Energy Saving Tips: How to Lower Your Heating Costs this Winter

Heating this winter season also corresponds to fuel bills increasing and most likely, utilities will go up if you miss to prepare your house for winter. Adjusting weatherstripping, eliminating drafts, and plugging holes are just some of the things you can do now to maintain the warm surrounding in your home and limit the increase in your bills.

1. Replace Worn Weatherstripping

This is primary checkup that you need to do for your home, inspect your doors or your windows for leaks. According to Popular Mechanics (via Black Hills Energy), worn weatherstripping may result to cold air going inside the house and these leaks may amount to "seven to 12 percent of heat loss." This also causes you heater to work even harder that might result to a high bill.

2. Adjust Door Thresholds

Check out the placement of your doors, are they fully intact with their threshold? If you're not sure, the outlet advised that, "If you can see daylight under your front door, then you're losing the indoor air you've paid to heat."

Make necessary adjustments if you see that there is a gap. What you can do is "Turn the screws counterclockwise to lift the threshold until daylight is mostly gone."

3. Buy A Portable Heater

One way to help out decrease the rise in your bills is throughe buying a portable heater. While using this portable heater, you can turn down the temperature of your furnace. Pepco claims based on the article that this simple change can save you 3 percent on your fuel bills for every degree below 70 F.

4. Plugging Holes in Exterior Walls

Many miss out on checking plugging holes for pipes, gas lines, and electrical cables, some caulks inserted on these holes may have cracked in time.To prevent the warm air from coming out, you can replace the caulks by sealing it again.

"Seal the gaps with expanding foam. For water pipes under the sink, unscrew and pull back the escutcheon ring, then caulk around the pipe," advised by the article.