How do you save money on heating your house? (fireplace, furnace, windows)

[BHappy2Day]

Now, I know there are some very easy "known" ideas how to save money on heating your house but what do YOU do? Things that the "average" person wouldn't think of..........

[cdelena]

1. We don't keep it very warm... 68 usually.
2. Don't heat when we are gone.
3. Careful to keep doors and windows closed using shades and curtains to minimize heat loss.

[Cosmic]

There is no magic bullet.

Turning down the thermostat is a bit of fool answer.

The best approach is a complete attempt to find every air leak in all the forms they can exist. Then high quality doors and windows properly installed. Very well done insulation skillfully installed, as much as you can afford.

It all comes down to the climate, amount of air leakage (that can be expressed as number of volume turnovers in an hour) and how well the home resists temperature changes.

The other main way of saving on the heating bill is have the highest efficiency equipment possible installed. One common waste is to allow too much heat to go up the chimney. Old heating plant is a typical cause of high heating bills. Some might even be well below 50% efficient.

No minor trick saves that much. But programming the heat to be in a high comfort zone when the house is occupied is one good way. Same for sleeping hours, heat can be set back. Turning the heat to minimun when not required for human comfort is always a good policy.

Nothing beats a well constructed house designed for energy efficiency. Nibbling at the edges of the problem isn't the way to approach heating bills. Getting a source of cheap or free energy is the other way to beat high heating bills. Either you plug in a lot of cheap BTU's or you conserve the ones you got like crazy.

[veuvegirl]

If you have an older house, the windows really lose a lot of heat. You can buy rope caulking to prevent drafts, or plastic wrap that you 'blow dry' onto the windows. These are great solutions!

[humboldtrat]

Put a blanket on the water heater.

I have also insulated all the hot water pipes throughout the house (mostly in the crawl space) to prevent heat loss.

[BOBBB17037]

I use a programable thermostat, it turns the heat up to 68 at 6am and back to 62 at 730am and back up to 68 at 5pm and down to 65 at 9pm . During the day the only one home is the dog and her fur helps her stay warm. I also have a gas fireplace in the family room where we spend out evenings. On a side note my ex-wife believed that if you turned the thermostat up to 90 it would blow 90 degree heat but turning it to 68 would only blow 68 degree heat

[andreaspercheron]

We have oil heat so we really try to save. We put plastic over all the windows, hang blankets in between bigger hallways (esp near the thermostats), we keep the heat literally only warm enough to keep the pipes from freezing and our house is very cold, yes.
We wear heavier clothing while in the house and basically use our wood burning fireplace and huddle around it to warm up before going to bed.

[Coldjensens]

We have 4 thremostats. Thus weonly heat the parts of the house that we are in. At night heat upstairs and basement. Eveningsand mornings,kitchen and parlors during the day, turn them all way down.

[kcam213]

How far down can you turn down the heat without

#1 cause damage to pipes and

#2 cause the house to become so cold that you are wasting energy running the furnace on full blast to get back to comfort zone?

[deckdoc]

Originally Posted by kcam213

How far down can you turn down the heat without

#1 cause damage to pipes and

#2 cause the house to become so cold that you are wasting energy running the furnace on full blast to get back to comfort zone?

50 usually works fine~

inovative ways to lower heating bill~ set thermostat to 50 for winter and went to Az. I walk to Christmas dinner in shorts!