How to lower your heating bills this winter
The chilly season is upon us. If you live in North America, you’ve probably had at least a few cold nights by now. Up in my neck of the woods — in the Boston area — we’ve had our central heat running for a few weeks. Which means we’re in full swing winterizing, with an eye to keeping the heating bills low.
No, we don’t live in a refrigerator. Our house is pretty comfortable all year round. Here’s how we keep the bills low.
Invest in Insulation and Efficiency
Small changes can have ripple effects, but big changes are worth even more. Last year, we had our walls insulated with blown cellulose insulation. We also replaced our 40-year-old oil burner with a high-efficiency natural gas system.
These home improvements aren’t cheap. Since they’re good for the environment as well as your budget, though, there are often government grants and loans available to help make them more affordable. We didn’t have the savings to do this, so we took out a 0% loan through our state’s energy-efficiency program. The loan payments are far less than the immediate savings on our heating bills. The upgrade is paying for itself already, and will continue to do so long after we’ve paid off this loan.
Of course, I used the savings from lower heating bills to accelerate paying off my higher-interest debt. I wouldn’t normally suggest taking out a loan as a step towards financial health, but in this case it clearly saved us money. It also helped shrink our whole household’s environmental footprint.
In addition to your heating system and your home insulation, you may want to think about upgrading your windows.
To find out what big-ticket investments will pay off, you can schedule a free energy audit through your utility company. They’ll send someone to your home who will walk through the house and give you a full report on ways to save energy and money. When we had ours done, the nice young man also replaced all our lightbulbs with compact fluorescents — free of charge.
Bundle Up
There’s no need to keep your house balmy enough for T-shirts all year. Make sure you and your family have good, comfortable warm clothing and don’t be afraid to use it.
When I was 21, I had a roommate who would turn the thermostat way down and walk around our chilly house wearing a winter hat and clutching a hot mug of tea. At the time, I mocked her with my friends as we lounged around their toasty living rooms. Now I’ve become that roommate. I’m always turning the thermostat down and telling the kids to put on a sweater.
I don’t want anyone here to feel cold — I hate being cold myself — but I’ve learned that wearing warm clothes is a cheap and easy way to stay cozy. Best of all, you can create your own personal heating zone. Don’t like it so warm? Take off a layer. There’s no fighting with your spouse about how warm to keep the living room.
Not that we keep it frigid. I set our thermostat in the mid-60s during the day, and turn it down at night when we’re all tucked into warm beds anyway.
If you don’t already have one, get a programmable thermostat. They make it easy to adjust the heat for different times of day automatically. You don’t have to worry about remembering to do it — it just happens.
Bundle the House Up, Too
Don’t just bundle yourself up. Adding layers to your house will make it feel warmer even if the thermostat stays at a modest temperature. I have a nice collection of Oriental rugs that I lay down this time of year, which keeps the hardwood floors warmer on little bare feet. This is essential because small kids lose their socks at an amazing rate, but it’s great just for giving the whole room a warmer feel, too.
I also put up window plastics and insulated curtains to cut down on drafts from the windows. If you haven’t done it already, spending a few hours going around your windows and doors with some draft-sealing putty or caulk will make a huge difference to how comfortable your home is in the winter.
Use Heating Zones
Chances are, you’re not using every part of your house all day long. If you live in a modern house, you probably already have several “heating zones” so you can program your thermostats to different temps in different areas.
If you live in an older house like mine, you probably have just one thermostat that controls the whole system. That means that if it’s 64 degrees in my living room, the heat kicks on. If it’s 65, the heat shuts off because it’s warm enough. Doesn’t matter what the temperature is in the rest of the house. There’s no way for the heating system to know that.
To solve this problem, I’ve created a bunch of “heat zones” in my house. By keeping the bedroom doors closed upstairs and hanging drapes in the hallway doors downstairs, I cut our drafty hallway and staircase out of the heating system entirely. Now the radiators in each room only have to heat those rooms, not those rooms plus several hundred square feet of largely unused hallway space.
I was shocked at the difference this made to how warm the house felt. Hanging the drapes to keep the heat in the rooms and out of the hallway is new this year: I just did it a few weeks ago. I won’t know for months yet whether it pays off in reduced heating bills or not. But the comfort factor was immediate and obvious.
The other heating zone change I made was to my workspace. I’m the only person home most of the day, and I spend most of the day in my office. Rather than keep the whole house toasty, I’ve lowered the temp on the main thermostat and set up a space heater in my office. This way, I can be as warm as I like without wasting a lot of energy warming up empty rooms.
What do you do to keep your heating bills low in the winter?
Photo by Net_Efekt.
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There are 88 comments to "How to lower your heating bills this winter".
While I should probably rather restrict my computer usage, during winter time, I keep the door to my office/bedroom closed while the computer is on. Modern computers just develop obscene amounts of heat, and that thing alone can heat up the bedroom quite nicely. No need to turn on the heat in that room.
Once the room is warmed up, I can open the door to the rest of the house, and be my own manual thermostat 🙂
Try the TV as well. They develop huge amount’s of heat coming from the back and have saved my butt more than once. And I’m in Northern Maine to boot !
One of the perks of living in the South – our electric bill drops this time of year because we turn off the AC! Maybe someday the kiddos will see snow.
One question – we had an energy audit completed and it was suggested NOT to close off vents/doors in the house – that this somehow ‘suffocates’ the system and causes more wear and tear? Any HVAC/heating engineers care to comment? Thanks.
Since I live in Florida, this is an awesome time of the year for us. There’s often no need for the A/C or the heat, which drops our utility bills down to around $40.
And now I can pay off those debts even faster!
55° when occupied, 48° when not at home. Space heater and portable electric blanket keep me warm enough. (Yes, the drywall and pipes are just fine after living like this in this house for 15+ years.) Do I win?
I have central electric heat in this 1800sf two-storey house, and keep two heat registers wide-open (bedroom and bathroom), two half-open (living room and kitchen), three cracked open, and three completely off. My furnace has suffered no ill effects in the last 15 years by closing off about 50% of the total forced-air output. Works for my house, but you should get an independent neutral assessment first before attempting.
-Seattle
We are currently renting, and do not yet know the joy of paying our own utilities, save electricity, and does cable count? Anyway, I’ve heard horror stories, people paying upwards of $500/month. Sometimes renters idealize homeowners but neglect to consider all the expenses that come with a home.
We use a wood stove. The wood is cheaper than an equivalent amount of heating oil, we get lots of exercise stacking & bringing in wood, and we’ve met a few neighbors who noticed we were burning wood and offered to let us take trees that they cut down on their property. The best thing is that the stove keeps the house toasty warm and we have windows so we can watch the pretty fire burning. There are a few negatives–there are times it’s hard to deal with lugging in the wood, and dirt tends track in from the woodpile. But overall we like the benefits of using the stove.
I totally use a portable radiator to heat just the room I’m in. I don’t pay for my heat now (yay, renting apartments), but I did have one cold winter where I got burned by heat costs. I lived in a huge house with very little insulation and five other roommates. Since our heat bill was split between 6 people, they didn’t feel much incentive to reduce our bill (same for electric). We did keep the temperature at 62 and use space heaters so that the bill wasn’t astronomical . . . and we each paid $70 a month in heat & electric (the bill was combined). I can’t imagine how high the bill would have been had we kept the temperature higher. Wish that landlord had been willing to add some insulation, but I think the heat left the walls just as fast as the window. I work up more than once with some ice on the windows AND my wall before getting wise and putting up lots of plastic.
Great tips here, and it’s nice to see that there are tips non-homeowners can use too.
We drastically cut our bills just by putting a new furnace in a few years ago. But on top of that we close off rooms we don’t use, winterize and seal drafts, and we are fans of space heaters. We use one in our bedroom at night, and keep one handy in the living room or office depending where we’re at at the time.
For me, I live in the south. Heating is not as big of an issue, but can still effect our energy bill in the dead of winter as much as a very hot summer day.
I have a wood stove and a chain saw. I usually head out to find a fallen hardwood tree and recover the wood. I have about 4 cords stocked up and seasoned. It prevents me from even running my heat pump in the winter. So in the winter all I have to pay for is the lights.
Up north I dont know if this would work too well, as the rate you burn through fuel, would keep you busy cutting and chopping wood. Not to mention if you dont have access to lots of free wood, or have air quality regulations, the savings may not compute.
However Interesting Fact: You can get one of the newer more efficient wood stoves under the Energy Tax credits. So if you have gas logs, or a really old fireplace insert, It may pay to change it out to a efficient wood stove/insert. The newer units are up to 60% efficient. I noticed a dramatic drop in the rate I use wood, and the heat makes it out into the living space more efficiently. Less goes straight up the chimney.
As previous folks say, I keep my heating bills low by living in the South!
I will await your summertime post on keeping a/c and water bills low.
Also don’t forget you can still get a tax credit for insulation or energy efficient furnaces/water heaters until the end of the year… if you’ve been thinking of adding insulation, do it NOW as it’s essentially a 30% off coupon from the government.
I put room darkening shades in my daughter’s bedroom to help her fall asleep during the summer.
WINTER BONUS – here in Minnesota those shades do double duty. They make a surprisingly noticable difference in keeping the heat in.
Tip – my shades are mounted so they make a decent seal around the window trim (the gap is no more than 1/4 inch).
Cats in the lap are the BEST way to stay warm!
🙂
Another Floridian here, echoing the statements that this is the time of year we save on our heating/cooling. Here in North Florida, we actually have a winter (temps in the 20s, rarely any snow), so heat is a factor, but not for another month or so.
To those in the southern US…
My Mom lives in Florida and had hurricane shutters installed last summer. (The type that roll up & down)
Her A/C bill was cut by 35% after she put them in. She leaves them down where & when she can during the hottest parts of the day.
Of course, if its just the AC bill you want to deal with, I would think that room darkening shades would be better bang-for-buck, even if they don’t save 35%, the payback would be quicker.
The original part of our brick home was built in the 40’s, and other than the attic has no insualtion. Unfortunately, it has the first generation of drywall where it’s not possible to blow in insulation. If we wanted to insulate the old side we’d have to give up square footage. Since we do most of our living in the new side of the house anyway, we’ve decided to let the insulation on that side go and keep that zone (which mostly is used for sleeping) in the high 50’s and low 60’s.
A huge saving for us was installing a gas fireplace in our great room. Now we just heat the part of the house we’re in. Our heating bills went from $450 plus in the old uninsulated house to under $200 in the same house that’s now twice the size.
One thing about windows – our replacement windows are more insulated than the wall – they’re actually warmer to the touch than the external uninsualted walls on the old side of the house. In retrospect, replacing those windows was probably a wasted of money.
Just remembered back when I had to pay my own heat when I was renting. I basically kept the heat off during the day while I was at work and could keep the heat really low at night by using an electric blanket.
I remember when I was a kid my dad would always have the thermostat at 68 in the winter and 75 in the summer. I told him that was backwards. Because of trying to save money these days I’m the one who has it 65 in the winter and 78 in the summer. My winter bill had usually been about 100 to 120. In October I had gotten it down to 45 (windows open). I’m hoping to see it around 60 to 70 for December and January, but I guess we shall see what November brings me to.
-j
I’m fortunate to be one of those rare souls that is comfortable a lower temperatures. Last night, I was shoveling snow in just a flannel shirt. In our old apartment, we set the thermostat to 50 and kept it there all winter.
I wish this house had zoned heating because our living area in the basement has more vents per cubic foot of space than any other part of the house and it get’s so toasty down here that I have to close the vents during the day!
How about complete and utter furnace abstinence?
http://thenonconsumeradvocate.com/2010/10/no-heat-challenge-2010/
Okay, just kidding. We keep our house cool all winter long, and utilize the programmable thermostat. 57 degrees at night and 63 degrees when people are at home. If we’re sitting still, (reading, watching TV, etc.) there are plenty of lap blankets to go around. No one complains.
I turn the furnace up when we have guests though.
It’s amazing how much you acclimate though. My husband turned the heat up to 68 degrees a couple of weeks ago and I thought I was going to pass out.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”
I’ve installed an energy efficient fireplace and it heats the whole downstairs.
We always turn the heat off at night.
I try to do the cooking in the hours that I’m cold the most, for me it’s the afternoon, and when I’m done I leave the door oven open.
Hot soups also help!
Last but certainly not least, I use the roof solar system AND the central heating system to heat the water in the house. This alone has saved tons of money in electricity.
Another way to help lower your heating bill is the use of ceiling fans. The ones that reverse help to keep the cool air from air conditioning off the floor.When they are reversed, they gently push warmer air off the ceiling and down toward the “people” area. We run our ceiling fans year round to help control both electric and propane costs.
Anybody in a deregulated state using another electric provider? seems like a good way to save money
I live in SC but temperatures still often drop into the 30’s. Just yesterday, I reversed the direction of my ceiling fans. In the winter, they should be pulling air upwards to disperse the heat across the ceiling and back down the walls. It seems counter-intuitive but it helps.
During the summer, ceiling fans should be pushing air down.
We have an old house with about 30 original windows. We were going to replace them, but at a cost of 50K the energy savings would never pay off. So every winter, my awesome husband goes around and puts weatherstripping in each one.
When I work at home, I mostly stay in the office, use one space heater, and let the rest of the house get cold.
I admit it-im a weather wimp. I keep it 70 or so at nite and seventy four or so during the day. To me mid sixty would be frigid. Im willling to save in other ways and live with those utlity bills. Of course Im also willing to keep it eighty during the summer (and yes, at the moment I live in texas, where natural gas is dirt cheap, but when I move to colorado I will still keep it at 70))
i live in a 60 year old house so my wood stove is what keeps me warm. i hate the up and down of furnaces. wood heat is constant heat.i do have a propane furnace but don’t use it much-only if i have to keep things from freezing if i will be gone for an extended period.
burning wood not only reduces the amount of propane i use, it reduces my electric bill as well.i only use the blower in the evening and the furnace is not powering on and off endlessly.
I’m glad to hear from Barb, but she lives in Texas, and I live in Minnesota. I confess I cannot STAND being cold. We have the programmable thermostat set for roughly 70 while I am home from work (my husband can tolerate much colder temps), but I confess to cranking it up to around 75 from time to time. I know you can put on more layers, especially on top, but keeping one’s hands and nose warm are a challenge. I’d love to hear from some Northern wimps like me on how they deal with this. I have hypothyroidism and am taking medication for it, but honestly, long before I had hypothyroidism I was perpetually cold. I think I just have always had terrible circulation. I was the kid who had ice cold toes that I would put on my sister’s warm legs when we shared a bed.
I live in Canada, and we have our thermostat set to 68. Sometimes if it is really cold I move it up to 70.
We wear appropriate clothing and use lots of blankets!
I really don’t like to be cold at home, and I live in Chicago. We have a powerful oil space heater that keeps our “office” (where we spend most of our time) toasty and the rest of the house just stays cold.
For the bedroom it doesn’t matter once you’ve been under the down comforter for a few minutes, it’s plenty warm (I often put a heating pad at the foot of the bed for about 10 minutes before I get in, to take the edge off).
If we watch tv or a movie, we get under a big blanket. I find that I keep pretty warm while cooking, so it’s not a huge issue that it’s so cold in the kitchen, you just have to brace yourself when you go in for a glass of water.
We rent a hundred-year-old coach house, so upgrading things is not an option, and the bills are high. We put in some weather stripping and I made “snakes” to put on the window sashes that block a lot of the drafts.
A strategy I have never heard mentioned anywhere, is buying the stocks of the energy companies that punish us with increased fuel prices. The common stocks of energy and utility companies (usually) track the rising prices of energy.
The Theory: The more they charge us, the more they earn, and the higher their stocks go.
Example: Two years ago when oil was $140 a barrel and gas prices where at almost $4 gallon, the stocks of oil and gas companies where also skyrocketing and trading at all time highs, so I bought the stocks of these companies which became a “hedge” against rising prices.
Energy prices go up – I make money, instead of griping, complaining, and being a victim.
It’s far from a perfect plan, and does carry some risk, but it offers a way for the common consumer to participate in the increasing price of energy, and hedge against their higher energy bills.
Feline heating is one way to go, the other, of course, is a lapdog!
Our last electric bill was $107, and that’s with our outdoor light. I turn my heat down or off when we leave for school and unplug our computer at night. We are comfortable all winter at 65 in the evening and 64 seemed quite warm while we were getting ready this morning.
we replaced an old wooden garage door with an insulated metal one and immediately the garage (which is under the house) was warmer and so were the rooms above it. I’m always amazed when i see my neighbors leave their garage door open — there’s got to be heat waste from that, unless the garage is a separate building.
I work from home and part of the day is spent sitting at my desk. Instead of having the heating on I wear my warm dressing gown over my clothes. In the UK it is cold! We have hit winter early and hard. This may seem like such a basic suggestion, but it works.
Our electric bill was about $65 last year. This includes stove, fridge and everything because we live in an old style condo – no gas. The building is concrete and retain the heat very well and we don’t even have to turn the heat on and we stay at around 64 degree (Portland, OR.) During the cold spell, it got down to 62 degree. To stay comfortable, we use a kotatsu table. I’m going to have to write a post about this indispensable appliance.
I live in the south and a cold day is one that only gets to 50. If it gets below 32 at night we’re worried we might turn into icicles. But the few things I do are
1) close doors of closets, bathrooms and lesser used rooms. Why pay to heat your closets or the seldom used powder room?
2) If different floors of your house are different temps (but controlled by the same thermostat) then adjust the vents. We have 2 units in our house. One controls the upstairs and one controls the main floor and the finished basement. The upstairs has 3 unused bedrooms. We turn that thermostat to 60 and it runs very little. The other thermostat is set on 72 and it keeps the main floor comfortable. The basement however is somewhat hot. I close a strategic vent or two. I also place a sweat shirt at the top of the stairs so when I come up from the basement I’m not so cold (eventhough it really is comfortable).
3) I wear appropriate clothes and footwear. I must have poor circulation – so I wear good socks and sometimes shoes or warm slippers. I also wear long sleeves when it is really cold (below 40 – LOL!). Long pants are a must!
4) This should go without saying but keep your outside doors and windows closed. If you have an attached garage keep that door closed to the garage – eventhough it is indoors its still not climate controlled.
Last year I got an electric throw for Christmas. It is wonderful!! When I’m in the basement watchi TV or working from home I can put the throw on and keep warm without turning up the heat. Sometimes I even get too warm and have to turn off the throw.
Our house stays typically cooler inside than it is outside! So if we are home, we are bundled up. We recently had a gas fireplace insert added to the family room which is the main room that we live in. Now we can quickly heat just that room and not waste money heating the rest of the house. Of course, the bedroom is a bit cool at the end of the night but just more of a reason to snuggle together for warmth!
oh and don’t forget your hot water heater (it contributes to your electricity/gas bill by heating the water). Wrap a blanket around it. Turn it down, too, so it isn’t that busy trying to keep that water warm. I keep mine on the lowest setting. The only reason I can think of for scalding hot water is if there is a man in the house that shaves using a razor – they like hot water for a smoother shave. But if the man (Men) use an electric razor turn that thing down on the unit – you’ll still get hot enough water to wash dishes and clothes – and you’ll reduce the risk of someone getting burned by hot water.
#28 Kate – if you are still cold, you maybe undermedicated – ask your Dr about switching to Armour Thyroid. One surefire way is to track you temps – take your temperature 3 times a day and average it. If it averages less than 98.6, you are still hypo and probably need more, or better ;), meds.
(You were probably cold all these years because you were undiagnosed hypo.)
I’ve never lived in a place where I could control the temperature… It’s always been a building-wide things.
I wish it wasn’t the case though! I’ve had it all, from the heat not kicking in when it was already freezing (and I mean that literally, here the windows freeze shut in winter) to the heat running when it’s hot outside and inside already…
All very good advice to keep in mind when I’m finally in control of the temperature in my own home, though.
#41 — Thanks. My doctor says I’m properly medicated — my numbers come out fine now — but I think my average temp runs 97.8 vs. the average of 98.6. At least, that is what it is most of the time when I take my temp and don’t have a fever. Maybe worth taking up with the doctor anyway the next time I have an appointment.
#43 Kate-prior to living in Texas, I lived in Germany, WAshington DC and devner. I went to collect in Connectcut. I still kept my heat at 70 and 74-in the winter. I am unwilling to be cold, period. I am willing to be hot in the summer. I also am uncomfortable wearing layers-and now that I have damaged knees, layers hurt the damned knees, which need to stay warm. We have used ceiling fans, insulated windows and door with plastic (my house in dc was a 1940s brownstone). Basically though we decided that we would cut in other areas because this was important to us (me). If I have to, I can live with it at 69 at nite, no lower. And I am on a fixed income.
I work in the construction business, and recently worked for a contractor who shut his remodeling business down to start an energy retrofit business, out of concern for the environment. http://www.vestaperformance.com/faq.html
You would be amazed at your return on investment for the little things. Mostly sealing up air infiltration. I hate to say this, if you are replacing your windows from purely a financial standpoint, you will be hard pressed to recoup your money. Typically bad ROI.
Expandable foam and caulking are your friend. One way to see where air is coming in is to use a match/lighter/feather. Follow around windows, places where you have holes in your ceiling(chimneys, recessed lights, vents, etc…). Then, use the appropriate material to seal it off. One neat product for windows is a removable caulk. It is clear and can be removed in the spring. You can find it at most home centers.
I live in Minnesota in a house and we pay about $250/mo for all utilities (natural gas, electric, & water) in the winter.
The house is very well insulated with double pane windows, but otherwise we don’t do anything special to save on utilities.
We have a programmable thermostat, set to 70-72 oF in the winter (day) or 68 oF (night), and and 62 oF when no one is home.
It’s not true that everyone can get used to lower temps–my father kept our house at 58oF when I was growing up and I never got used to it.
If the temperature differential between the inside and the outside of your house is huge (like it is here in MN), turning the temperature down a few degrees won’t make a significant difference in your heating bill.
@Another Kate I’m in New England so I should be used to it, but I too am always cold! When I visit my inlaws, they keep the heat in the low 60’s, but no matter how warmly I dress, I find that very uncomfortable. That’s why I love the wood stove suggestions. I think that would really work for someone like me, because I could warm up sitting by the stove, and the entire house could be kept cooler.
If I was still in debt I wouldn’t take out a loan to make non essential home upgrades. Just because the government subsidizes something doesn’t mean it is a “good debt”. You’re shuffling loans around to find get the best “deal” on your debts but you’re still spending more money than you have to, and pushing the day where you can be completely debt free further into the future. I think it’s a gamble to assume you’d save enough that the upgrades would be worth it.
I live in Maine. I ran out of oil in March three years ago and couldn’t afford the minimum 100 gallon delivery, so squeaked through that season with portable electric heaters. That summer I had tax money that I used to buy a hand fired (no electricity required) coal stove. I borrowed against my 401K to have a chimney built. Now I use two tonnes of coal (about $700.00) a year to heat my house. It is quiet steady heat. I shake down and reload the the stove twice a day, at 6:00 AM and PM. My house is warmer and quieter for much less money than oil. I will stick with coal.
Great post! Now I’m inspired to make my 1924 Chicago bungalow a little more efficient.
We keep the heat at 64 during the day and 62 at night. I get SO cold! But I deal with it by either bundling up under a blanket and cats, or getting up and doing some cleaning or exercise. Both work well.
Oh, and I spent $6 on a hot water bottle for my feet. One of the smartest things I bought all year.
Can anyone recommend a thermostat that requires a code to adjust it? Is there such a a thing? Our thermostat is programmed by us parents. It’s very easy, though, for our teen to simply hit the “up arrow” button on the temp when we’re not looking so he can lounge in shorts and T-shirt. I’m wondering how to lock him out from changing the temp, like the parental control code on the TV. Parent directives do little for teens, nor do lectures on the environment, money, getting his own house so he can control the temp, etc.
Thanks!
Replacement windows are not the way to go if you are solely interested in payback.
If all you want is payback, invest in teh plastic window wrap.
And you didn’t include maximizing passive solar. I open & close my blinds & insulated curtains depending on what I’m looking for: in winter they are open when sun is shining in to warm the floor & furniture, closed up tight at night to keep the cold out. During the summer I close them in the daytime, which keeps my home approx. 10 degrees cooler than exterior temps.
I went from freezing at night with the temp at 68 to being comfortable with it at 65 all just by getting a down alternative microfiber comforter for 20 bucks as a door buster at the mall. Ironically, the ineffective comforter it replaced cost over a hundred bucks.
North of 49th parallel: we wear slippers over our socks, over our area rugs. And storm windows over our old, single-glazed windows work wonders! The quiet! The lack of infiltration, when properly weatherstripped! In our coldest room we have an insulated curtain, but on the rest, just a single layer of fabric, gathered in generous French pleats adds another layer of still air to insulate the house.
I bet Sierra finds that the heat zone concept works well for her. Wish she’d report back later on this!
How do you go about keeping the lap dog warm when not in your lap?
My boyfriend has been keeping the winter thermostat up at 70 degrees (will dip as low as 65) because he doesn’t want the lap dogs to get cold at night or during the day.
I tend to think that the lap dogs can stand somewhat lower temperatures…but don’t really have proof that they wouldn’t be uncomfortable.
I could bundle them, but they can’t remove the coat/sweater if it gets too warm.
Our favorite trick is we use an electric mattress pad. It is similar to an electric blanket, but it goes underneath the fitted sheet on your mattress. We turn it on for about 15 minutes prior to getting into bed and then unplug it. This will usually get us through even the coldest nights while keeping our bedroom thermostat very low.
One that I haven’t seen mentioned so far: downsize into a smaller space. We moved from 3600 square feet into 1000 square feet partly because we were tired of all of the maintenance costs, including heating and cooling a giant old house. I’ve been amazed already at the difference it has made in our heating bill.
Renting an apartment, we can’t do a lot of the energy things stated here. But, we benefit a LOT from the shared walls: we only have one wall that is an exterior, and we often don’t even need the heat on at all to stay warm. (Our neighbors are all keeping us warm!)
One more thing to do are the plastic window insulators that look like saran wrap and you seal with a hairdryer. They do make a surprising difference. So do socks, which I always wear around the house, so I can keep it a little cooler.
Wow, thanks for your post today. I thought I was the only one who advocated turning down heating at night! Coming from the UK we never ran our heating at night – like you said we’re all in bed snug and warm with an extra blanket or quilt. A winter living in a draft old wooden house, as a student on a restricted income, in Newfoundland taught me about using drapes to retain heat and section off huge hallways that no body lives in! Even in Sunny Southern California I still turn off the heating at night and suggest my boys wear a sweatshirt if they are chilly and I do have a drape over the “doorway/gap” into our sitting room – the room gets toastie. NO I have to find a way to insulate/warm my studio so I can work up there. I like your idea of a space heater and then I don’t have to heat the room just where I’m working. Thanks.
I think even organizations can learn from this post to reduce heating bills.
Like Mom of five, I wish I hadn’t spent so much on replacing all the windows with top of the line energy efficient ones. Only last year I found that my 1950 brick bungalow has NO insulation in the walls (!!!) when I had some work done in the kitchen. The contractor explained that was standard practice when the house was built, and there really isn’t enough room in the walls to put in the amount of insulation currently recommended. Lesson learned!
Another lesson learned: before you start playing with the programmable thermostat make sure you understand your heating system. I grew up with forced air and thought that it was *always* most efficient to program the heat much lower at night and when away during the day. Wrong!
My house has a boiler and radiant heat in the basement and first floor (second floor has radiators). I set the temp to 60F at night and found that in the evenings the boiler was continuously running and that it could never make it up to the “at home” programmed temp of 68F. I thought there was something wrong with the boiler. The serviceman checked the boiler and explained to me that with this type of system I could not vary the temp by more than 3-4 degrees; the concrete basement floor (which is part of the heating zone and has the heating pipes embedded in it) was always going to take a very long time to heat up, so I really couldn’t drop the temp dramatically at night or when I wasn’t at home.
My main way of keeping the gas bill manageable is to never set the thermostat above 68F, dress in warm layers, wear socks and slippers, and drape myself with throws if I’m chilly while sitting still. A warm dog helps keep me toasty at night, too. 😉
If you rent but don’t pay for utilities separately, isn’t it safe to assume that the landlord already considered the cost of utilities when setting the rent? I pay for my use of heat and a/c (electric) so it can be awkward when having friends over who are used to blasting it. I’ve been lucky that the “natural” temperature of my place is usually within tolerable range (I’m sure it helps to be a 1st floor, middle unit in a row of townhouses). This season in the northeast I’ve only turned on the heat once to check that it works. So far I’m okay down to 64F but we’ll see what happens when winter really hits…
Another important thing is home orientation. Growing up in Minnesota, my father was very particular about the house facing south, because it captured a lot of heat and helped to melt the driveway. In TX, where I live now, facing east/west is pretty important, because it blocks direct sun exposure. to keep the house cool. Also, planting leafy shrubs in front of windows helps to block cold winds.
I live in Houston, so right now our utilities are the opposite – $500 in the summer, $200 in the winter. But I hail from Colorado and I have a few tips:
Humid air feels warmer. Turn off your humidifier, set a kettle on the woodstove, or use plants to add moisture to the air. Hang clothes to dry indoors. Some people even unhitch their dryer hoses to add warm moisture to the air (that can be controversial, and I’ve never personally tried it.)
Winter is the time to use your oven. It will heat up the kitchen, at least! While in the summer I make pot roasts in a slow cooker on the porch, in the winter I make it the traditional way and use the oven to help heat the ambient air.
Drink hot things. Even changing your water from ice water to lukewarm will help you feel warmer.
Pay attention to your feet. If your toes are cold, you’ll feel cold too no matter what the temp is. You might even need to change your socks if your old ones get sweaty and wet.
@25 (Erika) – Have you guys ever considered staggering out the replacements? Doing 10 or even 5 at a time?
I wonder if wrapping your hot water heater in a blanket is a fire hazard?
One last point about electric blankets and mattress pads – they have been linked to infertility in women. I am not sure if the studies are conclusive or peer reviewed. It has been recommended that if you use those, use them to knock the chill off the bed but do not sleep in the bed with them on. For couples considering starting a family this may be of grave concern.
My favorite cold weather trick: rice sack!
Basically fill a cotton bag with dry uncooked (not instant) rice (or corn, or probably most other grains, but rice smells the least, I’ve found) and microwave for ~2-3 mins. Cuddle!
And if anyone has any recommendations for stopping up door gaps in rentals, I’d love to hear it. I definitely have some spots around the door that leak air like no other, but I’m not sure how to fix that.
How about just don’t use the heater.
i’m amazed by how much your paying for your gas bill. We lived in minnesota but we’re only paying around $100 per month and i’m wearing shorts and shirt all the time.I think our house is set up to save energy. Here’s our set up: From the main floor in the living room there’s a door to go upstairs and a door to go downstairs. I always make it sure that these doors are always closed. Plus I made a thing where I put underneath the door so the cold from upstairs won’t get in the living room.
We keep our house at 65 degrees in winter, which feels uncomfortably cold to me because my polar bear of a husband requires a fan to be blowing on him at all times. When the air is moving, I experience it as colder. For about $25, I bought a space blanket, one of those thin mylar blankets that you find in emergency kits that reflects your body heat back to you. Eventually it gets clammy, but it’s powerfully warm for something so lightweight.
@DreamChaser57–there are special ‘water heater blankets’ you buy at the hardware store to wrap your water heater in to insulate it.
I’ve combined many of these suggestions. I wear my fluffy robe over my clothes when I’m at home. When I get chilly, I move around–vacuuming will work up a sweat in no time! My living room is full of blankets and throws to wrap up in. My two cats are happy to curl up on your lap and keep us both warm.
Heat zones have worked best for me, though. When I’m in the bathroom changing for bed, I have the space heater on in there. When I’m sitting in the office, I move the heater in there. When I’m in the living room, I turn on the gas fireplace and the ceiling fan. While I’m getting ready for bed, I put a heating pad at the foot of my bed to warm up the blankets, then turn it off before I go to sleep.
What saves me the most is working evenings. When the sun goes down and temps drop, I’m in a brightly lit, toasty warm workplace! May not work for everyone, though. 🙂
We set the thermostat to 58 degrees at night and it is programmed to come on at 5:30 a.m. for two hours and again at 5:30 p.m. for two hours up to 68 degrees. I work at home, so during the day I run the wood pellet stove we got a few years ago and set up my laptop in the family room where the stove is located. We have been burning two tons of pellets (about $500.00) per year and one tank of oil (250 gallons) for the forced hot air every two years on average.
Some extra blankets and sweaters seem to do the trick pretty well here. If I get cold, I do the dishes by hand to help warm up my fingers! 🙂
Sweet little kitty 🙂
I live in Ohio and my parents live in Michigan, and I just lowered both our gas bills by calling our companies and negotiating a lower fixed rate based on the competitive pricing of alternative gas suppliers. Every bit helps!
Wow great tips, I am going to put some of these into place as soon as I get home!
I do have a question though…when you talk about heating zones are you just closing the doors or actually closing the vents in the room? I heard that closing the vents in the rooms can cause stress to the furnace because of the size change… any truth to that?
We’re considering an electric mattress pad. My gramma has one which we tried out while we were visiting – genius! Warm up the bed before you get in & then turn it off.
Hubby likes to wear t-shirts in winter so we fight over the thermostat occasionally. Whereas I found I don’t get uncomfortable until it gets below 64. (lower at night of course.)
For home owners, definitely contact your state and your utility company. I believe that you can have an energy audit performed for free. It’s similar to home inspection when you buy a house. A worker from the company comes out to your home and walks throughout and around the home with you, pointing out areas where you can improve energy efficiency. I was able to get my walls and garage ceiling (my living room is above the garage and the living room floor was always very cold) for $1800. The normal cost was $3800 but there was a $2000 credit. Then I found out about a 0% interest loan that was available. Even though I had the money available, I took the loan. That way I can earn interest on that money until the loan is paid off. Also consider insulating pipes in your basement. It’s cheap and easy to do.
@Thomas 50: Our programmable thermostat allows you to set a password for it. We just got it at either Lowes or Home Depot, and it was around $65. It was a Luxe brand, and we got a $50 rebate from our utility company.
Sierra – Please do a cost analysis of how you decided to switch from your oil heater to gas. We too live in New England and have a 40 year old oil heating system, and we’re trying to decide whether to replace it, and with what. We are considering gas, electric, (new) oil, and possibly wood…I’d love to read your cost-estimates and what pushed you to natural gas. Nat gas is cheap now, but the price is quite volatile (from $3/mmBtu to $14/mmBtu and back in the past decade) and we’re wary…
I’m another brick bungalow (1925) owner. Like others, we were surprised to find that many homes built during this time were not insulated in the walls. This year we blew in insulation into our attic and noticed an immediate improvement.
I’m in St. Louis and am at home all day with twin 2-year-olds and a dog. At some time perhaps we’ll turn down the programmable thermostat, but it’s usually set around 70 or 71 degrees in the daytime and 68 at night. My husband doesn’t like to have the house cold at night. In the winter we add plastic to some windows, use blinds and thicker curtains, and keep doors closed when rooms are not in use. And for years we have taken advantage of our utilities’ budget billing option. Most utilities offer this to customers with good credit records. I know a lot of people don’t want to go this route because they want to overpay at any time… then they complain about sticker shock. Our rates stay basically the same from month to month and rarely go up or down by more than $10/month from year to year. We’ve never been hit with an end-of-year “make-up” bill exceeding $150, and often we’ve received refunds as rates are adjusted twice yearly.
along with home orientation (which way the house faces), home owners should also consider planting of trees around their homes (this also applies to homeowners who live in the south – perhaps even more than it applies to homeowners in the north). Large trees can offer protection from the wind in cold months and protection from the sun in hot months. Of course, you have to consider clean-up of fallen leaves, their proximity to water lines (you don’t want the tree roots to break through a sewer line) and other scenarios. Consult a landscape company or local city resources.
Sierra, if I turned my heat down to mid-60’s, I’d be freezing, and I live in NJ which is probably “balmy” compared to Boston in the winter. I keep the thermostat at 70 degrees when we’re in the house, have it programmed to go down during the day and at night when we’re in bed (58 degrees), up again in the morning. We both work long hours, so no need to heat an empty house. Our bedroom seems to be chillier than the rest of the house, so we bought a small electric heater, which heats the room nicely. Our heat bills run a little over $100/month for a two bedroom (three floor) townhouse. We also have a gas fireplace for extra warmth. We use that all winter and haven’t had our bills go up at all, in fact they’ve gone down three years in a row. Three years ago we had to replace our furnace and air conditioner (ouch!) to the tune of $8,000. We are definitely saving a lot of money with the energy efficiency of the new unit. Our windows are old and drafty but we can’t afford to replace them right now. When we do, I think our bill will go down even more.
In years past we have kept the heat to around 68 degrees but this year we are going to keep it lower – around 65 or 66 – and just put on sweaters or sweatshirts. I’ll be interested to see how much of a difference it makes in our gas bill this winter.
Anyone have suggestions on how to convince a husband that 73 degrees is too warm? He loves to sit around our house in shorts without a shirt year round. His argument is that it’s much more comfortable for him and adds little to the cost of utilities (we live in a well-insulated condo).
We use balanced billing, which means that the utility company figures out our annual average cost for gas and then divides that into 12 payments. Sometimes we have a balance, sometimes a deficit, sometimes the cost varies a bit, but it is SO MUCH EASIER to work into the budget.
I’m a renter with no interest in becoming a house owner. I rented a house for three years, and then a townhouse for two. Last year, I moved into a one-bedroom apartment in a three-story building, and specifically chose a middle floor apartment. Thankfully, it’s a complex of mostly young professionals and few noisy animals, so it’s fairly quiet. What I’ve traded away in privacy I’ve gained in cost savings. My electric and gas bills dropped to a fraction of what I spent on the much larger (and less insulated) previous residences. Now I can keep my thermostat at a reasonable 70-72 nearly year-round without busting my budget.
My Wife and I used the emergency blankets to line our curtains in our house. Our house with no heat on gets pretty cold and with electric heat, the bill gets very expensive ($500-$700 per month)! Most mornings our kitchen,dinning room and children’s classroom/playroom (which are the coldest rooms in the house) normally have temps ranging from 45 to 57 degrees with the heat off and a max of 73 with heat on and the weather at zero or below. We lined the dining room and children’s playroom curtains with emergency blankets and this morning the outdoor temp is 20 degrees and the temp with the heat off was 64 degrees. This was also with placing the window film on as well. The beautiful part of these emergency blankets is that you can find them for around 2-4 bucks in the camping aisle. My wife and I are estimating that we should be able to heat the house (and this house is old, built in the 1950’s) for around $250-$300 per month this winter. I would recommend lining your curtains.
Make sure you really know how your heat works. Last year my fiance and I thought we were lowering out heat bill by keeping our heat low and bundling up, low and behold b/c our apartment is heated is by hot water going through pipes and we get charged just for having the heat on, so it actually pays to turn the heat all the way up let it get uncomfortably hot and then shut it off until it gets too cold.
Author of article should keep their facts straight: did they actually put in a forced air system or did they still have radiators to turn on or off in each room. Problem with forced air heater system is they don’t do well if they are closed off in unused rooms, it creates pressure that affects the heater negatively. Otherwise some good basic tips.