Ways to reduce your heating bill By Julie Young, house & home feature writer
Winter in Indiana can be stressful. Aside from the treacherous icy roads and shoveling the driveway, there’s always the looming threat that the chill will reach inside our homes, causing us to crank the heat and costing us more in the long run, all for a few degrees of warmth. We may not have much control over the snowfall or the roads, but there are proactive and preventative measures you can take to help keep that heating bill inside the home low. Operations Manager for Element Masters in Middlebury Dan Godfrey says that homeowners can save roughly one percent of energy cost per degree when they set their thermostat back. “If you can get acclimated to a cooler temperature in your home like 68 degrees instead of 70 degrees that also obviously will help save on the cost of fuel or electric,” he added. While you’re away, or during the nighttime hours, are especially good times to make use of a lowered temperature. In addition to this, there are many things that could go wrong with your furnace and lower the effectiveness of your unit, forcing you to use extra energy to get your home up to a comfortable temperature. Godfrey says furnaces should be checked once a year to ensure efficiency. If your furnace maintenance is up-to-date, and you’ve acclimated yourself to a lower temperature, or even if you can’t, there are still measures you can take to ensure that your home maintains a comfortable temperature. There are also other potential energy skyrocketing fixtures in homes- windows! Windows that are older, single panel, or not properly sealed can contribute to heat loss within a home. Any home with poor insulation will also suffer from higher energy bills due to loss of heat. “Addressing both of these items can make a difference on energy costs,” Godfrey said. Homes with fireplaces and wood-burning stoves are particularly beneficial when it comes to the cold winter months in Indiana, helping to offset some of the heating cost. Some homes may even be able to rely solely on those for most if not all of the season. If you don’t have a fireplace or wood-burning stove, you can still create an environment that feels warmer using a humidifier. It’s true that humidifiers help to make a home feel warmer. “Higher humidity makes it feel warmer,” Godfrey said. “Just like an 80-degree day in the summer feels a lot hotter when the humidity is higher. Adding some humidity to the home may even help you keep the thermostat cooler by a degree or two.” n Photos: Shutterstock.com
203 Wayne St., Middlebury, IN (574) 825-8824
| Michiana House and Home | December 2021 | 7
