Photo By Cimexus Via Flickr

With summer just about over and the colder months fast approaching, now is a great time to consider winterizing your home to make it more environmentally friendly.  Not only will you be kinder on the planet, but with these cheap and simple  tips, you can also save a few bucks over winter as well.

Reverse Your Ceiling Fan

Everyone knows that warm air rises, but many people aren’t aware that most ceiling fans can reverse their direction and move that warm air back down to where you want the heat.  So this winter, instead of turning off the fan, keep it going but in reverse. All that is required it to see which direction the fan blades are going. counter-clockwise for summer, and clockwise for winter, its as simple as that.

Check Your Air Ducts

This may be a bit challenging depending on how your home was designed, but if possible inspect all of your heating ducts. the DOE estimates that the average home could be losing as much as 60% of the hot air blown from your heater if it is not properly installed and maintained. The most important things to be on the lookout for when inspecting your ducts is any gaps or holes that need repair. But also just as important is to fix any crimped or heavily bent parts that could be reducing the optimum airflow of your heating system.

Wrap Your Pipes With Insulation

Find out which pipes in your house have hot water flowing through them, you can usually do this just by touching the pipes to see if they are warm. Once you have identified which ones are flowing with hot water pick up some simple foam pipe insulation along with some duct tape and get to work.  This is such a cheap and simple task that anyone can do it in an afternoon.

Block Unused Rooms

While this won’t be a problem for those with small houses, those with larger homes with unused rooms  can really see a huge difference in your heating  bill by doing this. Just turn off the heating to the room(s) you don’t plan on using, close the door and place a towel or other piece of cloth under the gap in the floor of your door frame.

By Mark Johnson