I am fairly certain that no one likes to pay a high electric bill. And with the epic cold temperatures we have had recently, I am sure that there are going to be some sad faces when the bills roll in next month. *Sniff* But all is not lost. National Cut Your Energy Costs Day was this month {January 10th}, so, I have put together this list of ways to help you save money on heating this winter.
Tips To Save Money On Heating This Winter
Turn down the thermostat – One fast way to save money on heating is to turn down the thermostat in the winter to the lowest comfortable setting. You can even save more cash if you bump the thermostat down a few more degrees when you leave home. Just remember to turn it back up when you come home or invest in a programmable thermostat.
Put extra covers on the bed – This may seem like a no-brainer, but if you put extra covers on the bed, you won’t need the thermostat on as high at night.
Turn on your ceiling fan – Running your ceiling fan in the summer cools you off, but running it in the opposite direction can help warm the room up, by pushing warm air down into the room.
Open your curtains – Letting in sunlight can help warm your home naturally. Plus, it might help you get some extra Vitamin D, which can help alleviate the winter blues.
Change air filters regularly – If your heating system isn’t working properly, it has to work harder – which can add to your monthly cost of running it. One easy way to ensure it runs properly is to change the air filters per manufacturers directions.
Heat only the rooms you need to – I have lived in old houses and they can be drafty. Sometimes, it’s best to close off one room or section of the house to the rest to save money on heating. Then you can concentrate your heat in the area that you will be spending the most time in. You can put blankets up over doorways to help stop the heat from escaping. Also, if you live in an older home, you can put blankets over doorways in the rest of the home as well as roll them up at the bottom of the doors to help prevent heat escape.
Pay attention to fireplaces – If you are not using your fireplace as a means of heat, make sure that it is closed off well. Also, if you are using it, make sure that you have it cleaned and checked out by a professional to make sure that it is safe to use. You can also invest in an electric fireplace to save money on heating costs. Many of these are very energy efficient and can help take the load off of your other forms of heat. I recommend one of the many electric fireplaces offered by Classic Flame, many of which can easily heat up to 1,000 square feet.
Check the seal on doors and windows – Feel around your doors and windows to see if air is coming in. It’s hard to save money on heating if all of your money is going out the door. Perhaps you need to put plastic over windows or you might need to buy items at the hardware store to help stop drafts. You can also get a professional to come in and assess this for you.
Snuggle up – Don’t sleep alone. If you have a significant other, great. Snuggling is definitely a way to help keep warm. No significant other? You can always snuggle pets – if they will let you, haha. And you can also snuggle pillows and stuffed animals. Yes, this sounds silly, but it really works.
Eat at home – Hang out in the kitchen while you cook. It generally gets nice and warm, and since you have to eat, it really doesn’t add any unnecessary charge to your energy bill.
Invest in a space heater – I think this is a great idea to save money on heating costs at night. You can turn your thermostat down further and still sleep in a warm room thanks to a space heater that uses less energy. I recommend the Duraflame Fire Cube, which can heat up to a 400 square foot area. If you use a space heater, be sure to always read the manufacturers directions and keep it a safe distance from other items in the room. You want to be toasty while you sleep, but you also want to be safe.
Learn how to prepare in case of a power outage.
We use almost all of these tips to stay warm without spending a fortune on our heating bill!
Is this your house? i LOVe the porch!!
also be sure your roof is not due for repair or replacement- a lot of heat can escape that way and waste money.
No, sadly I have no porch. I do have a deck, though. 🙂
And you are right about the roof. Heat rises, so you want to make sure you have a nice, sealed roof, to keep that heat in. Staying on the highest levels of the home during the winter might help, too – especially if it’s well insulated.
Don’t laugh too loud, but I never thought about the benefits of running your ceiling fans in the opposite direction to push the heat down into the room. I’m not very scientifically minded, obviously. lol Thanks for the tips…headed to turn my ceiling fans on right now! 🙂
Our heating bills are brutal. Any tips are appreciated!
we just switched the fans blades to push heat down!
Yay! I hope that helps you save some money!
Great tips to remember at this time of year to keep those bills as low as possible!
Those are some good tips. My husband started out in heating and air so we pretty much have the bases covered.We do a pretty good job. It gets expensive when we need to fill the boiler tank. Our emergency heat. Luckily that’s only every few years.
Great tips! Living in Alaska, we do a lot of these already.
It’s not that pretty, but we hang blankets on curtain rods over our doors. Some day I’ll get lined drapes to replace the blankets! It’s made a major difference in keeping the heat in.
Oh I have been there and done that – especially when I lived in older houses. You have to do what you have to do to stay warm. 🙂
GREAT tips! Never thought about turning the ceiling fans on, but you are right – we have a switch to have the fans go in the opposite direction and we have skylights which are great when the sun is shining.
We use most of those tips already and it has helped a lot!
We have also sealed the windows with plastic to keep the room warmer as well.
It always helps!
These are all great tips. My father did not have central heat and air until less than ten years ago so I have always been good at finding ways to stay warm during the winter. Lol.
I am seriously dreading my next gas bill. It’s been so cold. You have a few tips here I haven’t tried. Thanks!
My husband and I are always cold and we have a small baby, so we have been running the heat a lot this winter. I didn’t know the tip about the fan. I need to try that.
great tips, we live in Florida – have never used the heater – LOL!
I bet you know your way around an air conditioner, though, lol.
Perfect Tips. Doing these things will save a bunch
I really do need to get a spaceheater for my office. It gets so cold in here!
I try to practice all these tips to save money on my bills.
These are really great tips. I look at it and think of all the things I have to do in the summer which is totally opposite because we have extremely hot summers but not so cold winters here in AZ. I can relate to this very much though having lived on the east coast in NJ for most of my life.
Wow! I bet that was one heck of an adjustment for you moving to Arizona!
I rely on my little space heater to keep me warm. I tend to run colder than anyone else in the house, so I need that little friend!
You sound like my daughter. She is like a popsicle!
These are such good tips. I use wall heaters to keep warm
These are some great tips – especially the snuggling up part 🙂
We have had big bills the past two years with a little one in the house again. But, we do cook more “winter” meals in order to take advantage of the extra warmth (and yummy smells) in the house from the oven. We wear slippers and sweatshirts a lot. We also do shut off certain vents where we dont need those rooms toasty. It is scary how cold it has been and even with taking some savings measures I am terrified of getting this next bill… and dreaming of spring and warmth!
Good tips. We all need to have a warm house, but he price is unreal. I just got a bill today….crazy! I’ve never paid this much. Having a cheaper bill would be great.
These are great tips, our bill was awful this month!
On the days that were close to or below zero, we actually put blankets over the doors to keep out the breeze! This is also the first year we put plastic on the windows and boy am I glad we did! Great tips, thanks for sharing!
These are great tips for saving money on heating and being more efficient in the way we use energy during cold months.
It’s cold here. I definitely need this!
Love these tips. Heating bills in the winter crush our budget!
I do just about all you suggest. Don’t have a ceiling fan or a space heater, but do the others.
1. Wear a sweater and socks while in the house.
2. Wrap up in a blanket or quilt while watching TV, reading or playing games.
3. Make and eat warm meals/drinks.
Great tips. I love having stews and soups this time of year just to help warm me up. 🙂
We use our fireplaces a lot so that helps us keep our bill down. I also will use several covers, great tips!!
We put an extra blanket layer on the bed and put either a store bought or towel under doors. We also close vents in rooms we don’t use.
We put extra blankets on the beds and for throw in the sitting rooms. We keep the heat regulated in the house, weatherproof the windows in fall.
I have been this for years. My grandmother never heated bedrooms. I was raised to conserve every way possible. She even made pillows out of rice and heated them by the stove to put in the bed to help keep your feet warm.
We have made pillows with rice, too, but not for that purpose. I have used them to help with headaches or muscle pain. That is a very cool idea. Your grandmother sounds like a smart lady.
Great tips! I use a lot of these to save money!!
I have used most of the tips and I put plastic over the windows that I know would help also. tfs
I agree using a space heater is a great option. I do that when I take showers in the winter time.
All great ideas. The one I love is the eat at home. I will cook something in the oven and after it is done I leave the oven door open a crack to release the heat into the kitchen. Makes it nice and cozy while eating!
I love that idea about leaving the door open to the oven while it cools!
And also: wear slippers!
That is definitely true. Once my feet get cold, it is really hard to warm back up.
Thank you – we just changed our air filters today because of you!
Yay! I hope it helps you save money in the long run. 🙂
It’s especially hard right now to keep our heating bill down. I’m just over the IL/IN border from Chicago and it’s already been nearly two weeks since temperatures plummeted and the snow hit here. Prediction is for -9 overnight tonight, and as they say about Chicago, it’s not the cold, it’s the wind chill. I have five Treeing Walker Coonhounds, and I have to rush them in from potty time or their feet start hurting from the cold (I’ve had to carry my deaf hound girl, Ran, in and have had to coax my senior girl, Suki, in a number of times since the arctic temperatures hit. Of course, opening the door to let the dogs in and out really wastes heat, too, so I make sure to do it quickly. We’ve been keeping the thermostat down and layering clothing in the house, but I still dread thinking about our next utility bill.
When it is that cold, there is only so much that you can do, unfortunately. I am in NC and my husband just told me we are supposed to get down to 10 here, with a wind chill of 0. That isn’t as cold as you have it, but I am still dreading it. Good luck tonight.
wow, we do all the above….I am so proud of myself
sibabe64 at ptd dot net
Yay! I hope that you are saving tons of money on your electric bill. 🙂
These are great tips and we do most all of them, other than turning down the thermostat. My elderly mother in-law lives with us and she’s always complaining of being cold, so she keeps it rather toasty. She has been paying the bill, so I don’t mind running around in my tank top when it’s zero degrees outside!
We have a very unusually drafty house. Certain areas stay more heated than others and other areas hardly keep the heat in. I think I’ll have to try the method of closing off one room (since we use rarely use it) so heat doesn’t escape into it. The other problem is that we have a very high ceiling in one area, so heat doesn’t stay in that space as there’s too much room, so adding extra warmth through a space heater when we sit there would probably be a good idea. Thanks for these tips!
Our house is sort of like that. One end stays cooler. It’s where the bedrooms are, though, so I don’t mind it, as I like to sleep in a cooler room anyway. We have a space heater in there and we turn it on a few minutes before we go to bed to knock the chill off a bit.
Need to save as much as we can in winter time.
Linda
Careful with closing off unused rooms. We were doing that with 2 bedrooms but they had bathrooms on the other side and the drain pipes were freezing. Rather than burst pipes we opened the bedrooms but that’s because it’s been below zero a lot of days this year. Otherwise we do it all the time
That is definitely important to think about. You don’t want pipes bursting. You could also use heater tape to help keep the pipes from freezing. I know that that is important with mobile homes, as well.
Oh my gosh, this polar vortex is miserable! Thanks for the tips. I’ll try some.
I use alot of these great tips!Our power bill did go up during the holidays a little because we had guests for a week but hopefully it will go back down next billing cycle.I am so ready for spring!
Me too! I hope that your bill is a lot smaller the next time. 🙂
I have done all the above and plan on trying to find other things to save on as well.
Great tips. I did not know some of theses ideas.
These are some really good tips that I can use to stay warm in the future. Thanks a lot.
These are great tips! I use a small space heater.
my electric bill is over 300 dollors in the winter and I hate it. we have tried different things but I use electric heat and it expenive
Oh no. I used to live in an old house years ago with electric baseboard heat and the bill was crazy high. I feel your pain. 🙁
All wonderful tips to save. I am big believer in heating only rooms you need!
These are all really good tips. I agree wholeheartedly about closing off the vents to the rooms that you are not using. It really does help on the heating bills.
I sure hope it saves on money. I’m moving into a new apartment soon and will be trying this!!
We do all of the money saving tips that we can. Sometimes opening our curtain does not work since there hasn’t been much sun.
Instead of heated bags of rice to keep your feet warm in bed try a Pomeranian. A couple hundred years ago people did use their dogs to keep warm on cold winter nights. I have 7 Pomeranians and if I ever switch from my daybed to a queen-size they’ll be more than 2 sleeping with me.
We have a queen size bed and it’s me and the hubs and our chihuahua, Puppy Mister, and our other mix doggie, Daisy Baby. Dogs are like your own little space heaters. 🙂 I find it so amusing how they crawl way down in the covers without the slightest fear that the gigantic monsters they are sleeping with will smoosh them flat. We have been sleeping this way for like 7 years – no smooshed doggies yet. 😉
We do all these tips except we didn’t know about turning the ceiling fan on.