Our Vermont winters are not for the faint of heart, and keeping your home warm without breaking the bank takes more than the usual quick fixes. Let’s dig into some practical strategies you can use around your home for real results this winter.
1. Search your home for air leaks
Do a DIY inspection of your home for air leaks. Start by simply running your hand along doors, windows, pipe access points, and outlets. Close a door or window on a dollar bill, if it pulls out easily, the seal isn’t strong enough. Use weather-stripping and caulking to seal door and window gaps. Pre-cut foam gaskets can be installed behind cover plates to minimize outlet drafts, and child-safety plugs can be placed in the holes to further reduce them. If you don’t want to DIY the inspection, many utility companies or energy audit providers, such as Efficiency Vermont, can be brought in to do a full inspection and thorough blower door test to identify air leaks.
2. Upgrade or Add Insulation
Go beyond attic insulation. Check and upgrade insulation in your basement walls, rim joists, and crawl spaces. These areas are often overlooked but can be significant sources of heat loss. Consider foam or pipe insulation sleeves (for extreme cold or pipes prone to freezing) for all accessible hot and cold-water pipes in your basement, attic, crawl space, and garage, as well as those along exterior walls, to save heat and prevent freezing.
3. Insulate and Seal Ductwork
If your home uses forced-air heating, have your ductwork professionally sealed and insulated. Leaky or uninsulated ducts can lose up to 30% of heated air before it even reaches your rooms!
4. Install Radiant Barriers or Reflective Insulation
Radiant barriers in attics and behind radiators can help reflect heat back into living spaces, especially in older homes with less efficient heating systems.
5. Use Programmable or Smart Thermostats Strategically
Set lower temperatures when you’re away or sleeping, but also consider zoning your home if possible. Heating only the rooms you use most can lead to significant savings. If we’re having an extreme cold snap, you might want to set a slightly higher temperature than usual and leave it constant to reduce furnace strain, increase energy efficiency, and protect your pipes.
6. Add Door Sweeps and Weatherstripping
Install door sweeps on exterior doors and weatherstripping on all windows and doors. Even small gaps can let in a surprising amount of cold air.
7. Install Insulating Window Treatments
Heavy, thermal curtains or cellular shades can make a big difference in heat retention, especially at night. Consider window insulation film for an inexpensive extra layer of protection. Purchase these at your local hardware store.
8. Close Off Unused Rooms
Shut doors and vents in rooms you don’t use regularly. This reduces the total area your heating system needs to warm, making it more efficient.
9. Reverse Ceiling Fans
Set your ceiling fans to run clockwise at a low speed. This gently pushes warm air that rises to the ceiling back down into the room, improving comfort without extra heating.
10. Maintain Your Heating System
It’s too late to do anything about this now if we’re in the throes of a cold winter, but it’s a good reminder to schedule annual maintenance for your furnace, boiler, or heat pump for the spring, now. A well-tuned system runs more efficiently, lasts longer, and keeps your home safer.
11. Monitor Humidity Levels
Dry air feels cooler. Use a humidifier to maintain indoor humidity around 30-40%—your home will feel warmer at lower temperatures, and you’ll save on heating costs.
And now, to cover all our bases, let’s go back to the basic tips.
12. Close The Damper!
If you have a fireplace, don’t forget to close the damper when it’s not in use. An open damper pulls warm air out of your home.
13. Don’t Block the Heat
Move furniture, curtains, and area rugs away from your radiators and ducts. Be sure to vacuum them regularly as well to remove pet hair and dust.
14. Clean Your Filters
Keeping your filters clean helps your equipment maintain airflow and run more efficiently. We recommend checking them monthly, but if you have pets in the home or high levels of dust, you may find they need to be cleaned every couple of weeks. Luckily, this is a quick and easy task; you just need to remind yourself to do it regularly!
15. Use The Sun
Use those window treatments we discussed earlier, strategically. Open curtains on sunny days to let sunlight warm your home and keep them closed at night and on cloudy days to retain every bit of heat you can.
We hope you find these tips helpful. Apply as many as you can, and you’ll notice a difference in your home! Call Bourne’s Energy at 800-326-8763 to schedule your equipment maintenance tune-up for the spring.