5 Ways to Cut Down Your Winter Energy Bill

Winters in Northwest Arkansas swing between mild afternoons and hard cold snaps that arrive with little warning. When the cold settles in, the furnace or heat pump runs longer, and the electric bill climbs with it. Some of that cost is unavoidable, but a lot of it comes from small leaks and habits that are easy to fix. Here are five different ways to cut your bill down and help conserve energy.

Stop the drafts and add insulation

Allowing heat to escape through doors, windows, and the roof is just money wasted. Be sure to shut your doors, weatherstrip, and insulate well to keep heat in. Start with the places air is most likely to leak: around exterior doors, along window frames, and at the attic hatch.

A simple way to find a draft is to hold a stick of incense or a lit candle near the edge of a door or window on a windy day, and watch which way the smoke or flame moves. Add weatherstripping where you find movement, and add a door sweep if you can see daylight under an exterior door. In an older home, attic insulation is often where the largest gain is waiting.

Switch to energy efficient lighting

Your lights will last much longer when you change to energy efficient bulbs, and your bill will decrease significantly. Winter means shorter days and more hours with the lights on, so it is the season when the savings show up most. LED bulbs are the common choice, and you can replace them a few at a time, starting with the fixtures you use the longest.

Set your ceiling fans for winter

Ceiling fans are a great way to keep energy costs low, and they should rotate in different directions in summer and winter. Clockwise is the way to go in the winter, so you do not feel a breeze under the fan. On a low speed, a clockwise fan pulls air up and nudges the warm air that has collected near the ceiling back down along the walls. Use the small switch on the motor housing to reverse the direction, and let the blades stop before you flip it.

Change the filter and unplug what you are not using

You need to change your air filter about once a month during heavy heating season. That helps reduce energy use and lets your furnace perform routinely. A clogged filter makes the blower work harder to push air through, and dirty air moves less heat into the rooms. Set a reminder on your phone so it lands on the same day each month.

The fifth step is to unplug appliances. When you are not using everyday electronic devices, unplug them so they are not drawing power. Many chargers, game consoles, and TVs keep drawing a small amount even when they look switched off. A power strip is an easy fix, because one flip turns off a whole group of devices, and it will happily save you a few bucks too.

• Weatherstrip doors and windows and add insulation where heat escapes.
• Replace old bulbs with energy efficient lighting.
• Set ceiling fans to run clockwise in winter.
• Change the air filter about once a month.
• Unplug devices when you are not using them.

A note on comfort and safety

Saving energy should not cost you comfort or safety. If a room stays cold even after you seal drafts, or the heat cycles on and off more than it used to, the system may need attention beyond a new filter. And if a breaker trips when you run space heaters, treat that as a signal to have the wiring looked at rather than resetting it again and again.

For questions about your heating system or your home's wiring, Allied's heating and air and electrical teams can help. Call (479) 278-4508.