Cut Your Heating Expense

[dimetime]

One of the largest bills that we all pay for at this time of the year is what ever is used to heat our homes.

This bill can be quite expensive also. No one wants to be cold thats for sure. Though to help keep this ugly bill monster under control a bit more here are a few tips that you can use.

1. Check your home for drafts. There are devices that can do this for you, but a another good way to do it and less expensive is the candle test. Though using the candle test you must be careful not to catch anything on fire!! Simply light a candle and very slowly move it around windows, doors, outlets and anywhere else you believe that your home may be leaking cold air. When the flame on the candle blows around or even out then you will know you have a draft. Mark it on a piece of paper, and deal with it quickly.

2. Make sure that your furnance, wood burner or what ever you use to heat your home is clean and working properly. This alone can save you a great deal of money during the winter season. If your furnance isnt working properly it means that you are not heating your home efficiently as you should be and only wasting money.

3. Its a bit late for this one, but one that you may consider in the comming year. When you recieve your heating bill if your using gas or electric for heat, pay a little more than what the bill totals. This is something that we do here to help decrease our bill at this time of the year. Normally our heating bill is quite high at this time of the year, though because we always pay more on it, our bill is only around $25.00 per month!! That is a huge savings for us.

I hope that these few tips will help you out in cutting your heating expenses this year and in the years to come!!

[carol b]

All of those tips are great for cutting your expenses. I would also consider your basement.

I have a full basement that has an extension in front. Because of a broken window and a door that is often left open my heating costs keep rising.

I have since made a latch for the door so that it won't be open. I fixed the window and no more drafts.

I had another issue however, when it is extremely cold the air from the basement comes up the stairs and causes it to be cooler upstairs.

I couldn't put up a door at the top of the stairs so I hung a blanket over the doorway.

It is remarkable how much of a difference one little blanket has made. Check the downstairs folks it cold be where the issue lies.

[moneysense]

Another very good idea for this kind of weather is to shut off the registers and close the door to any rooms in your home that Do Not Have to be used right now. This will save you quite a lot of fuel by not heating an unnecessary room.

Also, be sure to close all closet doors, no need to waste heat to warm an open closet.

I even keep the door to my bedroom closed during the day because I like to sleep in a room that is a little on the chilly side. This is another heat saver, though inadvertent in nature, it still saves on fuel used.

[beaston]

That's a great idea about using a candle to find drafts! Another way to do a draft test, if you don't have any candles, is to use a lighter in the same fashion.

In regards to the other suggestion about closing rooms off, don't forget that even if you close the door to that room, most of the time there's still going to be a small gap inbetween the bottom of the door and the floor. An easy way to solve this problem is to take a towel or blanket and place it at the bottom of the door.

About 5 years ago I was really pinching pennies, and when winter came around, I would set my thermostat to 60 degrees (I had electric heat at the time)...Thank god for heating blankets!! I saved a ton of money this way, but it was easier because I lived alone. I guess that would be a worst case scenario, but I'd vote for wearing jackets or a couple of sweaters all of the time as opposed to paying a huge heating bill.

I'm not sure if you can still apply for it, but you may check and see if you qualify for the LIHEAP (low income heating and energy assistance) program. Eligibility is dependent on family size and income.

WHAT ASSISTANCE DOES LIHEAP PROVIDE?

Your LIHEAP program may be able to offer you one or more of the following types of assistance:

• Bill payment assistance.
• Energy crisis assistance.
• Weatherization and energy-related home repairs.

Here's a list of state LIHEAP contacts:

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ocs/...es/states.html

[carol b]

Most of these programs are income based. If you have children you may qualify if you don't make alot of money.

I have a propane furnace that I no longer use. We added a wood burning furnace and also have a wall propane heater.

The heater keeps the upstairs comfy most of the time. When its extremely cold we just fire up the wood burner and we are done. Although keeping the wood in it can be an issue as no one wants to run up and down the stairs all night.