5 Cheap Ways to Prepare Your Home for Winter!
With winter on the way and our budgets strained due to the financial crisis, many of us are likely to be searching out a few ways to shave money from our heating bill over the cold months ahead.
The list below can be easily completed by anyone with a pair of shoes and a bit of will. The results can achieve hundreds of dollars in energy savings by the time warm weather returns.
5 Cheap and Easy Ways to Prepare for Winter Heating
1 - Check ALL the Windows in your home and make sure they are closed and locked tightly! Believe it or not, when I walked my own home this week, I found that even though many of them looked closed, the top pane had sunk down about an inch or two! This not only wasted money on my cooling costs over the summer, but would cost me alot more in the winter!
Close the windows tightly, lock them up and make sure no drafts come into your home! If you find that the wondows are drafty, cut a towel into 4 inch wide strips, and putone at the base of the wondow before you close it! It will seal any drafts coming in at the bottom.
2 - Check Your Exterior Doors Weatherstripping! On my own house, I once again found that the back door weather stripping had deteriorated. If you can close the door with no resistance at all, chances are pretty good that the weatherstripping is worn out! If you can see light around the frame when the door is closed, again, replace the weatherstripping.
You can get a kit from Home Depot for about $5 per door!
3 - Remove Window Air Conditioners and Close the Window! Don't laugh... we see them installed all winter long! Even though you don't realize it, the Window units are a direct leak of heated air. Get it out, close the window and seal it down.
If you know you may need a new window unit next year - now is the BEST time to get one! You can find them for dirt cheap in the off season!
4 - Install a Programmable Thermostat! If you don't already have a programmable thermostat, you need to ask yourself why! For under $100 bucks, you could cut 10% off your energy costs instantly!
Head to our Thermostat Auctions page, you will find MANY last minute BARGAINS on programmable thermostats!
5 - Get Your Furnace Tuned Up!
I left this for last because this is the one area that most people will skip. Your furnace or heating system is a mechanical menace, there, I said it! Just like a car or any other mechanical piece of equipment, it needs a little love every now and again. If you neglect it - it's going to bite you in the rear on the first cold day, and leave you shivering, hoping a local service company has the time to come and repair it!
Typical Furnace or Heating System Tune Up - $89.00
Typical Cost of a No-Heat Call on a 30 Degree Day - $89 + Parts, + Wait Time, + 300% markup due to it being cold!
Here in Charlotte, even though I know enough to get by, I use a friends company to handle my furnace tune up, B&E.
What Else Do YOU Do Each Fall to Prep for Winter?
Cmon... share!
Very collection of tips to be followed in winter. I used to suffer a lot in winter as its too cold. But I got a solution to my problem. Thanks.