It happens every year, and no matter how hard we all seem to try, we never seem to be ready for it … winter. One minute we are complaining about the heat and dealing with air conditioning issues and forever being too hot and seemingly the very next minute, we are all of a sudden in the midst of dealing with heating issues, wishing for the hot days of summer again.
And no matter which home temperature source you are dealing with – heating or cooling, all the solutions seem to add up to a lot of money. You have to spend money to save money all sounds great in theory, but what if you really don’t have the money to outlay in order to save costs in the long run? What if you just really don’t have the extra cash to invest in a lot of the higher priced energy solutions that are constantly advertised out there in the market today?
What if low energy furnaces or high performance heat pumps or even yet, geothermal heat systems are just way out of sight, but you still want to be more efficient in your home – for the planet and your wallet?
Here are just two very simple energy solutions for home heating that you can put into use right now that won’t break your yearly budget – or next year’s either!
1. Layer, layer, layer! Winter is cold – no doubt about it. So you can sit in your home in your shorts and t-shirts and bare feet wishing and dreaming about summertime, but seriously that just doesn’t make any sense at all. Remember what your mom always told you when you were little … bundle up! And mom always knows right – so even while you are in the house, add another layer – put on a sweater, extra socks, slippers, even a toque if you are really prone to feeling the cold. If you keep your feet and head warm, the rest of your body will catch up. Keep throw blankets around the house and just cuddle up when you’re on the computer or watching TV. Put extra rugs on bare floors to help deter the cold from hitting your feet. And so now, once you get used to wearing more clothes, then you can actually keep the average temperature of your house a few degrees lower even in the wintertime, instead of always keeping it cranked up. Even a two or three degree difference can make a significant reduction to your home heating bill.
2. Add plastic – although not the most environmentally friendly product we produce, when it comes to saving your house from warming up the outside, it’s a real winner. Use plastic window kits to cover up the windows and doorways that you don’t normally use during the wintertime. You can purchase rolls of the plastic for a very small amount of money – the price per window can average out to about $5.00 each. This plastic barrier works to keep the heat in, and the cold out. If that price for you still works out to be too cost prohibitive, then you can always hang up brightly colored blankets or even sheets – if you are imaginative enough, you can make it look pretty funky and even start a new trend!