Let's share ideas to reduce home heating costs

[kfeuer]

Our home uses natural gas for heating, so I'm really getting concerned about heating costs this winter (I really feel for those of you up north).

I know we have one door that needs new weather stripping. Are there other inexpensive things we can do to help reduce heating costs? Is it worthwhile to pay someone to come out and service the furnace? Does anyone know if gas logs use alot of gas?

 

[pjlla]

We have oil so I KNOW we will be paying high bills this winter!! I know that we plan on adding insulation around our pull-down attic stairs. I'm sure we lose lots of heat there. And thanks for reminding me... my mudroom door is so drafty that last winter snow blew in (and the door/structure is only 4 years old!).

Yes, it is worthwhile to get your furnace serviced. Not only could it help with fuel efficiency, it is important for safety.

Can't comment on gas logs.

How about installing the automatic thermostats? We have them here and it is nice to be able to automatically set them to warm/cool the house at certain times of day. We keep it at about 58° at night during the winter. I try not to let it go higher than 68° during the day, but sometimes I get cold. But I will be adding another sweatshirt to my daily wardrobe this winter! And when I work I will be setting the thermostat down for the day. The cat and guinea pigs will have to tolerate 64° during the day!............P

 

[hmgolden]

kfeur - great thread idea. We just bought our home (have electric heat) and I am terrified of what our heating bills will be. This is the first year I'll have had to pay the bill myself, it was always included in my rent previously. I think I'll be wearing a lot of sweatshirts and sweaters this winter!

 

[Befferk]

This won't help most people, but when we bought our house, we invested in an outdoor woodstove to heat our shop, and next month we are hooking it up to our house (finally). It will cost us another $700 or so for the materials to get it hooked up, but it beats paying the $1600 it would cost to heat our house this winter in Wisconsin.

Beth

 

[starwood]

If you have any leaky windows use the plastic covering that you shrink with a hair dryer. That keeps a lot of drafts out.

 

[Mac and Us]

We too just bought an outdoor wood boiler. Fortunately, my husband is a plumber so he tied it in with our forced hot water oil boiler. We won't be using the oil this winter but he wants to keep the oil boiler so when we go on vacation during this winter we won't have to ask someone come to the house everyday to feed the wood boiler.

We also installed all new energy efficient windows (except 2--we'll change them next summer).

These changes were costly. The windows had to be done as the wood ware rotting.

If you want to save $ and not spend alot buy Warm Window material and make insulated shades for your windows. I made them for all but 4-5 of our windows. I started making them years ago because our windows were junk from day one and I knew we were loosing heat. My husband is in the process of trimming out the new windows and then the shades will go back up. I figured it won't hurt to have the extra insulation even though the windows are new.

During the winter monthes we leave before daylight and return home in the dark so the shades are down all week and only come up on the weekends.

The shades are fairly easy to make. Here's the URL: http://www.warmcompany.com/wwpage.html

 

[cobbler]

Good ideas. I know we are going to put plastic up on the windows but I will look into having our furnace serviced.

We do have an automatic thermostat so that is good. We just now may lower our day high of 71 to 68.

 

[janethill]

My husband is going to be chopping lots of wood.

 

[mainewmn]

We have a wood stove in the basement that we use to heat downstairs in the past. This year we are putting vents in the floor to help with heating upstairs. The wood was free this year except for our labor as DH got it from his friend who was building a house 5 minutes away from us. Other then that we will use the oil to heat water and keep the thermostats at 68; we will use the woodstove primarily to heat the house.

 

[Disneefun]

This one is small and maybe petty, but in our plast place it helped a lot. Put those plastic child-safety outlet covers into any outlets not in use along the outer walls of the house. In our last place, you could put your hand in front of the outlet and feel the cold coming through. Putting the covers on may have only lowered our bill a few pennies, but every bit helps.

Also if you have ceiling fans, dont forget to turn them so they rotate clockwise in the winter to circulate the warm air and keep it from pooling at the ceilings.

 

[Aanna]

One thing I've been putting off that I really should do is to insulate the hot water pipes that run through my basement. We have hot water heat here and all the pipes for the first floor run through our unheated basement! I'm just wondering how much the insulation will cost me. I could probably look into the cost/safety of putting insulation around my water heater.

Another small/easy thing I've heard of doing is closing the drapes/shades on the windows in the evening when the sun goes down. During the day the sunlight helps warm the house, but at night the drapes keep colder air from the windows from cooling the house.

 

[sarahsmom73]

We bought double honeycomb blinds for our daughter's room. They keep the cold air out and the warm air in. The initial investment was steep, but we have more than made up for it in the last 4 years.

 

[Disneefun]

One thing I've been putting off that I really should do is to insulate the hot water pipes that run through my basement. We have hot water heat here and all the pipes for the first floor run through our unheated basement! I'm just wondering how much the insulation will cost me. I could probably look into the cost/safety of putting insulation around my water heater.

We did this last year. If I remember right, the water heater blanket was like $40 at Home Depot. DH said it was super easy to install. He just had to cut it a bit to fit and then tape it on with special tape. Just have to make sure the valves and the place where the pipes go in and out are clear. Other than that, it's very safe. He also put foam insulation over the pipes. The stuff looked like those noodles that kids play with in the pools, except it was precut lengthwise so it just slipped right over the pipe. I don't remember exactly how much those were, but they weren't expensive at all and super easy to install. Also got those at Home Depot.

 

[winniedapooh]

Just a note to not jump temps so radically. It uses more energy-oil, electric, etc. You will use much less if you go from 65 at night to 68 or 70 during the day than say 62 to 70. DB works for a fuel company and we also found this out the hard way one winter when we would put temps at 62 during the night and raise them back to 71 during the day. Can you say bill shock???

 

[starwood]

We did this last year. If I remember right, the water heater blanket was like $40 at Home Depot. DH said it was super easy to install. He just had to cut it a bit to fit and then tape it on with special tape. Just have to make sure the valves and the place where the pipes go in and out are clear. Other than that, it's very safe. He also put foam insulation over the pipes. The stuff looked like those noodles that kids play with in the pools, except it was precut lengthwise so it just slipped right over the pipe. I don't remember exactly how much those were, but they weren't expensive at all and super easy to install. Also got those at Home Depot.

Did you notice any savings in your heating bill last year due to these improvements?

 

[kfeuer]

Just a note to not jump temps so radically. It uses more energy-oil, electric, etc. You will use much less if you go from 65 at night to 68 or 70 during the day than say 62 to 70. DB works for a fuel company and we also found this out the hard way one winter when we would put temps at 62 during the night and raise them back to 71 during the day. Can you say bill shock???

That's interesting! We've done the drastic temp changes in the past and thought we were saving money. I may try the less drastic temp changes for a month and see how it goes. I just hate hearing the furnace click on at night when we're all under the covers anyway!

To the above poster, we also installed the water heater jacket last year and it's hard to say what it saved since gas prices per therm went up last winter. However, it had to have helped. My DH also found it super simple to install.

 

[Disneefun]

Did you notice any savings in your heating bill last year due to these improvements?

Yeah, we did. Althgouh we didn't do it 'till mid January so this will be our first full year. But we noticted the bill went down about $20/month or so for Feb and March. We're just a family of two, so we don't use as much hot water as some, so your mileage may vary. But the other problem for us was, we live in a long ranch house and the hot water heater is at one end and the kitchen and laundry are at the other end. So when we needed hot water in the kitchen or laundry, we'd have to let the water run for awhile till it could heat up and make it to the kitchen -- thus wasting water. Now not only has our power bill gone down, but the water bill has gone down a little bit, too (well, it did until our commissioners increased rates, lol) as we're not wasting as much waiting so long for hot water.

 

[dvcgirl]

Check your heating ducts if you can. I know that when we lived in NJ we could see our ducts in our basement and attic and could feel the air pouring out of little openings here and there. We bought special tape to plug up the holes and we saw a huge change.

Also, change the setting on your ceiling fans....to keep the heat from staying pooled up in volume ceilings.

If you have a fireplace, remember to shut the flue when it's not in use.

 

[cobbler]

I just scheduled a tune up for my furnace. Going to cost me $88 which I didn't think was bad. At least we will know it is more efficient and if there are any problems tackle them head on before something major happens.

Also the socket cover idea is great. My mom mentioned to me to take the switch plates off the outlets and put stuff it in there (you know that foam that expands that you can get from Home Depot) and shave off the excess to help that way.

 

[EthansMom]

Don't forget that heat rises -- check the amount of insulation in your attic. If you don't have enough, you could put in more and save a bundle!

Also, replacing any older apliances will often save a lot of electricity. In fact, my local electricity supplier paid me $50 to take an old refrigerator that was in the house!