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Home & Garden Articles
Take Steps to Winterize Your Home
Wed 13 Aug 2008 - 11:40
Take Steps to Winterize Your Home
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Martin_Lukac]Martin Lukac
It is that time of year again. Reports indicate that fuel costs and heating expenses may be lower this year than last. But that isn't a reason to find ways to save on your heating. In fact, reducing your heating costs is one of the easiest ways you can save money.
If you live in a cold region of the country, you could be spending 25% to 50% of your monthly budget on your heat bill. Yet, heat is a necessity. You can't go without it. But you can cut your costs.
On a cold morning make a trip through your home. Identify areas where the heated air is leaking out. A good way to tell is that you will feel cold air coming in. This happens around doors, windows, fireplaces and other drafty areas. Did you know that you can even lose heat through your electrical outlets? But some outlet safety covers and stop that easily. If your house is poorly insulated, you may find that a little extra insulation could really save you money.
Take a trip to the store and buy some weather stripping, door sweeps (you can make those little tubes filled with rice yourself to stop the drafts) and other winterization goodies. There are films you can put over the outside of your windows. Hang heavy curtains or blankets over your windows. If your door is still leaking air after weather stripping, hang a curtain over it as well. You can just pull it over to the side when the door is being used.
You will be surprised at just how much a few curtains or quilts on the windows and doors will save you.
And you probably use your kitchen and bathroom ventilation fans to suck out heat during the summer. Well if you leave them running too long in the winter, they will suck out the heat in your home. Use them sparingly. I've heard it said that a bathroom vent can suck all of the heat out of a medium size home in about an hour.
You should not heat the rooms in your house that you don't use regularly. If you have a guest room or other rooms that aren't used close the doors and close the vents. No need to heat what isn't used.
You can put on a sweatshirt and turn down the heat. Make sure that your furnace or other heating equipment is in working condition. Poorly tuned units will use more fuel. Keep your thermostat set at 68 to 70 degrees during the day and 60 to 65 degrees at night. Don't play with it. Having the heat higher won't warm a room any faster -- it just costs you money.
Oh, and make sure the damper on your fireplace is closed when you aren't using it. We never had one before and didn't use it last winter at all. When I figured out the fireplace last week I realized why our heating bills were so high last year. It was open all winter -- just sucking out the heat and money from our home.
There are many ways to cut your heating costs. It can be surprising how little it takes in effort to save quite a bit of money. Take the time to start winterizing your home now.
Martin Lukac represents RateTake [http://www.ratetake.com]Mortgage Loan marketplace. RateTake matches consumers with multiple lenders offering low [http://www.ratetake.com/refinance.html]Refinance rates from our network of accredited lenders.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Martin_Lukac http://EzineArticles.com/?Take-Steps-to-Winterize-Your-Home&id=344098
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