Heating your home is simple with today’s technology. There are plenty of different options when it comes to what kind of heater you want for your house. Depending on your location and personal preferences, you can go with a gas heater, electrical heat, or even use something like a wood stove!
The problem arises when you’re trying to contain the heat that you’ve been paying for every month. You can crank your furnace up as high as you want, but the fact of the matter is; if you don’t properly insulate your home, you might as well be flushing your money down the toilet.
At this point, we don’t want you to be alarmed. We know that insulation can be messy, and we aren’t suggesting you tear open your walls and ceiling just so that you can add more insulation to spots that may or may not need it. Luckily, there are simpler solutions to better insulate your home, and it can do a great deal to help you save on your next bill!
An easy and semi-obvious tip; seal your windows. This little tactic seems to be rising in popularity more and more as the winter seasons pass.The steps are simple, and with the complete kits that are available at almost any home store, you don’t even have to worry about picking out the right materials. Just measure the windows you need to cover and make sure that you buy the kit with big enough sheets of plastic to cover them!Putting them up can be done with one person, but it certainly helps to have two. All you need to do is cut strips of the double sided adhesive to fit the outer perimeter of your windows. Once you stick those strips to the perimeter, you can peel away the protective layer from the tape, and stick the plastic on as clean and smooth as possible. After you have the plastic stuck around the perimeter, use a hair dryer to shrink the plastic, forming a tight seal over your windows. Just that thin layer of plastic is going to help reduce the amount of warm air that was escaping before.
Use plenty of weather stripping. It’s the same idea as sealing your windows, you want to close up any cracks or crevices that might allow warm air to escape from your home. You can buy rolls of weather stripping at virtually any home store, and as long as you live in a place with changing climates, you won’t have to worry about having some left over when the job is done. Next year’s winter is already on its way, and you can never be too prepared.Basically, you want to do a sweep of all the windows and doors in your home that lead to the outdoors. A useful trick is to run your fingernail along the cracks near your windows and doors, and if you can feel a cool flow of air or even just get your finger into an opening, that spot could do with some weather stripping.With your strip of adhesive sealer, run it along the crack, taking care to clean the surfaces that you want the tape to stick to before applying. If it is a door or window that does not need to be used, even better! You can add the weather stripping and seal the door/window with plastic. This kind of doubling up is a fantastic way to save yourself some money on the heat bill.
A less known tactic is to insulate your light switches and wall outlets. You can use inexpensive plate covers that are made to be inserted between the outlet itself and the outlet cover that you screw over top afterwards. These can be bought at most hardware stores, and are another great way to cut down the dollars spent on heating.
These tactics may seem like small band-aids on a large wound. But think of it this way; You fill a plastic grocery bag with water. The bag holds the water fine and nothing is leaking. Then you take a sewing needle and poke a series of holes on in the underside of the bag. You’re going to start losing some water, slowly, but surely.
Heating your home works the same way, more or less. As the warm air that you’ve paid to generate escapes from small cracks and crevices around the house, it only adds to the total amount that you pay at the end of the month. For every tiny pinprick that you can seal, it will be that much less that you’ll end up paying in the long run.
