Keeping your house warm in the winter can get pretty expensive pretty fast. Heating bills can
rise sharply during the winter months, especially if you live somewhere with very cold winters.
Nobody likes a cold house or big heating bills, which is why most of us cringe while we crank
the heater up a few notches during the cold winter season. Find a good rain jacket for rainy and
wet weather.
Keeping your house warm during the winter doesn’t have to hurt your wallet. There are plenty of small things you can do to keep your home nice and toasty during
the winter for little or no cost. If you are looking for wood heater door seals, look no further!
If you’re looking to save some money this holiday season without turning your home into an
icebox, here are some cost-effective ways to keep your home warm this winter.
Use Insulation
The smallest change that will make the biggest difference is to make sure your house is well
insulated. Though it can be pretty expensive to install, it will be well worth the investment, as
it will lower your heating costs for years to come.
The most important areas of your house to insulate are:
- Attic. Over a quarter of all heat that leaves your house does so through the roof. If you make sure your attic is well insulated, you’ve already solved most of the problem and are well
on your way to keeping your home warm for years to come.
- Windows. Before winter arrives, you’ll want to make sure all of your windows seal tightly
and have caulking around all edges. This will keep cold air and moisture out of your house.
Installing window tinting on your window panes will help with the energy efficiency of your
heater by reducing the amount of heat that escapes through them.
- Floor. Using thick rugs, cover any large areas of your floor that don’t have carpet on them.
This will act as insulation for these areas and protect them (and your feet) from the cold.
- Water tanks and pipes. Installing insulation on your water tanks and pipes is a great idea
for a few reasons. First and foremost, it will help to keep them from freezing and bursting.
Second, it will help to keep your water warmer, longer, which will reduce heating costs.
- Garage. Garage doors are thin, and garages are very large. This makes them very
susceptible to turning into giant refrigerators that can lower the overall temperature of your
house. Garage insulation is relatively cheap and will make a big difference when it comes to
keeping your house warm.
- Take Advantage of Free Heat. If you can, keep the door open while you shower so the
warm mist can escape into surrounding rooms. The downside of this is it does reduce your
privacy, which you will need to consider before you choose this option.
After you use the oven, leave the door open so the heat from the oven will warm the kitchen.
If you do this, be careful that no people or pets get too close to the door to prevent burns.
- Keep blankets, jackets and loved ones close by so you can snuggle up whenever you need
some extra warmth.
- Open the curtains to any windows that are exposed to direct sunlight. After the sun passes
the window, be sure to close the curtains again so the warm air stays in and the cold air stays
out.
Keep It Closed
The principle behind a warm house is that the warm air stays in and the cold air stays out.
That said, you want to minimize the amount of areas that allow warm air to escape and cold
air to enter.
Unused doors. Keep all doors to unpopular sections of the house closed to avoid warm air
heating up parts of the house that you never use.
Unused vents. Like unused doors, you’ll want to keep vents located in remote areas of the
house closed, so all of the warm air is used efficiently in places of the home that need the most
warmth.
Chimney. If you have a chimney, make sure the chute is closed to prevent drafts of cold air
from flowing into your home.
Entryways. This is a pretty obvious one, but if you’re trying to reduce the amount of heat
you’ll need to keep your home wark, you’ll want to reduce the amount of time your entryway
doors are open. Keeping a door open for even 30 seconds can make a huge difference in the
temperature of your home.
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