Keep Heating Down When No-One At Home, and At Night

by Paul
(Flossmoor, IL)

I used to live in Flagstaff, Arizona which gets very cold.

I know when most people think of Arizona they think of desert, cacti and snakes. Northern Arizona gets up to 7,000 feet elevation and gets cold just like the East Coast.

I was renting a house that got cold very quickly I found out. Also I was substitute teaching at the time to pay my bills so it was in my best interest to get my roommates & myself to be extremely frugal.

The first thing I did to help save money on energy was to install a programmable thermostat. It was cheap, easy to install and let me shut off the heater when it was not needed if no one was home.

Along the same vein I was adamant that the heater was turned off when no one was using it. This included the day time when all the household members were at work as well as late at night when we were all sleeping.

I literally only had the heat on enough to keep the pipes from freezing at night and instead double-layered the bedding to keep warm while sleeping.

My next task was to find any and all routes for my expensive warm-air to escape the house. I bought cheap tape from the dollar store to help seal the windows. I also replaced a broken window that was letting air out of a crack.

Lastly we coordinated our household activities with the weather. We left window coverings off of windows with direct sunlight to allow the sun to heat the house for free whenever possible.

Also, if we were using the oven to cook with we let it help heat the house since it was already on.