When winter sets in and the temperatures start to drop, there are few things better than retreating to your nice, warm home. There’s just something magical about being able to look out from your toasty living room at the swirling snow billowing around outside. However, that magic comes at a cost. The price of heating an average sized home for the duration of the winter can end up setting you back hundreds of dollars, and with the cost of most heating methods continually rising, you may be looking forward to a heating bill that’s higher than any you’ve ever seen before.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Here are seven tips to help you cut back on heating costs this winter.

1. Be careful with that bathroom fan

Are you the kind of person who instinctively turns on the fan when you use the restroom? You’re not alone. Unfortunately, most bathroom fans tend to take air and expel it from the house. So, if you’ve got the heater running, and then you turn on a bathroom fan, you may find that the warm air that you’re paying through the nose to produce is being sucked directly outside.

 

2. Take advantage of the sun

Sunlight streaming through a window is a cheap and effective way to heat a house. No matter how cold it is, the sunlight still carries an abundant amount of energy with it. When that sunlight enters your home, most of that energy becomes heat. Allow the sun to help you out, by opening your curtains and blinds.

 

3. Be aware of the vents

Heat from the furnace travels through your home’s air vents. So, if you want to get any of that heat into your rooms, make sure that the vents are open and unobstructed. At the same time, if you have any rooms that you seldom use throughout the day (such as laundry rooms or basements), then closing the vents that lead into those rooms will keep you from having to pay to heat them.

 

4. Dress for the weather

Humans are endothermic, which means that we’re pretty good at generating and regulating our own heat. Still, a lot of that heat is lost unless we insulate ourselves. If you want to keep warm without having to pay for it, trap your own body heat. How do you do that? Well, with a sweater, of course.

 

5. Close up the gaps

Check around your windows and doors for air leaks. If there is any air movement occurring, then you will also be losing expensive heat. Use caulk around window seals to prevent heat loss, and use weather stripping around any doors. If you don’t think that a fraction of an inch space around your door could really be having that great of an impact, then think of it this way: An eighth of an inch gap around the perimeter of a standard-sized door allows as much air to pass through as a six-inch square hole. Now, consider how much heat loss that amounts to if you have multiple doors…

 

6. Use ceiling fans

This may seem counterintuitive, but using a ceiling fan to help heat your house really does work, assuming you do it correctly. By making sure that the fan spins in a clockwise direction, you can actually create an updraft, which will help circulate the heat that becomes trapped near the ceiling (heat rises, remember) back down to ground level. Just be sure to keep the fan on a low setting.

 

7. Get a Home Automation System

Home automation and security companies like Vivint, or ADT are at the forefront of creating wonderful technologies that make our lives more convenient and our homes warmer, (or cooler, depending on the season).

Home automation is one of the most unappreciated technologies in existence. Thermostats are amazing inventions; they allow us to regulate the temperature in our homes automatically. Still, they leave something to be desired, in that they continue to heat a home even when no one is inside. Sure, you can turn off or turn down a thermostat when you’re getting ready to leave, but that’s an extra chore that many people end up forgetting about. With a smart thermostat, on the other hand, you can simply leave it to its own devices, and it will learn your daily habits, raising or lowering the temperature on its own to not only make sure that you and the house are always the right temperature, but also to save you a hefty bit of money in the process. Smart thermostats such as Nest can even be controlled remotely with a smart phone.

 

So once that snow starts to fall, don’t let the dread of the inevitable heating bill ruin the magic for you. Learn how to reduce your heating costs, and enjoy the winter wonderland.