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Winter is Coming: Top Tips on How to Save on Your Heating Bills

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Heating during the winter months can truly eat into your monthly budget. Here are a few tips to help you cut down and save a little on your heating bills!

The average US household spends more than $2,000 on utility bills every single year. A big chunk of that goes on heating and cooling.

With winter around the corner, the thought of all those heating bills is enough to send a shiver down your spine that’s nothing to do with the cold weather.

Thankfully there are ways to help reduce the cost of your heating. If done properly, you can make significant savings over the course of the winter.

 Read on as we take a look at some effective tips to help you save on your heating bills.

  1. Turn Down the Thermostat

This one might seem pretty obvious, but it doesn’t mean you have to freeze in your own home.

Turning down the thermostat by just one degree for eight hours can save as much as one percent of your heating bill. Turn it down 15 degrees and you’re suddenly saving about a sixth of your heating costs.

Obviously, at some point, your home will be too cold for comfort. The best plan of action is to turn your thermostat down a few degrees at a time. You shouldn’t notice too much of a difference. When you reach a level that’s just too cold, turn it back up a little and leave it there.

The chances are, this will be far below the setting you were using previously.

  1. Use a Smart Thermostat

Another great way to save money is to let your thermostat do the work for you.

Programmable thermostats allow you to set your heating on a timer so that you’re not heating your home when everyone is out of the house. By setting it just for the periods that you need it, you’ll make significant savings.

An even better idea is to use a smart thermostat. This will not only allow you to set different timers for different days of the week, but smart thermostats can even tell when you’re away from home and turn the heating off until you get back again.

By only heating your home when you’re actually there you can save even more money.

  1. Don’t Heat Rooms You Don’t Use

If there are rooms in your house that you don’t use, then keep the doors closed and keep heating to a minimum.

The less space you have to heat, the less energy you will use and the more you can save. If you have smart heating set up, you can also only heat rooms when you’re going to use them.

So, for example, you can leave the heating off in your bedroom until an hour or so before you go to bed, and an hour or so before you get up. That way it will be toasty when you need it to be, but you won’t be wasting energy when there’s nobody in it.

  1. Use Ceiling Fans

Hot air rises. Unfortunately for us, that means a lot of our energy bills are spent heating the top of the room where we don’t feel the benefit.

By turning on ceiling fans when the heating is on, the warm air is pushed down into the room when it most effective. It means that you will feel warmer without having to use so much energy.

The beauty is those same fans can keep you cool come the summer too.

  1. Keep Heating Equipment Maintained

Modern heating equipment is highly energy-efficient. That remains the case as long as it’s well maintained.

If you don’t look after your equipment, however, it can get clogged up with dust or debris, and become far less efficient. It means your system has to work harder to provide the same level of heating, and so your bills go up.

There will come a point when furnace or water heater replacement will actually save you money in the long run, as you’ll be spending less on your heating and can recoup the cost of buying new equipment.

  1. Get All the Free Heating You Can

Just 93 million miles away from where you live, there’s the largest, most efficient heater in the solar system.

Make use of the heat of the sun to save on your heating costs. Open the shades and curtains on the south side of your home and let the sunlight flood in. Thanks to the greenhouse effect, the heat that comes through your windows will get trapped inside, warming your home.

When the sun has gone down, close the drapes again to help stop the warmth from escaping.

  1. Don’t Block Sources of Heat

A common mistake that many of us make is to put furniture or other objects in front of the sources of heat.

Whether these are radiators, heating vents, or any other heat source, you need to leave them as unobstructed as possible. By allowing the hot air to flow freely into your room, it will warm up more quickly. It also means that you’re not wasting money warming up the back of the couch.

Reducing Heating Bills Is Good for You and the Environment

By following these tips to cut your heating bills, not only will you be saving yourself some money, but you’ll also be saving the planet. The less energy we use, the less needs to be generated from polluting sources such as coal, oil, and nuclear power. It’s a win for you and a win for the planet too.

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