10 Cheap and Easy DIY Ways to Save On Your Energy Bill

Posted on January 8, 2010
Filed Under frugal living | 2 Comments

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With the arctic cold blanketing the US and even Florida down in the 30s, the cost of heating your home is probably skyrocketing. I know when I had electric heat, I could go out and see the electric meter spin faster and faster when my furnace turned on. There was no way that I could replace my furnace but there are some really easy ways that you can save money on your heating and cooling costs.

Calk the exterior of your home. Chances are that if you walk around the outside of your home and look, you will find old, cracked or missing calk. These gaps around doors, windows and corners, let cold air in and warm air out. Calking these areas is easy and inexpensive and will save you $$ on your bill.

If you haven’t already switched to compact fluorescent lights, try them. Not only do they last longer but they burn a fraction of the electricity. They are making different styles now so you don’t have to have the spiral ones in your ceiling fans or decorative lighting.
Weather stripping – check the weather stripping around doors and windows. Make sure that when your door is shut there isn’t cold air leaking in under and around them. You can buy weather stripping and door sweeps at your local hardware store and they will help stop those cold drafts.

Check for Drafts. You can use a stick of incense to check for drafts. Simply light it and move it slowly around your walls. (Avoid drapes and curtains) When the smoke swirls and blows, you have found a draft. These are often found around water pipes and places where pipes or wires come from the outside. These are generally under cabinets, in closets, etc. You can insulate around them or use calking to stop leaks.
Change your Filter. Your furnace is probably doing double time right now. In order for it to run the most efficiently, the filters need to allow air to move through them. Check your filter every 30 days at a minimum but during heavy usage, you might need to change it more often.
Don’t Heat It. If you aren’t using it, don’t heat it. Turn off heat or shut off vents in unused parts of the house. We have one bedroom that we don’t use. We keep the vent closed in that room and the door closed so that we don’t need to heat that room.
Insulate electric outlets and switches. If you hold your hand up against an electric socket on an exterior wall, you will often notice a drastic difference in temperature. You can buy foam insulating gaskets for these. You simply take off the cover, install the gasket and screw the cover back on. (Don’t Stuff these Full Of Insulation. This is a fire hazard. )

Use Solar - Open the drapes or blinds on your south and west facing windows during the day. The sun will help warm your home during the day. Close these during the evening and night to help insulate the window.
Turn it Down – Turn your thermostat down during the winter. Turn it up in the summer. Our thermostat stays at 72 all winter. The only time we really feel cool is when we are sitting around watching TV in the evening. You can put on a sweater or get up and sweep the floor. Both will warm you up.
Turn It Off and Unplug It – Make it a habit to turn off and then unplug small appliances. If you add up all the small appliances in your house and combine the usage when they are in stand by mode, you will find that they use a surprisingly large amount of electricity.

Do you have any additional cheap and easy ways to save energy? How are you keeping warm in the arctic blast?

This post has been included in the Carnival of Personal Finance. Stop by and check out the other great posts at Darwin’s Finance.

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2 Responses to “10 Cheap and Easy DIY Ways to Save On Your Energy Bill”

Carnival of Personal Finance #239 – Hot Money Trends of 2010 Edition | HighYields.com on January 11th, 2010 5:24 am

[...] from Oh My Aching Debts presents 10 Cheap and Easy DIY Ways to Save On Your Energy Bill, and says, “Although I am by no means a Ms Fixit, even I can do these 10 things to save on my [...]
Investment Izzy (19 comments.) on January 11th, 2010 1:06 pm

I’ve seen many people talk about these preventative measures that we can take to keep the warm air in our house and furthermore reduce the heating bill. After doing those DIY projects, another alternative is switching to either a heated blanket or a portable heater that will be enough for one room and have everyone sleep in that room so that you can save on the heating bills.

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