How To Cut Heating Costs This Winter
Ever since we had an outragous electric bill a few years ago, I’ve been on a mission to get the amount we pay to the electric company down every year since then. I don’t know what the electric bills are like at your place, but $300 -$400 a month during winter seems outrageous to me.
Even here in New England where we use wood heat to keep warm during the winter months. Over the years I’ve researched and made some tweaks to our basic habits.
Here are my best 12 tips on how to cut heating costs this winter.
Drop the thermostat at night and throw an extra blanket on the bed. Colder temperatures activate our brown fat anyway…you’re practically doing your body a favor {not to mention your pocketbook}.
Wash clothes in cold. Heating water is EXPENSIVE, and most clothes do not need to be sanitized. Your clothes will last longer anyway.
Make sure you aren’t heating the outdoors {my dad would be so proud that I just typed that}. Make sure doors are sealed, check the space under doors leading to the outside, and caulk around outside windows. There is no reason to pay for heat that you are literally throwing out the window.
After you bake dinner, leave the oven cracked.
You paid for that 350 degrees, you might as well let it spill out and warm up the kitchen after you’ve turned the oven off.
In the late afternoon/early evening, begin dropping the heat. Use a space heater for the area the family will spend the evening.
Make sure to switch the direction you ceiling fans turn and turn them on. A clockwise turn will push warm air back into circulation. {Did you know that?! I totally just learned it in my research. Don’t ask me to explain the science behind it, though.}
Change your furnace filter regularly. Making sure your furnace is running at maximum efficiency is just a no-brainer.
Make sure to religiously stick to the basics: turn all lights off when not in the room, try to make do with daylight during the day, etc.
Stick to 5 minute showers.
I know it feels awesome to stand under the hot water on a cold day, but again, heating water is expensive. As the cherry on top, you’ll also save money on water. {Meanwhile, I have a friend who purposely showers at her gym to save money on hot water. I get it, but it makes me chuckle.}
If you have an attic door in your house, staple some insulation to the inside of the door. A lot of heat is lost to that opening–and unless you are looking to heat the rafters, it’s kind of a waste.
Turn down the water heater temperature. Instead of constantly having 140 degree water at your fingertips–try turning it down to 120 degrees.
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 might as well drop that sucker way down, and in the interest of comfort, you can program it to begin getting warm again about an hour before you get home. That way, it’s pretty painless.
So there you have it. My 12 ways on how to cut heating costs this winter.
Please, make sure to share any tips and tricks that I have missed. For more of my money saving tips, pop on over HERE.
~Mavis
Jessica says
Changing the thermostat is a great tip for those who have gas heating. For those who are on a heat pump, it’s more efficient to keep the temperature constant and never move more than two degrees at a time. That makes all your other tips even more important for those of us on an electric-only system!
Allison says
THIS is AMAZING! http://www.nexiahome.com/compatible-products/trane-comfortlink-ii-control/
Its like a smart smart thermostat! You can access it from your phone and tell if your home, or away. I never remember to turn it down when we leave, or if we are going to be gone longer than I planned. I don’t want to heat an empty house!
Kayla says
If you live in SMUDs domain, they offer deals on smart thermostats about 4 times a year and they can be as little as $29. We bought ours last year and it connects to our phone wherever we are as long as we have signal.
Elizabeth says
Some energy companies offer a free energy audit. They check your house for common energy issues and offer suggestions on how to fix issues. If it is available, it might help.
Also, since energy issues differ by area, I have found it helpful to check with my neighbors to see if my bill is comparable to theirs. Your bill is triple what we pay for gas, and we keep the house fairly warm. However, rates could be really different from your area. It’s worth checking to see if your bill is typical or if there is an issue.
Aileen says
Sustainability & waste management is & has been a big issue here in Ireland. We have a government body, Sustainable Energy Agency of Ireland (SEAI) who promote energy saving. You have covered off the vast majority of easy changes. A few others I would add are to switch off appliances when not in use instead of leaving on standby. This alone saves up to 20% of the appliances’ energy usage. Consider changing over time to LED bulbs. Turn off the screen saver on your computer rather than letting it run. Best of luck.
Rosaleen says
It makes me crazy to see lights on when appliances are not in use. The television and dishwasher are two. There is no way to shut off the DW unless I somehow insert a switch on the line. Hubby “has a nutty” if I shut off power to the TV and cable box. He doesn’t like to take time to reset and “warm up” these devices. I’m the one who walks around turning off lights and electric heaters when I realize that he is not returning to a room. Captain Oblivious lives with me…
Angie Smith says
I don’t know how much difference this will make for you because you live in a much more humid area than my dry desert location (Utah), but it may help a little, anyhow, and your readers in other areas may find it even more beneficial in areas with less humidity than you have there. Water regulates temperature. When you bring cold air inside & heat it up, the humidity percentage drops considerably. Putting moisture in the air inside your house can help regulate your temperature so the furnace doesn’t have to work so hard to keep it warm. Steam will help warm the air AND keep it more humid for temperature regulation. If you shower in a bathtub, plug the drain while you shower and let the water stay in there until it has cooled all the way. If you take a bath, same thing – don’t drain it until it has cooled completely. I keep a pan with a little water next to the stove, and every time I take a pan of food off the burner, I put the pan of water on the burner to soak up the extra heat as the burner cools. When I do dishes in the sink, I leave the water in the sink until it has cooled (unless I need to use the sink for something else right away). Good luck!
Layne says
$120 and we have electric everything! Our house is 2100square feet and I keep it at 68-73 degrees. We are lucky to live in a great utility company area and we have a really nice heat pump. We also upgraded our Windows and insulated our crawl space a few years ago! It’s so nice!
Katherine says
We have a yearly rate of $200 per month which saved us lots of money during the long hot summer. We added new insulation and new double pane windows when we bought our house 3 years ago. I also wash 98% of our wash on cold and I hang up most of our clothes and bedding to air dry. This is also good for our clothing and linens. We also installed motion lights in our hallway, laundry room, and our bedroom closet.
D Lovely says
I’d also recommend closing the vents in seldom used rooms and closing the door. (Such as a spare room.) No need to heat the room if you aren’t using it. Also check your energy bill to see if you are charged more during “peak” times, and avoid doing laundry or running the dishwasher during this time.
I’m frugal with our heating, so I keep our house at 65 F during the day, bump it to 67 F during the evening (sometimes up to 68 F if it’s really chilly), then down to 63 F overnight. We all have lovely fleece blankets we can snuggle under if we aren’t moving around keeping warm. 🙂 Also by keeping the temp in a “foreign” measurement (Canadian -so Metric is “native”) I don’t really know how cold it is unless I do conversions, lol.
Katherine says
Our HVAC folks told us not to close the vents in unused rooms as it can make your heating/cooling system less efficient and cause other problems with your ductwork.
Lea says
Okay – the science teacher in me had to comment on the fan thing! It has to do with the tipped blades most fans have. The clockwise turn makes the blades act like a scoop, catching the warm air and pushing the air back down toward the floor. If you have flat fan blades, this doesn’t work. 🙂 In summer, the counter-clockwise turn pushes warm the air back toward the ceiling. In ether case you are displacing the “wrong temperature air” and forcing it to move toward the ceiling, away from where you are.
Note: when I say flat fan blades, I mean that the blade is level or parallel to the floor/ceiling, not that the blade itself is flat. Most fans have the blades tipped at an angle so they are not parallel to the floor/ceiling.
Okay, that’s enough of the science lesson.
Thanks Mavis! Great tips!
Lea
Peggy says
Is this your East Coast or West Coast home? We can easily get those kind of bills in the winter here in southwest PA, and this month and last has been very cold. I need to get some of our outer wall insulated, our 1960 home wasn’t, back then and times before that, I grew up in a 1900 farmhouse, heating costs weren’t an issue back then. Also, I need to insulate the attic above our enclosed 4 season back porch…huge energy waster there, and I need to upgrade our furnace to an effecient model, but those things are all expensive. I will save money this income tax check to get the insulation, that will help in the summer too. Yes, I turn the thermostat down and try to fill in cracks and crevices, and turn off lights!! Much to the dismay of my family, I’m the main one trying to save energy and save cash, although I have to say my kids to think about it here and there. Hubby….work in progress!!
Mavis Butterfield says
West Coast. Oddly enough our bill for the East Coast is only about $110 for both gas and electric.
Lisa L says
I work for an energy company here in the NW and your tips are right on. The only thing I would look at is depending on the wattage of your space heater, you could be spending more using that than just keeping your heat up.
Also, when it comes to ducted heat, closing the additional ducts in rooms that are not used is NOT advised. The system is designed to heat the entire house and when some of that energy is not used, it will actually work harder to make sure all of that energy makes it into your home.
Fireplaces have a negative impact on heating. You actually use more energy burning a fire because you have to keep your chimney open so long.
The most expensive thing is heat. Using your refrigerator, hot water (laundry/dishes/showers), drying clothes and cooking are the most costly. Heating air, water, clothes or food. If you can cut down on those in any way, your bill will decrease. Good luck!
…and my bill for the winter is about $130 for electric (1500sf – one story). We just got a ductless installed (used to have cable ceiling heat – crazy expensive). We do not have gas so it’s ALL electric and we have a well so every time we use water, the well pump uses electricity too…
Donna Perdue says
Unplug all chargers that are not in use. Some of them can pull as much power as a refrigerator. Computers should be in sleep mode or off when idle. I didn’t know how much power they used until one of the tech guys at work told me how much it helped the office power bill when we all started shutting them down at night. It has helped at home as well. I unplug the lamps and clocks in unused rooms too. Vents are closed everywhere I can. Our electric bill is my single biggest expense in the winter months.
Butterflyweed says
Yikes Mavis, $300 is a lot for one month of gas here in Western Washington. I have a couple of guesses as to what could be going on. Sometimes utilities skip a couple of months of meter readings, giving you an estimated bill. Then when they do read the meter, you get a bill making up for those months of underestimated usage. Another thing could be that spiffy new gas fireplace. They can use a surprising amount of gas. Also, check under the house to see if any of the heating ductwork has become unconnected. It could be caused by critters or the construction during your remodel. If that’s the case, you are heating the crawl space rather than the house. This happened to my mother.
Mavis Butterfield says
Oh you can bet as soon as I got that bill I turned off the pilot light for the gas fireplace!!! I am aniously waiting for the next bill to see if there is a difference.
Suzanne says
Ours was $154 which is the highest we’ve ever had (our house is 1100 square feet). I immediately turned down the heat.
Tracy L. says
I live in the Auburn area, my house is a two story and 3200+ sq ft. Gas heat, stove, water heater. My last bill 12/10-1/10 was $155.01. Electric: $63.61, and gas: $91.40. BUT, I keep our heat set at 60 at night and 62 during the day. If we are home and we are cold we just pop it up a few degrees to take the chill off. We all have blankets for when we’re watching tv, No matter what I use, oven, dryer, toaster oven, etc, I always remember I paid for that heat, and leave door open till it cools. I am usually quite busy during the day and am not cold. I make sure the heat is kicking on in the morning when everyone’s getting up and moving, but then they’re out the door. I keep the office, spare bedroom, and bonus room doors shut and vents to those rooms closed as well. I start my day with laundry, then cooking, vacuuming, cleaning. If I’m home I’m moving and all things generate heat. I was with cold water and only use warm or hot for sheets, towels, and the white load. I try to line dry as much as possible. My laundry room has a closet shelf/pole, so I hang dry on that. I also have a folding dryer in the bonus room to dry bigger items, dry flat or bulky items. But I do use my electric dryer about 7-10x per week.
Did your bill cover the time period when you were remodeling? Those tools pull a lot of energy and people going out and coming in loses quite a bit of heat.
Jenny says
You might want to double check with your utility company. One month I got a higher than expected bill and discovered that the meter reader took an incorrect reading.
Penny says
1)research with your electric company if they have TOU rates (Time of use). We have this and are charged extremely low rates (for CA. that is) from 12am-6am. I run our dishwasher, wash machine and dryer overnight using the delay settings. My husband gets up around 4am and puts the clothes in the dryer. We also charge our electric car overnight.
2)unplug any items when not in use. ie: phone chargers, coffee makers, lamps, can openers, toasters, hair dryers, etc…They draw power to be even when sitting idle.
3)Look into Solar Power (we just got it and love it) Again we are in So. CAL.
Gena says
They are expensive but there are “smart strips”. It’s like a surge strip but if what ever is in the main spot is off the rest of the strip is off. For example: your TV is in the main power slot. If it’s off there’s no need to have the DVD player or sound system or game system getting power.
Debbie says
Was your utility bill from an actual or estimated meter reading? Sometimes estimated readings are a little high and then get adjusted the following month when the actual meter reading is taken
Mavis Butterfield says
Actual reading. 🙁
Jonnie says
Use quilts, and such for add insulation over your Windows, and doors. Wear house shoes, robes, and such, keeping your body warm. It’s more practical than heating the whole house at a higher temp, just to be comfortable. We wash all laundry in cold, never turn the heater on unless it is 32, or colder, except for an hour every morning, and one hour every night.long enough for changing clothes, and baths. We keep blankets, comforters, and quilts, to wrap up in, and use cooking to heat the house otherwise. The emergency blankets, over the Windows, and doors, reflective side facing inside, will reflect any heat, back inside to help with the heating bill. Now if only I could find as many things to help us stay cool in the summer.
beth says
i just turned my thermostat down and will drop it even more at bedtime because the possibility it might help me turn some of my muffin top white fat to the good energy burning brown kind is exciting. Imagine losing weight and saving money while doing absolutely nothing.
I did have to Google brown fat to find out what it is.
Beckybeq says
Our house is 1300 sq ft and on a little mountain – so no way to bury a gas line. Our monthly electric bill (the only utility) averages $130-160 for everything. We put an efficient Lopi wood stove in while the US was giving a 30% tax credit on “biomass heaters”. Hubby gets the wood for free from work. Now that the environmental department knows he cuts wood every year, if they have a really nice tree they take down, they’ll drag it out near the road for him. Initial cost for the wood stove & a log splitter was around $4,000. Over the last 5 years we’ve more than repaid that amount. Lowest temp the house has gotten to has been 62 when we forgot to load the stove for overnight. (good insulation helps a lot!)
kelly mcmullin says
Turn your dishwasher off before it starts the drying cycle. My appliance guy says it saves a lot of money.
Mavis Butterfield says
Great tip! Thanks Kelly.
Kimberly says
The places we don’t think of air leaking make a HUGE difference. I’ve saved more money with efficent appliances and sealing leaks than with not using my appliances as intended. Sealing up windows either with plastic insulation kits or something comparable, I have one with gaps in the track that I stuff insulating foam to seal it for winter. The gaps around your doors, make sure the weather stripping is in good shape! My worst leak was my attic, its a pull down so the ladder is on the door, insulation on the door wasn’t an option. I finally realized the weird piece of insulated cardboard was the last owner’s attempt to stop the draft. Double layer cardboard with wood trim glued on to give it some strength and insulation attached to the other side. The trim fits the opening so it seats and seals it from the cold attic air
Gena says
1. We have our electric and gas on average billing and it feels like it really helps (mentally anyway) no crazy gas bill in the winter and no crazy electric bill in the summer.
2. 70 is the perfect temperature for me but if I set the thermostat at 67 it’s not enough to but other me but saves on the bills.
3. Curtains really help as a barrier to the outside temperature. Put your hand next to a curtain then next to the glass.
4. We run a humidifier by our bed when we sleep. HUGE help not only temp wise but air quality too!
5. Lastly get a cat! Mine sleeps on my hip and works like a heat pad 🙂
Vicki says
It sounded like you were reading my mail with your heating costs…
So when you say turn the heat way down in the day, what does Lucy do? Wear her Snuggie too? 🙂 I have a Miss Priss (who weighs 7 pounds) that is here when I am not…I turn it down to 65, but don’t want to get too low because of her. How low do you think too low is?
Mavis Butterfield says
Maybe below 60? Lucy does great at 63 degrees… she pretty much snuggles on the couch or the bed when we are out walking so I haven’t really worried about her.
Kippy says
I’m no longer getting your daily posts via email. Are you no longer offering that feature?
Mavis Butterfield says
Hi Kippy,
I just signed you up again. An email with an activation link has just been sent to you. 🙂
Mary says
Great tips! I think we do all of these things and have for years. We live in the PNW and we now have solar panels on our roof. Our electric bill is $18 a month. We have an electric car and it feels like I drive it for free. LOL. We focus a lot on the gas and water usage. I know in California and Nevada friends catch shower warm up water in buckets and use it to water potted plants.
JulieP says
Great tips, we also open curtains on a sunny day to let in heat, as soon as it’s gone we close curtains to keep in. We turn our radiators down in rooms not using they each have a thermostatic control and this has helped. We have insulated the walls and the loft floor and loft hatches that helped a lot. No gas here in rural Norfolk, U.K. so oil and electricity. We put solar in and although they advised as we don’t have a south facing roof that it wouldn’t be as good, 10 years later it has paid for itself and our bills are minimal in summer and I can like a mad thing! Bills in winter not so great, but less than they would be without. We have an open fire but looking to get a wood burner installed soon! I dry my washing in winter on airers, furnace/boiler in our utility room or living room if we’ve had a fire after we’ve gone to bed