Heating your home in the winter can become costly. The good news is there are several creative ways to help heat your home without spending a fortune. There are plenty of ways to spend money besides heating your home! Here are 12 tips to reduce costs without sacrificing a warm home.

  1. Drop the thermostat at night.  Grab an extra blanket when you are hitting the bed for the night. It will save you money by not heating your home during sleeping hours.
  2. Wash clothes in cold.  Heating water can become costly. Clothes come out just as clean in cold water and actually last longer in regards to wear and tear.
  3. Don’t heat the outdoors.  Make sure doors are sealed, check the space under doors leading to the outside, and caulk around outside windows.  Proper sealing will ensure the heat you are paying for is staying inside where it belongs.
  4. Use your oven.  After you are done cooking dinner, turn it off but keep the oven open. You paid for the 350 degrees, you might as well let it spill out and warm up the kitchen.
  5.  Use a space heater. In the late afternoon/early evening, begin dropping the heat in areas your family will spend the evening. Try not to waste energy on rooms you and your family will not be using.
  6. Switch direction of ceiling fans.  A clockwise turn will push warm air back into circulation.
  7. Change your furnace filter.  This will ensure that your furnace is running at maximum efficiency. A dirty filter means your furnace is working harder, burning more energy, resulting in higher energy bills.
  8. Shorter showers.  As stated earlier, hot water is expensive. We all know how hard it is getting out of a hot shower when it is freezing outside. Instead of waiting till your water turns cold, get out a little earlier.
  9. Keep your fireplace closed.  If you have a fireplace, keep the damper closed when it is not in use to prevent all that warm air from making a quick exit.
  10. Turn down the water heater temperature.  Instead of constantly having 140 degree water at your fingertips–try turning it down to 120 degrees.
  11. Invest in a programmable thermostat.  You really only need to heat the house to comfort when you are home.  If you leave during the day, you can program it to begin getting warm again about an hour before you get home making it efficient and convenient.
  12. Move furniture. Make sure all furniture is moved away from any heating vents. Blocked heating vents can also be hazardous. Fully exposed heating vents allow the heat to flow throughout each room safely.