Want to Save Energy on Heating Costs this Winter? Here Are 10 Things You Can Do

13 years ago mncerts 9 Comments

 
If you’re anything like my family, this cool weather gets you thinking about what you can do to save energy heating your home this fall and winter. Below are 10 things you can do in the next couple months (if you haven’t already).

Old Gravity Furnace
Replacing your old furnace (like this gravity or ‘octopus’ furnace) is just one of many things you can do to save energy — and money — on winter heating costs.

Things you should do now to save on heating costs:

  • Change your furnace filter every 1-2 months
  • Switch furnace fan setting from continuous to auto
  • Hire a professional to do a Home Performance Audit of your home
  • Install weather-stripping or caulk leaky doors and windows and install gaskets behind outlet covers
  • Air seal and insulate your house to recommended levels
  • When your fireplace is not in use, be sure the damper is closed
  • Install a programmable thermostat (and program it—see notes below)
  • If you have an old, inefficient furnace, install a new ENERGY STAR furnace

Things you should do when it gets colder:

  • Adjust thermostat from 68˚ to 60˚ at night and during the day when no one is home
  • Grab a sweater instead of turning up the heat

 

 
After you take actions: Be sure to take part in the Family Energy FACE-OFF to join a team and contribute your actions to the Mill Pond Minimizers or Prairie Penny Pinchers! The FACE-OFF is a contest running from Earth Day 2012 to Earth Day 2013 where two Minnesota families are facing off to see who can save more energy, and they need YOUR help!

Meet the competing families, see what they’re doing to save energy and money in their homes, then join a team to contribute your actions at http://faceoff.mncerts.org! Watch this video to learn more:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4sWvJTJxNc?rel=0]

CERTs Family Energy FACE-OFF

Sign up for CleanTechnica's Weekly Substack for Zach and Scott's in-depth analyses and high level summaries, sign up for our daily newsletter, and follow us on Google News!
Whether you have solar power or not, please complete our latest solar power survey.
Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
Sign up for our daily newsletter for 15 new cleantech stories a day. Or sign up for our weekly one on top stories of the week if daily is too frequent.
Advertisement
 
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.

CleanTechnica's Comment Policy