The Home Depot has a very interesting FREE clinic on October 23rd in their stores. It’s on how to save money on your energy bills this winter.

Since prices of everything keep going up, this sounds like a great way to find out how you can save money this winter heating your house!

If that wasn’t a good enough reason to go, when you show up at the free seminar, they’ll give you a coupon that’s good for $10.00 off when you spend at least $100.00. The coupon will be good through November 6th, so you’ll have a little time to use it!

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Right now it is 12 degrees outside…and windy, so I thought this would be a great time to look at ways to keep warm when it is so cold out…without having to spend all of your hard earned money.

The easiest way to keep the house warm is to turn the heat up. While that is obvious, it is unfortunately the most expensive. Every extra degree your heating is set to above 68 degrees will cost you an extra 1%-3% on your next bill…so while it would be great to set the heat to the mid 70’s and be nice and warm, it would be very costly.

So if you’re going to set the heat at a temperature a lot lower then you’ll be comfortable with in order to save money, how do you stay warm?

There are two sets of things you can do. The first is to find other ways to keep yourself warm, and the second is to find other ways to keep the house warmer without setting the heat higher.

Ways to keep yourself warmer:

• Dress warmly. It sounds obvious, but if you wear a t-shirt along with a nice warm sweater, it will go far in helping you stay warm. A nice pair of socks and slippers will help as well.
• Use a blanket. If you’re just sitting on the couch watching TV, put a nice warm blanket over you. Not only will you be a lot warmer, but you’ll be a lot more comfortable relaxing!
• Eat & Drink warm. If you drink hot chocolate or tea, you will help warm your body up. The same goes with a nice bowl of soup. If you eat or drink something warm, it will help warm you up for a little while.

Ways to make your house warmer:

• Use a programmable thermostat. If your house is set to the same warm temperature all day, you’re wasting money. If you aren’t home all day, there is no reason your house needs to be as warm. Also, if you’re sleeping the house can easily be a few degrees cooler and you won’t know the difference. You’ll be sleeping under your nice warm covers!

  This is a great way to save money since you won’t even notice when the temperature is lower. Plus, then when you are awake and at home, you can put the temperature a little bit higher, and you’ll still be paying less per month than you were before you started programming your thermostat!

• Let the light in! You would be surprised how much warmer your house can feel if you have the sun light coming in. If you’re at home during the day, open your shades and let as much light in as you can. This will help heat the house, and doesn’t cost a thing.
• Use space heaters. While they do cost money to use, they cost a lot less than keeping your heat higher, and will warm you up quickly! Just put the space heater on in whatever room you are in, and you will stay nice and toasty, without having to spend a lot of money.
• Use your ceiling fan. While you know that your fan will keep you cooler in the summer, you may not know it can keep you warm as well! Many fans will let you switch the direction of the blades, so instead of going counter-clockwise making the room cooler, you can have it go clockwise, which will help circulate the warm air and make it warmer.
• Use caulk and weather stripping. Go around your house and try to find any place that cold air is coming in. Windows and doors are usually places that this will happen. Once you find these areas, use either caulk or weather stripping to keep the cold out!
• Change your air filters. If your air filters aren’t changed once a month, your heating unit will have to work harder to keep the house warm, and will end up costing you more money.

 Hopefully some of these tips will help you as they have helped me!  I am following quite a few of those at the moment.  I’m dressed warmly, have a blanket over me, have the shades open, and have the fan on.

Keep warm!

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