It’s January. Here in Pennsylvania it’s almost a given that we’ll have some single digit nights and below freezing point temps during the day. It’s not my favorite time of the year. I’m someone who is cold more often than not. But the cost of heating can make me hesitant to turn up the thermostat. Well that and my hubby and boys always complain it’s too hot if I turn it up. So I resort to thick socks two layers of shirts and warm comfy pants.
There are a lot of ways to save money on heating your home. Here are just a few:
One of the best things we did for our oil furnace was to get a programmable thermostat. We set it so the temperature goes down a little while we’re sleeping but kicks on right before everyone starts to get up and get moving for work. When I worked full time and the 3 boys were in school we’d also have it drop a few degrees during the day and kick back on just before I got home from work. It’s nice because you don’t have to forget about turning it down or come home to a colder than usual house. If you’re going on vacation, you can have it set to a lower temp, say 60 degrees while you’re away so you don’t have to worry about pipes freezing but you also don’t have to use as much heating fuel.
Insulated curtains are another easy way to warm a room up a degree or two. We have nice 2 nice size windows in our small living room. We also have hard wood floors. I kept telling my husband how that room always felt colder. We only had sheers on our windows. Putting up insulated curtains for the winter did help take some of the chill off the room.
Infrared quartz heaters. We just moved into a new house in October so we’re still learning the best ways to heat our home. We found out the family room above the garage did not have heat set up for it. The baseboard heating elements are there but it hadn’t been finished by the people that lived here before us. We moved out Infrared Quartz heater from our old house and decided to give that a try in the mean time. Our family room is a large room The infrared quartz heater works well to warm the room up. They’re safer than space heaters and don’t get very hot to the touch. You can get some with a fireplace look or just a standard box shape. There are also different BTUs depending on the size of the area you’re trying to heat. We’ve had ours for about 7 years now. It’s been a good investment.
Check weather stripping on doors and windows. Old, cracked, or peeling weather stripping will allow cold are to sneak into the house.
Another simple thing, if you have a door that goes into your garage from your house, make sure the door is closed. We have to go through the garage to get to the family room. The kids leave the door in the laundry room open all the time. I can always tell when they left the door open because the cooler temp from the garage creeps into the kitchen.
If you’re not sure where or why your home isn’t holding heat you can have an energy audit done. An energy audit is done by a professional. They can find why your home isn’t holding heat and make recommendation for heating efficiency. You might need insulation or more insulation, windows could be the culprit, or a draft from your chimney could let old man winter into your home.
If you have electric heat, another thing to consider is comparing electric companies. You might be able to lock in a better rate with a different electric company. If you live in Pennsylvania, like me, Direct Energy PA can Save up to 16%* over MetEd’s electricity rate, and up to 12%* over Penn Power’s electricity rate. There’s more! Save up to 10%* over Penelec’s electricity rate!
*All savings refers to the current difference between Direct Energy’s fixed rate offer and the Utility’s current Fixed Rate for Basic Service as of January 8, 2016, and does not include any other component of the electricity bill. Utility rates are subject to change and there may be no savings following the respective official utility rate change date. Direct Energy’s fixed rates include electricity supply charges only and excludes delivery/transmission charges, taxes, and all other utility-related charges. Offer is limited and valid for new residential customers only.
As a money saver, I also noticed Direct Energy PA participates in the Plenti program so on top of electric savings you could be earning Plenti points too. Just thought I’d point that out.
What recommendations do you have for saving money on your heating costs?
Being sick and tired of electric bills that were $500 plus a month, we switched to a wood pellet stove a couple of years ago. While we still have to buy the pellets, our electric bill drastically decreased.