With Christmas just around the corner, your bank account starts taking a hit preparing for the holiday. Christmas shopping cost are stressful enough, that seeing the winter season raising the power bill makes you dread the holidays even more. You must wonder if there is a way to maintain to keep those bills low, but still keep you home nice warm and ready for the holidays.
The main places where heat escapes is — through the doors, through the windows, through the roof, and through uninsulated walls. Fixing these problem areas first can hold in the heat of your furnace, keeping you more cozy, as well as saving you fuel costs. Here are some tips to help you and your home stay warm this winter without turning up the thermostat.
Stopping drafts
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Curtains: Not only do curtains provide privacy and add a decorative touch to the room, but curtains also keep out the summer heat and the winter cold. Even double and triple-pane glass will let out the inside heat. Open them during sunny days to let in some heat during the winter, and then close them tight on cold nights to hold the heat in.
- Plastic Sheets: adding an extra layer to the outside of your windows will hold some dead air between the cold outside and the warm inside. Plastic sheets are a cheap way to add that extra layer. although they are a one time use and you get rid of them in the spring, they provide just enough coverage to make a difference in your home.
- Drafty doors and windows: Most newer homes are equipped with draft stoppers at the bottom edge of outdoors, but after a while, they might stop working. to check if your draft stopper is working, just walk barefoot in front of the door. if you can feel cold air, then you might need to create an additional stopper. Rolling up a towel and placing around the broom of the door will keep the cold air, but for a long term solution, try using a draft snake.
- Rugs and carpets: they are warmer to walk on than hardwood and tile, and they keep heat from escaping through your floorboards.
Keeping Your body warm
- Dress in layers: Cotton is cold and doesn’t wick away moisture, its great for the summer but will keep you cold during the winter. Silk and wool both wick moisture and insulate you with your body heat and for an added bonus, they are both natural antibacterial and soil resistant. So they keep you smelling sweet and clean and don’t need to be washed as often as cotton. If you are allergic to those, then consider investing into cashmere or even alpaca. Silk is by far the least expensive.
- Couch throws and wool blankets: on very cold days, have wool blankets or throws on each couch or chair to keep you warm while you are watching Netflix or scrolling on your phone.
- Unused rooms & bedrooms: by closing rooms you use less often, or closing the rooms you aren’t using, the furnace can focus on the room you are in. If you open bedroom doors a few hours before bedtime but keep them shut during the day, They will heat up faster once the rest of the house is warm.
- Bake some Bread!: The smell of bread baking warms the body and tricks your mind. hot bread with some butter will help the body stay warm and what better way to get into the holiday spirit than making some yummy holiday treats!
- Cold Beds: This is a super old school trick, but it really works. Pour boiling water into a hot water bottle and slip it under the covers at the foot of your bed, or use bed pan with hot rocks from the fireplace. You can also make your own hot bag and its a very quick and simple DIY. Start by filling a sock, which has lost its pair, with dried beans or flax seed and tying the top closed with a knot. Microwave it for 10-15 second and voila! an easy beanbag you can put at the foot of your bed and you’ll have toasty toes all night long.
More Tips
- Reverse your ceiling fan’s direction: Ceiling fans rotate in a counterclockwise fashion to push air down and create a draft. During the winter, you can reverse your fan’s rotation to push the cold air up and it will mix with the rising heat. The mixed air will spread through your home and make it feel warmer.
- Tea: Tea rather than coffee, is the best drink for winter days. Tea increases your internal furnace and causes your body to increase its temperature, while coffee doesn’t.
These are just a few suggestions to stay warm, There are plenty of other tips that we could add, and if all else fails, fuzzy socks and a warm cup of hot cocoa will always do the trick. How do you and your family stay warm in winter as the holiday season wears on?
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