The first bite of winter is certainly being felt, time for everyone
to start pulling out scarves, overdose on tea and walk quickly from
heated venue to heated venue. It’s also a time when the way you heat
your home starts to become an all-consuming issue. Last winter was
brutal, and with the rising cost of electricity and gas, heating costs
can become a big financial pressure. So here are some thoughts on
keeping your costs down this winter, drawn from an article on Choice.
The Right System
Heating your house without blowing the budget
is a matter of using the best system for your and your home. First,
consider the fuel. Can you get natural gas in your area? If you’re using
firewood, have you investigated the cheapest options? Are you looking
to use the heater for the whole house, and how frequently?
Insulate
Before you even look at purchasing heating option, insulation has to
be your first port of call. Not only will your house stay warmer in
summer and cooler in winter, insulation is going to save you huge
amounts of money as you won’t be instantly losing the heat you generate.
Check your doors and windows, and make sure they’re sealing properly.
Even simple things, like buying door stoppers can have a significant
effect on your heating.
Cocoon The Room
In order to save money, invest in some thick curtains and blinds for
your windows, as they’re inadequate at retaining heat. Choice recommends
using a lighted candle to discover where draughts are within the room,
and stopping them. It’s also a very smart financial decision to buy some
warm jumpers and uggboots- every degree you increase the temperature is
a 10% increase on your energy use. It might be nice to walk around our
houses wearing only T-shirts year round, but it’s a poor financial (and
environmental) move. Close off areas within the house. You might not
want to be living in one room all winter, but try and section off an
area to be heated and close it off from the rest of the house.
Room Or Person?
If you’re looking to just heat a person, your heating options are
more varied. You can look at buying an electric heater, which are
generally not viewed as the cheapest option but can be fine if only used
occasionally. I invested $400 in a small convection heater last winter,
and it was fantastic, especially when it came to running costs. With
the use of a timer for the heater to come on before I got out of bed and
once again just before I got home from work, I kept my house reasonably
warm and my electricity bill very modest. I’m going to be rolling with
the approach this year round as well.
When Building
The other time you have a lot of opportunity when it comes to heating
is when you’re first building or renovating a house. Several options,
which are cheaper to run but massively expensive to install, are easier
to achieve when you’re building. These include underfloor heating,
central heating, even hydronic heating. I live in a cold climate.
Heating is a necessity, and investing in an effective system that runs
for a relatively low cost is a sensible financial decision. This is
probably not true of a lot of places in Australia
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