How to Harvest Heat in a Home

Stay warm at home

For most of us, the cost of heating our home during the cold weather months takes a significant piece of our monthly income. Sure, we know we can reduce our heating costs by adding insulation and installing new weather stripping and caulking-but wouldn't it be nice if we could come up with some ways to help heat our home without spending money? Fortunately, we have a number of existing heat sources already in our homes-and by harvesting some of the heat from these unusual places-you can actually lower your total home heating bill. Here are some ways to do it.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Start in the bathroom. Instead of turning on the exhaust fan when showering, leave it off. After you get out of the shower open the door and allow the steam to escape into the rest of the house. In a minute you'll be able to dry off in the still warm bathroom, but the heat from the hot water will now be in your home instead of up the exhaust vent. As an added bonus, the moisture you've added to your dry indoor air will also help make you feel warmer.

2. Follow up adding moisture to the air by simply placing a large pot of water on the stove and letting it simmer. Here again, the heat from the stove combined with the moisture will make your home warmer. This can be in lieu of having to buy a humidifier and leaving it running.

3. Run your dishwasher during the early evening (rather than after everyone has gone to bed). Some heat will escape while the dishes are being washed, and if you open the dishwasher door after the dishes have been washed, you'll have another source of heat and moisture.

4. Roll old towels or blankets torn into strips into long tubes and place them along the bottoms of windows and doors. They will do the same job as weather stripping and prevent drafts and cold air from getting inside-plus, you'll be finding a second use for those old blankets and towels.

5. Keep the warm air inside your home by placing a piece of approximately 2 foot-by-3 foot plywood over the mouth of your fireplace to prevent drafts going up the chimney when you're not having a fire. Adding some foam onto the backside of the board and a coat of paint on the front will make the board more effective and attractive.

6. Installing a dryer heat saver into the exhaust pipe will deflect heat from the dryer back into your home. A vent costs less than $20 and should quickly pay for itself. (There is usually a damper in the heat saver you can adjust to allow hot air to pass out of your home in the summer.)

Tips & Warnings

• Old-style incandescent light bulbs generate heat as well as light.

• Remember to turn off the pot of steaming water when you leave your home or go to bed. If the water evaporates and the pot boils dry, it could cause a fire.