Saving Money on Winter Heating Winters can be brutal and with them inevitably come the related and equally brutal utility bills. Utilities can cost the renter, landlord, or homeowner thousands of dollars each year; hundreds of those dollars coming in the cold winter months alone. Saving money on utilities will start by saving the energy that you have already paid for. Conducting a home energy audit on your home will greatly increase the money you can save on winter heating bills by exposing the weakness of the home.
Losing Heat Air leaks and places that lose heat regularly exist throughout the home and these areas of concern need to be addressed before any real money saving can happen. Doors and windows will be the first culprits to deal with when maximizing your home’s effectiveness at retaining heat. Precious, and expensive, purchased heated air will get suck out of the home through the doors and windows of the unit. A homeowner, tenant or landlord can fix this issue by installing weather stripping around the molding and base of the doors and windows in a home. Weather stripping is insulation that will seal a vast majority of the leaks surrounding window pains and door frames. Weather stripping will not, unfortunately, stop all wasteful leaking from a home. The glass windows themselves serve as a conduit for escaping heat and they similarly allow for breezes of cold winter air to enter the home. This is a common problem and one that costs homeowners and renters hundreds of dollars annually on their utility bills.
Preserving Heat To mitigate this, people should employ the basic, simple, and quickest way to steam the heat loss and brisk cold air entry through the unit’s windows. This means purchasing and using effectively standard window curtains to help block and insulate windows in the home. Providing a curtain to a window is like providing and an extra layer of insulation to the home. Curtains will act as buffers keeping warm air in and cold air out.
More drastically leaking windows may call for more drastic measures. Installing cheap but industrial strength plastic wrap to the surfaces of a window will provided added protection from heat loss and will block more cold air from entering the home. Once the home has been properly secured from air leaks emanating from the doors and windows, a homeowner, renter, or landlord may also wish to consider inspecting the baseboards, foundations, ceilings, attics, and roofs of a structure for additional points of concern. These trouble areas will likewise lead to excessive leakage resulting in even more wasted money. Other options for saving money on the winter heating bill will be more of a challenge to stick to. This is because the number one best and most proven way of reducing the monthly heating bill is by turning down the thermostat in the home. With the home or apartment tightly secured from every possible leak of heated air, the unit will be able to stay warmer for longer. This will dramatically decrease the amount of money it will take to heat the home. These tips also apply to mobile homes, especially mobile homes in Utah. Utah winters can be brutal, so mobile homes in Utah need to be bolstered and protected from the winter chill.