The Examiner
10 tips for saving money and staying warm until spring
February 17, 9:24 AM
Chicago Home Improvement Examiner
Cheryl Dangel Cullen
Chicago-based builder, Matt Lederer, owner of Mahogany Builders, has his “Top Ten Tips to Save Money and Stay Warm” the rest of this winter through the snow, ice and cold. Lederer has been remodeling homes in the Chicago area for the past eight years. Here's his advice to Chicagoans for keeping warm and saving money.
- 1. Insulate Overlooked Places: Basements and foundation walls can hold a myriad of overlooked energy loss. A hugely unnoticed culprit is unsealed dryer vents, utility pipes and windows. Anytime electrical lines or plumbing enter the home, they need to be properly insulated and sealed. Filling gaps and cracks with expanding foam is a quick and easy way to seal them and prevent heat loss.
- Seal Outlets and Switches: Air seeps in through outlets and switches. Adding gaskets behind switches provides insulation and can help prevent more hot air from escaping and cold air from entering.
- Save Heat for the Rooms You Use the Most: Only heat rooms that are used regularly. Turn off vents in empty guest rooms and garages. Make sure that attics, closets, crawl spaces, and similar areas are well insulated. Fiberglass insulation is standard, but Spray Polyurethane Foam (SPF) Insulation expands to fit the area it insulates. For areas that require specific width, foam is best.
- Let the Sun In Then Prevent Nighttime Heat Loss: Get as much natural sunlight as you can. Sunlight warms rooms naturally with passive solar heating. As the sun goes down, close blinds to retain the heat for as long as possible. Each square foot of window covered nightly saves about 1 gallon of heating oil or nearly 1.5 cubic feet of natural gas per year. South-facing windows receive the most light, so make sure to open those blinds in particular.
- Replace Furnace Filters: Filters collect dust particles, which can clog the filter and decrease airflow. The result: less heat and an inefficient furnace. Filters should be changed once a month, depending on the usage. In extreme cold furnaces run more frequently and filters need to be changed more often. Regularly replacing filters can save up to $60 in heating per year, maintain the longevity of the furnace, as well as keep the air clean of allergens and impurities.
- Adjust Heat Diffusers: Seasonally adjust the venting system. Most vents are coordinated so that they are on the ceiling of one floor and on the floorboards of the one above. Opening baseboard heat vents—and closing ceiling vents—in the winter allows warm air to rise from the floor below.
- Use Fireplaces Efficiently: Keep fireplaces closed when not in use. An open damper allows as much heated air to escape as a 48” window. Turn off heat when fireplaces are in use, and install a glass screen to prevent hot air in the room from escaping through the chimney after the fire is extinguished.
- Minimize Use of Ventilation Fans: Fans in bathrooms and kitchens can displace the heated air from an entire home in less than an hour. Reducing the use of these fans can decrease heating bills substantially.
- Seal Doors and Windows: About 27% of overall energy consumption is lost through doors and windows. Properly sealing them with gaskets, door sweeps, and weather stripping provides secure closures that prevent heat from escaping. Most hardware stores carry a wide variety of products to weatherize a door from the outside, inside or the jamb itself. Most can be installed with tools.
- Install a Programmable Thermostat: Installation doesn’t require any special wiring and can save up to $200 per year. Many older homes have simple analog thermostats that remain at a single temperature. The key is to program them to higher temperatures (68°F) only when people are at home and awake and drop the temperature (60°F) when the home is empty and at night. These settings can save an additional 20-30%.
See Matt Lederer give his winterization tips.