You don’t have to crank up the heat and break your budget to stay warm this winter. Keeping your home a little bit cooler is best for your wallet and your waistline( research suggests that colder temperatures force your body to burn more calories than warmer temperatures), but you don’t want your home to feel like the frozen isle at the grocery store, either.
Follow these low-cost tips instead to keep warm this winter without having to turn up the thermostat!
1. Dress warm and keep blankets handy. A heavy blanket will keep you much warmer than you think, and always keep your feet covered with warm socks or slippers!
2. Pull drapes and shades at night. Keep cold air out with heavy drapes and cellular shades for extra insulation. During the day let the sun shine through to naturally help warm your home.
3. Wash your windows. Clean windows allow in more sunshine to warm the room temperature.
4. Keep the heat in. Close off your fireplace flue when you’re not using it. If you never use your fireplace, you may want to consider stuffing it with insulation to keep heat from going up like smoke.
5. Run a humidifier. Just as a dehumidifier makes for more comfortable, dryer air in the summer, moist humid air produced by a humidifier can make you feel warmer in the winter.
6. Replace or clean furnace filters once a month. Dirty filters restrict airflow and increase energy use.
7. Move furniture away from heat sources like radiators and ducts. The heat can’t flow if it’s being trapped by pieces of furniture.
8. Rearrange your rooms. Move your furniture around so you are sitting near interior walls – exterior walls and older windows are likely to be drafty
9. Put your oven to use. Bake your meals and leave the oven door open after you’ve turned it off so the heat can escape and warm up the whole kitchen and surround rooms.
10. Drink tea and other warm beverages. A hot cup of tea or coffee warms you up on the inside, and cold hands too!
11. Heat only the rooms you’re using. Why waste the heat? Close doors and lower unused zones, but avoid closing more than 25 percent of your home’s vents to prevent potential damage to your heating system.
12. Keep humidity. Forget the bathroom fan! Let the bathroom steam up after taking a shower and the steam escape into other parts of the house. Not advised for well-sealed homes.
13. Eliminate drafts by applying weather-stripping around windows and doors. Add a door sweep, or roll up and place towels on your windowsills to keep old windows from letting in too much draft.
