When winter comes, everyone wants to stay warm. However, they don't want to have to pay a lot of money in order to be warm. If you are worried about how expensive your heating bills are going to be this winter, there are some things that you can do to make sure that your home stays warmer while spending less money.
Lower Your Thermostat
It seems obvious, lowering your thermostat equals paying less money. So, you might lower it to 70 or maybe 69 in the daytime, and maybe to 65 at night. You should be lowering it more. Try keeping it around 65 during the day, and 60 at night. You are going to be tucked up in your bed at night anyway, so you don't need to have your thermostat set as high. A side benefit is that you will sleep better. In the daytime, if you feel chilled, you can just wear a long sleeve shirt or add some socks to your outfit. After a little bit of time, your body will adjust and find that 65 is plenty warm enough.
Check Your Weatherstripping
This stripping is installed around all your windows and doors. It is used to fill up the gaps in between the openings and the walls. It is supposed to make sure that no drafts get into your house. However, weatherstripping will wear out. If it is old or has gone through a lot of changes, the weatherstripping will start to crack and not fill the space as well. That causes heat to escape from your house. Heat likes to move to colder areas until the temperature is equalized. Leaks just mean you are trying to heat the outdoors, which will never work. You can replace the weatherstripping. In some cases all you need to do is scrape off the old stripping and apply the new, which will have an adhesive backing. In other cases, especially around the bottoms of your door, you will have to unscrew the strip and put a new one in its place. Neither job should take very long. You can see some savings just from doing that.
Keeping the heat in your house and making sure that you are warm is a good thing. Paying an arm and a leg to do it isn't. There are several things that you can do to make sure that you are lowering your heating bills. Talk to a professional like Alliance Heating & Cooling LLC for more information.
