Coming home to a warm, cozy house during the winter is a priceless experience, but that doesn’t mean it comes without a cost. In fact, here in the chilly Alberta area, you can easily spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on heating your home each winter. While you have no control over natural gas rates in Alberta, you can control how much you consume if you plan accordingly.
Here are a few strategies you can use to stay warm without breaking the bank.
Insulate Your Windows
Windows are a major source of home heat loss during winter. Insulating the windows can prevent warm, comfortable air from escaping your home. It also prevents chilly, unpleasant drafts from invading your home. Preparing your windows for cold weather is as simple as putting up weather stripping or insulation film. For serious leaks, a more permanent solution like caulking should be used instead.
Use a Humidifier
If you’ve ever vacationed to a tropical destination, you know first-hand that warm air and humidity go hand-in-hand. You can bring this cozy combination into your home by using a humidifier or leaving the door open while you shower. This will make your home feel warmer for longer, and can even reduce how hard your furnace works. As a bonus, the air around your house won’t feel as dry, either.
Put Rugs on Hard Floors
Walking on a hard floor during winter can make your feet feel chilly. You can make hard flooring like wood floors, tile, and linoleum feel warmer by laying down area rugs. Rugs can also help insulate your home from cold air creeping up from the basement or crawlspace.
Open Your Curtains
Curtains, especially thick ones, play an important role in your home’s indoor air temperature. Curtains on sun-facing windows should be kept open during the day to let in some much-needed solar warmth. Not only is this a free source of heating supplied by Mother Nature, but it can also help off-set how hard your furnace needs to work. The financial benefits of curtains don’t stop when the sun sets. Closing your curtains at twilight will insulate your home and keep warm air inside for the night.
Tune-Up Your Furnace
Your furnace is a complex machine just like your car, and it has similar maintenance requirements as well. Without an annual tune-up, your furnace won’t run as efficiently, leading to higher energy consumption and energy bills. Changing the air filter every three months will help your system operate more efficiently. For even greater efficiency, have a local heating company do a comprehensive tune-up – it’s worth the investment!
Limit Heated Spaces
Smaller spaces don’t take as much time or energy to heat up as larger spaces. That’s why we think of cabins as cozy and mansions as being cold and cavernous. Even if you live in a larger home, you can close air vents and doors in rooms you don’t use frequently. This will divert warm air from your furnace to the more popular rooms in your home. Not only will these rooms feel extra comfy, but they’ll be heated more effectively and at a lower cost than heating your entire house at once.
Cook Homemade Meals
It may not be the first heating strategy that comes to mind, but cooking can, in fact, warm up your home. Recipes that rely on boiling water or baking something in the oven are best since they release heat and humidity directly into the air. Stews, soups, and fresh bread are all excellent options. Plus, you get to feel good about creating a delicious home-cooked meal for your family!
Use Electric Blankets
Your furnace isn’t the only way to keep warm this winter. Smaller devices like electric blankets add comfort to your life while consuming far less energy than a heating system. Using an electric blanket while you’re sleeping at night can enable you to turn down your thermostat by a few degrees each night.
Affordable Ways to Heat Your Home
Heating your home this winter doesn’t have to break the bank. Using some of the tips we mentioned here, you can make your home comfortable while keeping your energy bills low.
