Between November and March, it’s estimated that heating your home will cost you anywhere from $600 to $1,850, depending on the type of heat you have. If your house is always colder than you would like, those numbers can get even more grim because you’re constantly turning up the thermostat or running space heaters non-stop. There are basic steps you should take if your house is always too cold, like sealing up drafts, replacing your furnace’s filters, and making sure your heating system is properly maintained. If you’ve done all that and still find yourself nudging the thermostat up, here are some steps you can take to maximize your comfort:
- REARRANGE YOUR FURNITURE: Make sure you haven’t covered or blocked a heat register or radiator. There should be at least 12 inches of clearance between heat sources and furniture to allow heat to circulate. If you can’t move your furniture, consider installing vent extenders or deflectors to ensure the heat makes its way into the room.
- BUY THERMAL CURTAINS: Although letting sunlight in can be beneficial to the overall temperature of your house, so can preventing heat loss by installing a set of thermal curtains. On sunny days, open them up to let the sun’s warmth in, but when you feel a chill, close them to stop heat loss through your windows.
- PLACE FOIL BEHIND RADIATORS: Placing reflective material like foil behind your radiators can help maximize their effectiveness. The foil will bounce the heat into the room instead of letting it get absorbed into the wall. This works best in small spaces.
- ADD OUTLET INSULATORS: Power outlets and light switches on your walls are essentially holes in your house that can let cold air in. Install plate insulators behind the wall plates to stop those drafts. It’s cheap and only takes a few minutes to install.
- BLOCK THE CHIMNEY: If you have a fireplace with a chimney in your home, inserting a fireplace plug can stop cold air from traveling down into your house — which can happen even with the damper closed. If you don’t want to pay for a plug or can’t use one for some reason, blocking off your fireplace with a cover can also be an effective way to stop drafts. Needless to say, this is only to be done if the fireplace is not in use.
- BUY DUCT BOOSTER FANS: A duct booster fan inserts into one of your HVAC system’s registers, boosting the airflow coming out of it. They’re relatively easy to install and can noticeably increase the effectiveness of both your cooling and heating. If your house is cold and you can barely feel the air coming out of one or more of your heat registers, a booster fan might be the solution.
- DON’T FORGET ABOUT RUGS: Your floors are responsible for a lot of heat loss, especially floors over basements or crawl spaces — and especially if the crawl space or basement isn’t insulated. Not only can a cold floor make the lower area of the room feel cold, it also turns your feet into little blocks of ice. Adding area rugs can help tremendously. Rugs can block some of the cold air seeping up from below, and they’ll also insulate your body from the cold floor, helping to make the house feel warmer overall — Just be careful not to cover a heat register.
- REVERSE CEILING FANS: Don’t forget to reverse your ceiling fans in the winter. Running ceiling fans clockwise pulls cold air up, pushing warm air down.
