The way I see things, when all the dust settles, there are
two issues that have to be addressed for any all-electric home like mine; 1) how much
money can I save on heating and 2) what amount of comfort will I have to give
up in order to save on said heating? (Both these concepts are certainly at odds
with each other in that if I keep the house warm all winter, say at 72F or so, I then
get hit with large monthly electric bills). This going on at a time when I’m on a fixed
income and slowly going broke. If, on the other hand, if I elect to freeze to
death, I’ll save a few bucks to put towards my funeral costs. Either way, it seems to me
a lose-lose situation.
Yet, there are some alternatives out there and they don’t have to cost
very much. Here they are in no particular order:
Kill those Drafts
Almost any old house has what I call leakage. That is, air
that come and goes through cracks either in the structure of the house itself
or through various openings around holes through which plumbing pipes enter or
exit the house. A can of foam costing about $6 bucks took care of those in
short order. Weather stripping also works great to help seal outside doors!
Corral that Water
Heater
Two simple things can be done here to lower your heating
bill as much as 10%; 1) set the t-stat to 120F and 2) wrap that sucker in
insulation.
Lower the Thermostat
a few degrees
Some expert once told me that for every degree you lower the
thermostat setting, expect a 12% savings in your monthly electric bills! I’m not sure if that’s
the truth or not and would guess that there is probably a lower limit after
which you really wouldn’t save and still freeze to death. This year, I’ve opted
for a setting of 65F for the majority of the house with a small space heater to
use for my office/bedroom. Oh, and an electric blanket also helps tons!
Manage those blinds and drapes
No matter what sort of window covering you have, keeping
them open to let the sun in and closed at night to keep the cold out makes
sense. You can also elect to use one of those plastic shrink wrap coverings
like those sold by 3M.
They can increase the R-Value of that opening by as much as 90% by creating a
dead air space between the cold window surface and you.
---------------------------
There you go! That was pretty simple and it didn’t cost an
arm or a leg to implement. I hope to do some additional postings as I go
through the winter months to see if any saving actually materialize. Oh, and I'm hoping Global Warming really kicks in too, this year!
