Money Saving Tips: Save Up to 30% on Your Heating Bills

Well, winter is over and we're past the horrendous money blood-bath that many of us took when it came to our heating bills. Earlier in the year, I posted Money Saving Tip: Save Up to 50% on Your Heating Bill with Three Simple Tasks that gave some great tips for saving on heating costs. I thought I'd celebrate the end of the winter season with the final four tips from the original article -- tips that can help us save up to 30% on our heating bills (next season). Here they are:

• Open curtains during the day to capture the sun's heat, and close them at night to keep warm air from escaping. Saves up to 12%.

• Wrap your water heater tank in a precut insulating jacket to reduce heat loss through the walls of the tank. Saves up to 9%.

• Caulk and weatherstrip around doors and windows. Saves up to 6%.

• Channel warm air only where you need it by shutting doors and heating vents in unused rooms. Saves up to 3%.

The ones we'll need to work on next year are the first three:

• We do open the curtains to let the sun's heat in, but my wife continually leaves them open way past dark (I usually close them when I get home from work) and thus hurts our savings a bit.

• We don't have a wrap on our heater, but ours is fairly new. Does anyone know -- are the new ones built to minimize heat loss already?

• We need to find a good solution for our front door -- a double-door monstrosity that has a removable center -- great for moving in large items, but bad for combating heat loss. We've tried several options, but haven't been able to find anything that blocks the cold completely.

One last thought: if this set of tips can save us 30% and the last set can save us 50%, does this mean that by doing all of them we can save up to 80% off our heating bills? ;-)

Comments

[Dus10]

You probably do not need to worry about the insulation on the water heater. You can do a touch test... if it feels warms, you are losing heat. If it feels about room temperature, you are probably fine. Warning: do not touch the pipes, unless you want to get burned. Also, be catious when touching the water heater. If you can feel the heat radiating from it without making contact, it may be hot enough to burn you. /disclaimer

Newer water heaters are pretty good about heat loss. I am considering switching to a tankless, on demand, water heater. The sooner you switch, the quicker you get a return on your investment. I think that is a good way to cut your energy costs yearround.

[Personal Finance Blogger]

We bought a new water heater last year (also without a blanket). I am not convinced that it needs one as it is not even warm to the touch. I would think wrapping your hot water pipes where they are exposed would provide greater savings in your situation.

[Personal Finance Blogger]

Dus,

I did a fair amount of research on the tankless heaters. The added cost over a newer, more efficient tank-based heater is significant. For us, who spend about $15 a month on hot water it just didn't make sense to pay double the cost. With the number of bathrooms we have we would have needed a couple of units too in order to meet potential demand.

[Tanya]

Just a comment re: leaving curtains open during the day. In certain areas where there is a tremendous amount of sun as is the case in my area (Southern California), you risk sun damage to furniture, carpets etc. (sun bleaches the fabrics) when leaving curtains open all day. The money you save might not be worth the money you spend reupholstering and/or purchasing new items.

[SF]

Have you ever tried air-activated hand & foot warmers? They are great, I think low cost (.69 cents to $2.00) and Very effective for Cold Weather, back pain, or arthritis! I have always had cold hands and feet and started using their hand warmers at a young age for skiing, but now I use the thin adhesive body warmers and hand warmers everyday!
I prefer the brand - Grabber Warmers - because they last the longest and can be purchased at just about any sports store and hardware store, Bed, Bath & Beyond. Grabber also has so many different types of warmers to choose from: ear, hand, body, foot and toe warmers….now they just need to come out with a cooling product for me in summer time. Handwarmers only run about $.60-$1.00 and they last all day! The Adhesive Warmers are my #1 Favorite! Yep, I'd say that if you cannot afford to move to the south in winter or afford to pay the huge heating bills that come from cranking up the heat, then Grabber Warmers are the financially smart trick to staying warm this Christmas and keep your heating bills low! I buy warmers from www.warmers.com

[SexCpotatoes]

Yeah, that post was blatant advertising. Don't listen to that post up there.