We’ve covered how to reduce summer bills in a two-part series. For winter, we’ve also covered expensive resistive electric heating. This is part 1 of a two-part series about cutting winter bills by looking at how to reduce inefficient space heating. In this article, we first cover things you can do before hiring a professional to help.

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What is Space Heating?

Space heating just means heating the space in your home. You can also think of it as heating the air in your home and keeping that warm air in. There are several factors involved in making it efficient. Space heating can become inefficient for different reasons, e.g. you could have a poorly functioning furnace, a poorly insulated building or some easier-to-fix habits.

If it’s from a poor furnace or bad insulation, it may require a professional to determine. Before you hire a professional, check out this good article from SmarterHome reviewing some of the energy saving tips. If you are a Californian, also check out government sponsored programs from Home Upgrade California.

Easier or DIY First

One of our principals is to avoid big upfront costs, let’s review some smaller actions you can take that may surprise you how much you can save on your winter energy bill. So, in part 1 of this two-part series, we will first review the easier or DIY stuff first. Just scan through them to see if they apply.

Ensure Thermostat is Properly Programmed

Here are the general recommended settings for an energy efficient home from the Department of Energy:

• In the winter, set your thermostat to 68 degrees F when you’re awake at home, and set it lower (e.g. 60 degrees F) when you’re away or asleep.
• When you’re out of town, use the hold or vacation setting and lower your energy usage
• Best option: only heat and cool the individual rooms you occupy with a room-specific thermostat or closing vents in unused rooms.

The idea is to only heat rooms when you’re there to enjoy it.

Want to know about setting your specific thermostat? Start by thinking about the following times in your household: wake, day, evening, sleep. Be sure to think about this for each day of the week. EnergyStar has outlined some good guidelines to follow for setting programmable thermostats.

Here is al video from Home Depot that may cover your thermostat features. If you have a different model, you should search online for instructions specific for your model. You can also try to call the manufacturer and get support that way.

A few thermostat myths debunked:

• Your heater does not work harder by having to re-heat your home in the morning. Actually, on average, if you turn the thermostat down by one degree F for eight hours every night, you’ll use about 1% less energy. The same is true for your AC.
• Your heater won’t heat up any faster if you turn the temperature higher. The speed of the temperature settings are wired into the device so you’ll just end up wasting energy by cranking your thermostat.

An EnergyStar study found that about 50% of homes manually override their programmed thermostat. Clearly many thermostats are not properly set or there are some other HVAC issues in the home that need to be addressed.

Plug Winter Air Leaks with DIY

There are several methods to consider in plugging up the air leaks in your home:

• A brief introduction and overview of possible projects: here
• A good introduction to weatherization: here
• A step-by-step guide on DIY sealing and insulation throughout the house from Energy Star: here
• An article on how to check and seal leaky windows: here
• A video on sealing up an external door: here
• An article on how to seal your attic hatch: here. A video on adding foam weatherstripping and insulating the hatch.
• A video on how to seal a door to the attic: here
• A full video series on how to seal your entire attic: here
• Another article on weatherstripping doors and windows from Energy.gov: here

A leaky house doesn’t just cause your heater to work more, you also probably aren’t as comfortable! Luckily, these types of issues aren’t too hard to find, fix and be done with. Fixing a leaky house will help with comfort, air quality, and lower your energy costs all at the same time. You can use various resources online or from your library to learn how to plug up these leaks yourself or you can use a contractor.

Insulate Your Pet Door

If you feel a draft coming from your pet door in the winter months, there are several products you can buy with more insulation. However, if you are feeling a bit handy, here are some DIY (Do-It-Yourself) projects on how to upgrade an existing pet door and build your own insulated pet door.

Also, we have written a two-part series on cutting energy bills for pets.

Add HVAC Zones to Minimize Heat Loss

Multiple HVAC zones mean that the heating and cooling duct work is built to deliver different temperatures to different zones in your home.

I don’t have HVAC Zones

If you only have one temperature zone in your home, one quick-trick you can do is close the air vents for rooms you are not trying to heat or cool. This may fix the issue by itself! If you haven’t heard about different HVAC zones in your home, you may not have it. Most people do not.

I have HVAC Zones

If opening/closing vents isn’t enough, you can look at a single thermostat that supports one or more secondary remote thermometers. This will help if the thermostat is currently in one location, while the rest of the house is a completely different temperature.

Maybe I want HVAC Zones

You can read more about temperature zones in this article. You would benefit from having multiple “zones” in your home in order to program different target temperatures if your home needs it.

Research HVAC Options before Equipment Dies

You should look at the age of your equipment and consider either retrofitting it or replacing it. Sometimes an overall replacement is a better way to spend your money than retrofitting it to last a little longer so consider both before acting on one. And certainly before you purchase anything, review your other recommendations and act on any easy air leaks to make sure your home is as efficient as possible. This will help assure you size the unit appropriately and don’t pay too much for more than you need in your home.

About an Old Heating System

Your old heater may have an efficiency of 56-70% while new units today can be as high as 98.5%. This means they would turn most of the fuel into heat with very little waste!

Here is an article to review retrofitting your gas-fired and oil-fired furnace or boiler.

Before doing a retrofit, you should also evaluate your options for a new furnace. This will let you evaluate what is right for you and your budget given the age of your system and risk of it dying. Here is an article with a good overview of the process and terminology.

An excellent guideline for purchasing a new heating system is provided by the American Council for An Energy-Efficient Economy. They outline that after deciding to replace your existing system, you should evaluate your climate and budget to estimate your Return-On-Investment (ROI). For instance, if you live in a mild climate, you won’t need the most efficient and expensive unit because the extra efficiency will probably not pay for itself. The site also links to the latest products available to you. Be sure to also check with your utility for additional qualified systems and possible rebates they provide. A good contractor in your area should know about any available rebates.

Clean and Maintain your Heater

Air flows into your rooms through air ducts and filters so its important these are clean and maintained. Here are videos for

• Cleaning your disposable furnace filter
• Cleaning your electronic furnace filter

Don’t Lose Warm Air via Chimney

Fireplaces are certainly beautiful to enjoy. On a cold night, there’s nothing like a crackling fire. However, more than 80% of the heat from a fire moves up the chimney! Be sure to inspect if the damper needs cleaning and is providing you a tight fit. In addition, here are a few steps you can do to make your fireplace as energy efficient and enjoyable as possible:

• Ensure your flue is sealed. The damper usually isn’t enough. You can get an inexpensive inflatable device such as one of these. Here is a good view on installing one.
• Have a secure door and cover to prevent downdrafts and heat loss. Look at fiberglass and adjustable vents.

Close Windows and Doors

Fresh air in the home is really wonderful. However, if you open windows and doors when you’re heating your home, you are also heating the outside air! Unless you like to throw away money, keep that warm air inside and reserve the fresh air feeling for when you bundle up and head outside.

This sounds almost silly to remind, but we have seen some “forgetful” behavior.

Consider a Smart Thermostat for your Thermostat Wars

If the thermostat is a source of contention in your home, try out a Nest Smart Thermostat or similar ones. Let it automatically learn the right temperature for your home. Once it learns your pattern, it will also help you adjust the temp to save energy in the winter.

We iterate once again that we receive no commissions for any retailer or brand for linking to them. They are there to provide concrete examples.

Reduce Central Heater Use with Room Heater

In certain circumstances, a room heatr can actually be a more energy efficient option if you can focus the heat in an enclosed space and reduce the use of your central space heater.

BE CAREFUL: It’s estimated that there are more than 25,000 fires associated with the use of older electric resistance space heaters and 6,000 non-fire burn injuries a year.

The solution? Upgrade to a new heat pump space heater like these, which are 3-4 times more efficient than the old electric resistance space heaters and much safer. And they provide cooling in the summer, too.

If you have to use an old electric resistance heater, here are a few tips:

• Plug directly into the wall. If you need to use an extension cord, use the shortest one needed
• Use a timer to limit its use
• Place a minimum of 3 feet from furniture, draperies, or clothing
• Avoid foot traffic and keep away from children and pets
• Be sure you have one that is safe and energy efficient. Here is a very good buying guide from Consumer Reports. Generally a radiant heater is more energy efficient than a traditional convection space heater, but neither of these types are not nearly as efficient as heat pumps.

Cover Windows with Thick Curtains

One quick and easy way to save money and increase your comfort when it’s cold outside is to cover your windows. Thick drapes are a fraction of the price for new windows and can often have just as big of an impact on your heat loss.

Eco Warrior: Consider Micro Heating

Whole House Space Heating vs. Micro Heating

Heating an entire home provides high comfort but is often quite wasteful, especially if portions of the home are unoccupied for long periods of time.

Another approach is to focus the heating in just the areas of the home that are occupied. This can be accomplished with a number of inexpensive devices, ranging from heat lamps to warming pads to heated computer keyboards.

This approach need not be “all or nothing” — even a single foot warmer under the desk may provide enough warmth to allow the thermostat to be turned down a few degrees.

Try it out! Turn down your thermostat a few degrees in the winter, find out who gets cold in which particular place (feet under the desk? hands in the kitchen? bare legs in the bathroom?) and install some inexpensive heaters on digital timers where necessary until everyone’s comfortable.

Then repeat.

See this website for a description of an extreme case of this strategy.

Another less conventional option is to reduce the whole-house heating and instead focus on heating much smaller areas around the residents. This approach is described here, and will result in very large energy savings for those willing to try it.

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Continue reading part 2 of this series where we cover budget conscious options in considering professional help in cutting winter bills.