Replacing you old windows with new energy efficient ones will greatly drop the heat loss and the cost of heating too.
4. The fourth thing you can do to help cut winter heating expenses is to side your home. Put up foam board and side over it with a good vinyl siding. You will be amazed at how much heat and money that will save. It will also give your home a new fresh look. That would make any home owner happy! The value of your home increases and the cost of heating it decreases!
5. The fifth thing you can do is to close off any unused rooms. If there are rooms that you will not be using often then close their doors and also close the heat register. That way the heat does not blow into that room and that means more heat for the rest of the home. Even one room less to heat gives the furnace less to do and automatically saves you money.
6. The sixth thing that you can do to save money on heating costs is to update your heating system. An old furnace is not going to heat as well as a new and energy efficient one. It will burn more fuel and use more electric. It will also not be one of those fancy energy efficient one. They really do cut your costs in half. If your furnace is old and struggling then replace it with one that will keep your warmer and save you money.
7. No matter how great the furnace or how well insulated the home you will still lose heat if your heating ducts run under your home and are not insulated. The heat cools right down as it travels the very cold metal duct and it is lost. It doesn’t have the chance to enter your home yet you have still paid for the fuel that the furnace burned to produce it. Get some insulating wrap for those ducts and watch the temperature rise and the cost drop.
8. The eighth thing that you can do to help take the chill out of your home and fuel bill this winter is to replace your roofing. Once you insulate underneath it you’ve helped but to ensure that the heat stays in you need to have a good layer of shingles on the top. Damaged, cracked, worn and torn shingles let out heat. A fresh new layer to replace or cover the old will help to keep it in and will also fix all the leaks you may have.
9. The ninth thing that you can do to keep the warm in and the cost down is to compare fuel venders. They don’t all sell for the same price. It’s just like gas for your car. Gas station number one sells for this much and the one down the road sells for less. No matter how much fuel you will be using you will be saving money if you are getting a better deal on the price per gallon. Choosing a new company may mean a significant drop in the total cost of each delivery. It never hurts to call and ask what the prices are. May the lowest priced vender win.
10. The tenth thing that you can do is apply for HEAP. HEAP is an energy assistance program that will help you with your heating costs if you are income eligible. They can give you a grant that comes from the state. The grant will help you to pay for your fuel. Thanks for reading and take care!
