How to Save Energy in the Winter

If your heating bills are burning you up, follow these recommendations from Pacific Gas and Electric Company.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Clear Plastic Window Sheets
• Clock Thermostats
• Lightweight Clothes
• Insulating Drapes
• Insulating Exterior Shutters
• R19 Insulation
• Caulking Guns
• Caulks

Winter Home Energy-Saving Checklist

1. Insulate your house. Cover walls, floors and heating ducts as well as ceilings and attic access and basement trapdoors with R19 insulation.

2. Cover your windows with insulating shutters, drapes or clear plastic for extra insulation at night.

3. Weather-strip doors and windows. Caulk any holes or cracks in window frames, door frames, pipes and ducts.

4. Check for and plug any gaps around pipes, ducts, fans and vents that go through walls, ceilings and floors from heated to unheated spaces.

5. Conserve energy in your pool (if you leave it filled during the winter) by running the filter for only 2 hours a day.

Daily Energy-Saving Tips

6. Set your thermostat to 68 degrees F or lower during the day and 55 degrees when you leave the house for more than 4 hours or before you go to bed.

7. Close off rooms that don't need heat if you have automatic thermostat controls.

8. Turn down the heater when using the fireplace.

9. Close the damper when not using the fireplace.

10. Keep your furnace clean, lubricated and properly adjusted.

11. Clean and replace the furnace filter regularly.

12. Use passive solar heating on sunnier days. Open drapes on south-facing windows to let in sunlight.

13. Keep warm indoors by wearing layers of lightweight clothing.

Tips & Warnings

• Clock thermostats that automatically change settings are available.

on 6/30/2006 Let your pooch climb in bed with you, just this once! You'll be so warm, you might even end up kicking him out!

on 2/15/2006 Turn off the stove eye or the oven a few minutes before the food is done. The residual heat that has built up will be plenty to finish cooking the food, and it cuts your energy bill.

It will take trial and error to figure out your specific stove or oven needs, but once you do it will save.

If you normally bake an item for 30 minutes, but turn the oven off at 25 minutes you save 17% of the energy you normally used and the food is still cooked the same amount of time.

on 12/20/2005 Get an electric blanket for each bed in your house. You can stay warm during the night without blasting the heat and wasting energy.

Space heaters are good. Reflection space heaters are very energy efficient and feels like sunlight.

The cost of heating your bed or your bedroom is much lower than the cost of heating your entire house.

Oh, and insulate everything - water heater, windows, doors, etc. Insulation is cheaper than energy.

on 11/22/2005 Open curtains or drapes in early am to let sun in when shining; then reclose them as soon as sun goes down. Try to prevent opening doors as much as possible. Try to prevent opening fridge as much as possible and teach all children the same. This goes for winter or summer. When working in house, I find that if you have on a heavy sweatshirt over another shirt you can actually turn heat practically off until it starts cooling off latter part of day. This has saved me loads of heating costs. S. Burd

on 11/22/2005 In South Florida, continue to set your thermostat at 79 to keep the humidity low. When the weather gets much cooler outside, open windows first thing in the morning to bring the cool air into the house. If you wait until later in the day when the sun is stronger, the house will not cool off and you will tend to blast that A/C even colder than normal. Keep shades closed to the south and west side of the home. When temps. drop below 65, open the shades and put on a sweater. Enjoy!