Winter tips

Battening down for winter can be a daunting task: making sure your furnace has clean filters, breaking out the flannel sheets and sweatshirts… but no matter where you live or how you heat your home, there are a number of things you can do to save energy and money this winter as well as make your living space more comfortable.

Minimize use of heat

• Moderation: Set your thermostat for a lower temperature when you are away, and consider adding another comforter to your bed so you can turn down the heat more at night.
• Waste not want not: If you have rooms that you use infrequently, turn down/off available thermostats or close registers and doors in those rooms. However, if you have an old heating system, be sure not to close too many registers, as this can make your blower work harder
• Humidify: Moist air holds more heat. Just as an 80 degree day with 20% humidity is more comfortable than one with 80%, a 64 degree space with high humidity will retain heat and warm people better than a dry one. This does not mean you need to buy a humidifier though. Placing a tea kettle atop a radiator, or a few bowls of water beside floor or baseboard registers should suffice. Alternatively, you might also brew some potpourri.
• Cook: Not only can your prepare cheap and tasty meals, but your stove and oven help heat and humidify the surrounding space.
• Let the sun shine in: Open up your shades during the day to let solar energy into your house to help with the heating and lighting. Close heavy drapes at night to act as insulation over your windows.
• What goes up must come down: If you have high ceilings with fans, flip the direction of the fan to push heat down from the ceiling.

Don’t heat the world

• Weather-stripping: Make sure your exterior doors and windows have weather stripping in good condition. Check for gaps and cracks.
• Windows: Use storm windows if available. Close and lock all the windows in your home in order to seal the weather-stripping between the panels.
• Metal is a conductor: Remove any window-mounted air-conditioners to keep them from wicking heat away.
• Plug your plugs: Air can even leak into your house through electrical outlets. Foam gaskets that form a seal behind cover plates are inexpensive and available at most hardware stores.
• Green goo: Think about other places outside air may be entering the house and seal any gaps with caulk or expanding foam as appropriate. One trick for finding air infiltration is to hunt for cobwebs. Spiders usually seek out locations where there is a lot of air movement.
• Insulate: If snow does not accumulate on your roof, you do not have adequate insulation and heat escaping through the ceiling is melting it.

For more tips about home weatherization you can always contact the CEA Energy Advisor.