Staff writer
With the first arctic blast of cold, homeowners begin thinking, “How do I keep the cold out and the heat in?” The most common solutions are caulk around windows, insulate more, and turn the thermostat up.
Those fixes do the job, but they can be expensive. Other cost-reducing things can be done around the home to decrease heating bills and cost pennies on the dollar.
Ken Koslowsky of Hillsboro Hardware said there are many things homeowners can do to ward out the cold and keep energy costs low.
He recommends using a small heater to keep an immediate area warm without raising the temperature throughout the entire house or building.
“Adding insulation over windows, with kits, plastic sheeting, or aluminum foil and putting extra weather stripping around doors is also a good idea,” he said.
According to Scambusters.org, other simple ways to cut bills can be as simple as setting ceiling fans in reverse to rotate warm air throughout a room, and changing your air filter.
Dirty filters can not only block air moving through a heater, but can decrease a heaters life expectancy by making it work harder to push air though a dirty filter.
Other simple things to do is keep blinds open during the day to let natural light and solar heat through the windows, and cover windows with heavy insulated curtains at night. Another easy thing to do is insulate your water heater to help it retain heat better.