Budget-Friendly Heating Tips to Keep Warm this Winter

The cold season is upon us, and for many that means a higher heating bill. Don’t choose between a toasty home and your home budget. Savvy heating tips can help you keep warm without sacrificing your cash. Follow these ideas to save cash and stay warm this year.

Weatherproof

Sealing windows and doors can keep your heating and cooling bills down all year long. This DIY task requires some elbow grease, but it certainly leads to savings down the road. If you’re really looking to cut costs, consider hiring a contractor to test your ducts’ tightness and repair any broken links. This can help you save big in the overall heating costs for your home.

Related Post: 7 Ways to Weatherproof Your Home for the Changing Seasons

Keep Your Heater Working Smarter

A smart thermometer keeps your heater working smarter, not harder. A step above a simple timer system, a smart thermometer ensures you’re only heating your home when necessary. Set it and forget it, and it will automatically keep your home’s temperature stable 24 hours a day. You can even remotely set it up to heat in advance of your arrival when you’re coming home from a trip – but be mindful of pets left home who also need home heat!

Close Your Vents

If you have a guest room, family room, or other areas that you don’t utilize regularly, consider closing the vents in this area and reopening them as needed. Shutting doors and vents in bonus rooms can prevent you from heating an area needlessly and save you cash overall.

Use Winter Curtains

Insulated or winter curtains can do wonders from your home’s heat retention. Using thick curtains, designed to keep the cold air out, ensure that you don’t have a high heating bill simply due to heat loss.

Reverse Your Ceiling Fans

Ceiling fans aren’t just for the summer heat. Setting your fan blades on reverse helps circulate warm air properly, making the most of your heating units and keeping your livable space feeling cozier.

Make Better Use of Your Kitchen

Not only will you be able to fill your family’s bellies with warm soups and freshly baked breads, but you’ll also heat the house with steam and other heat byproducts that derive from cooking. Challenge yourself to a new recipe on the coldest winter days, and save on delivery AND heating costs.

Wear Winter Clothes

This may be a tried and true parent hack, but there’s a reason that parents are notorious for recommending a sweater instead of turning up the heat. Significant savings can be found if you simply seek other ways to keep warm instead of heating the whole home. Low-energy electric blankets and warm attire can keep you toasty without a high heating bill.

Stay Active

This may seem obvious but adding exercise to your home life in the colder months helps keeps heating costs low. Keeping your personal body heat up with healthy movement and exercise daily allows you to keep the temperature in the home at a lower setting overall. Not into exercising? Any movement you can do is better than none, to set your body on creating its own heat to supplement your home heating units.