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10 Ways to Lower Your Heating Bills

Dec 06, 2004

10 Ways to Lower Your Heating Bills

Spike Carlsen
The Family Handyman

Special from Bottom Line/Tomorrow

To reduce the cost of heating your home throughout the winter...

Install and use an automatic setback thermostat to reduce heating and cooling costs by 5% to 15%.

Place reflectors behind radiators to redirect heat that goes into the wall back into the room, and save another 5%. (Aluminum foil over cardboard will do.)

Insulate heating and hot water pipes that are exposed in areas you don't want the pipes to heat.

Change furnace filters every month -- or more often if needed.

Get a furnace tune-up to adjust and clean burners.

Wrap the tank of a gas-burning water heater in a manufacturer-approved fiberglass insulating blanket.

Replace worn-out thresholds under doors and weather stripping around windows.

Lower the indoor temperature to save about 2% of heating costs per degree.

Close the fireplace damper when not in use. If you never use it, seal it with a plastic bag stuffed with insulation.

Close off rooms that are not in use, and lower the temperature in them.
First Printed: October 1, 2002
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Bottom Line/Tomorrow interviewed Spike Carlsen, executive editor, The Family Handyman, Eagan, Minnesota. www.familyhandyman.com