One of the best things about winter is that we get to put on our knitwear and relish in the warmth of our home but this season often turns into a financial nightmare, when 50% of our electricity bill is spent on trying to heat up our home. There is this misconception that we can’t have a warm home and a reasonable electricity bill at the end of the month but the fact is, it is possible, with a few simple tweaks done to your house.
First off, take full advantage of the sun by opening windows and the curtains during the day and closing them before it gets dark, so you will have warmed up your home and have less use for the thermostat. Speaking of which, investing in a programmable thermostat means it won’t keep the temperature unnecessarily high when nobody is home, and it will work less when the fireplace and other heating sources are running. This piece of gadget is known to cut costs by around 30%. Closing fireplace escapes when there isn’t a fire and other gaps around the house are more ways of keeping much of the warmth inside the house and the cold at bay.
Unlike summer, where barbecues in the backyard are always a good idea to keep the house cool and to avoid having to sweat it out in the kitchen, winter is the time to use the stove and the oven to cook, while warming up your house at the same time. That’s the thing about energy efficiency, you have to work with the seasons by adapting and doing small changes when the weather changes, so that your home can be warm or cool enough, depending on the season you are in. There are more ways you can keep a warm house this winter, without raising your electricity costs, as the following infographic proves.
