Use Your Curtains to Save on Heating Costs

I've talked before about how to use your curtains to save on cooling costs, so I figure it's appropriate that we talk about how to use them to save on heating costs as well. Here's how you can do so:

Open your curtains on sunny days to let the sun/heat in your house and close them on overcast days to keep heat inside the home.

I was thinking of this the other day when we had a sunny, winter day in Michigan (which is rare.) I opened the blinds on the south side of the house and it really warmed up our bedroom and living room (which face that side) in the early afternoon. But as the sun went back behind the clouds, it cooled off dramatically. At that point, I closed the blinds to help keep the heat inside.

As I noted on the post above about cooling your house, my wife and I have an on-going battle with the curtains/blinds. She prefers light to saving money, so she'll have the curtains/blinds open even on cloudy days in the winter and on hot, steaming days in the summer. Drives me crazy -- especially since she forgets to close them and the blinds remain open well into darkness (I usually end up closing them all in the evening.) But then again, she saves money in almost every other way, so I guess I can cut her some slack on this one. ;-)

Comments

[Matt]

Also, in your wife's defense....letting in more light could save some money on lighting costs.

[Anitra]

It's a great idea if someone's home during the day... this time of year, no one gets home to our house until 2 hours after dark.

[Matthew Paulson]

It's amazing how well curtains can keep heat in our out. We have pretty crappy windows at college, so a lot of cold air gets in, but we have thick curtains that do a pretty good job at insulating us, there's easily a 10 degree difference between the two sides of the curtains, it's crazy.

[Stephanie]

I wasn't sure if it was real or just psychological, but whenever I feel like it's getting really cold in my apartment, I need to close the blinds. Sounds like there's some truth to that!