How To Keep Your Heating Bills Down This Winter
With a looming energy crisis on the horizon, skyrocketing utility bills, increasing unemployment, rising rents and spiraling inflation, many people will be faced with the nightmare choice of either eating food or heating their home this winter — but, is there anything you can do to keep warm for free as temperatures go sub-zero?
You Can Keep Warm, Even If The Power Goes Out This Winter — So Don’t Panic!
If the power goes out, due to critical energy shortages, rolling blackouts, or you simply can’t afford to pay your heating bills, there’s no need to panic. No matter how cold it gets outside, as long as you have shelter, you can keep yourself and your family safe and warm this winter.
The Very Real Dangers Of Rising Energy Costs
Each year, tens of thousands of people freeze to death, alone in their homes because they can’t afford to pay the utility bills. Elderly couples die from the cold, huddling under the covers in their bed, and are not found until the weather thaws out and their neighbors notice a nasty smell coming from inside their apartment. In less extreme cases, people who can’t pay their bills shiver through the dark winter months and are much more prone to sickness and depression.
The risks of living in an underheated home are serious but can easily be addressed without spending a lot of money. This means that no matter how short of money you are there are practical methods that you can use to keep warm this winter.
How I Learned To Survive Sub Zero Temperatures Without Freezing To Death — A Personal Story
I have personal experience of facing a Northern winter without any heating at all. Some years ago my utilities were cut off completely. This happened just a week or two before Scotland descended into a winter that hit record low temperatures. At the peak of the arctic weather, the temperatures outside reached -23 Degrees Celsius or -10 Degrees Fahrenheit…
Boy, that was chilly. In fact, it was so cold that huge ice sheets formed from the icicles outside my windows, so I couldn’t even see out anymore. This was, in some ways, a blessing because the sheets of ice were slightly insulating for the apartment inside. Even so, from the outside, my apartment looked like it had been swallowed up by the snow and ice.
However, far from freezing to death, I learned a whole bunch of super valuable techniques which I used to stay warm and survive the long winter months of sub-zero temperatures without a single Watt of electric heating. So let me tell you some of the things that I learned.
5 Free And Low-Cost Ways To Stay Warm This Winter
1. DIY Terracotta Candle Heater — $5/Month
This is absolutely genius and one of the easiest ways that you can keep yourself warm for the equivalent of a couple of dollars per month. In fact, if there was one piece of information that I could pass on to people for the winter it would be this!
A simple terracotta candle heater can make a huge difference to the temperature in part of your house — ideally, positioned in a place where you plan to relax in the evenings, your living room for example.
You can buy everything you need to make a terracotta candle heater from your local hardware store and if they don’t have the terracotta pots just drop by your nearest garden center.
There are several ways that you can make one, although this is by far the easiest, so I’ve added a video below for you to check out.
So How Does It Work?
The hot air coming out of the top of your heater warms the room while cold air is sucked into the bottom of the terracotta pots. As the cold air enters it is heated up by the candles and rises up through the pots and warms the room. This cycle will continue until the candles go out.
If you want to increase the effectiveness of your heater then you simply place more candles underneath the upturned terracotta pot.
The Terracotta Pot Candle Heater DIY Survival Trick — It’s Low Cost, Easy And It Really Does Work
I’ve used this trick in temperatures that were well below zero and I was amazed by how effective this technique really is.
In terms of cost, you can buy a pack of 100 tea light candles from your local Dollar store for a couple of dollars which will easily last you a week or two. Each tea light candle should last between 4–6 hours. Terracotta pots can be bought from your nearest garden store for a few dollars as well. You can usually find bricks all over the place for free, or you can buy some from a garden store or a Home Depot.
Warning!
Whatever you do, DO NOT cover the top holes on the terracotta pots otherwise you’ll trap the heat inside and will effectively create a ticking bomb! You’ll see a lot of videos online where people show you how to make a terracotta heater but they bolt the pots in place and cover the top holes — this is extremely dangerous, so always leave the top hole open!
2. Focus Your Resources In One Place — Reduce Your Utility Bills
If you are struggling to pay the bills then it’s a great idea to designate one room, the living room for example, and focus all your heating there. This will give you and your family a warm place to relax, even if the rest of the house or apartment is reaching sub-zero temperatures.
Only heating one room will save on your utility bills but it will also create a cozy place where you can get together with your friends and family. While this option is not entirely free, in that you will still have to pay for the heating that you do use, it’s an easy way to drastically reduce bills that you might not be able to pay.
3. Minimize The Drafts In Your Home — Free!
Drafts in your home are one of the quickest ways to lower the temperatures in an otherwise warm room. In the evening, when your heating is on, you’ll probably notice that the rising heat creates drafts. These drafts will take away the heat and drastically lower the temperatures.
Analyze the drafts and consider ways that you can minimize them. For instance, open doorways will cause drafts and can be plugged up by hanging a blanket over the open space. Hanging heavy curtains, or blankets, over windows will reduce heat loss and minimize the creation of drafts inside your home. Another top tip is to put towels or spare sheets at the bottom of doors to block the drafts from coming in underneath.
Be creative and use attractive wall hangings to close off areas that are drafty in your home.
4. Reposition Your Furniture — Free!
You can easily save money and keep your home much warmer by changing the position of your furniture. For example, if you have a sofa in front of a radiator you should move it away so it doesn’t block the heat that’s being radiated into your room.
You should also move your sofa away from any external walls where the temperatures will always be lower than they are in the central parts of the house. Ideally, your sofa should be up against an internal wall and not an external one.
5. Use Rugs To Improve Insulation — Free!
Creating better insulation is a vital part of keeping your home toasty and warm! If you have rugs in the house then why not move them into your living room to add an extra layer of insulation?
Not only do rugs have a physical impact on the amount of heat that is lost from the room but they also make the space feel a lot cozier. Remember, the thicker the rug is the better, but any type of rug will help to keep your living room warm.
Don’t Worry If Temperatures Drop And The Heating Bills Rise — You Can Still Stay Warm And Survive!
No matter how cold it gets or how high the utility bills are this winter, there is no reason why you should suffer or freeze. Just take action and start to implement a few, or all, of these little tricks I’ve explained and you’ll be amazed at how warm you can keep your home this winter.
Remember, even if you don’t need to use these techniques this winter, you just never know when they might come in handy. So I hope this was helpful for you and stops you from getting those winter blues!
