How to Lower Your Heating Bills
Each year, I see tip lists in newspapers, magazines, and now online, about how to lower heating costs. Usually the information in the lists is the same year in and year out.
Most of the tips are great, but one thing is always missing from them. I'm going to share that with you at the end of this column. You'll be surprised at what it is.
What many of the lists don't do is explain why or how effective the tips really are and what the return on investment is. After all, that's the key. If you're going to spend money to "save" money on your utility bills, then in reality you don't begin to save a penny until such time as you've repaid yourself in lower fuel bills more money than what you spent to achieve the savings. Does that make sense? Here's a simple example in step-by-step format.
Check out Gary Walker's reply to this column! It was in the January 30, 2015 AsktheBuilder Newsletter.
I discovered that I was paying my propane supplier WAY TOO MUCH money! Read my April 11, 2021 AsktheBuilder Newsletter for a way to save on your propane bills.
Degree of Difficulty: 
Step One: Let's say a replacement window salesman tells you you're going to save 35% on your fuel bills if you install his nice efficient vinyl or fiberglass insulated glass windows. Let's assume that the quote for the job is $8,000.00.
Step Two: Get out your utility bills for an entire year. If you heat with natural gas, then this should be pretty easy. Usually the bill is split so you see what you spend on gas and then electricity.
Step Three: Look at what you spend on natural gas for each month over the entire year. You'll spend more per month no doubt from October until April with the highest amounts probably in January and February.
Step Four: Add up the amount you pay for gas for the months of May, June, July, August, and September and divide by five. This will give you the average cost per month for the gas used for your water heater, dryer, range and oven and any other appliance. Realize this is not an exact science as gas rates fluctuate as does your usage.
Step Five: Take this average monthly gas cost and subtract it from each month's usage from October through April. The leftover amount each month is very close to what your furnace or boiler is using to heat your home. For sake of discussion, let's say that for the seven months the total amount you spend to heat is $1,500.00.
Step Six: If the salesman says you'll save 35 percent on your heating cost, this means you'll save $525 a year on fuel costs with the new windows. You'll save this same amount going forward if the winters are the same and not colder or warmer, the cost of gas remains the same and you keep the thermostat in your home at the same setting.
If you do the math, dividing $8,000.00 by $525.00, you discover that it takes a little more than 15 years just to break even not counting any interest you would have lost on your money or interest you may be paying on a loan to install the windows.
Step Seven: This same calculation needs to happen for all the other tips, but since the cost is so much lower for most other energy-saving improvements, the payback time is shorter. The best return on your investment if you're going to do anything is to stop air leaks with caulk, install more attic insulation with great attic ventilation and get a new programmable thermostat you can control from your smart phone.
Step Eight: Here's the tip that you never see in any lists except mine. This tip to lower your heating bills costs you nothing as you already have what you need at your home to do this. Simply wear more clothes when at home and turn down the thermostat to 60 F or even 55 F. If you wear long underwear, a hat and multiple sweaters around the home, you'll be toasty warm at 55F inside. I know because I've done it for years.
Summary: Most people are spoiled and want to walk around their homes in the winter in t-shirts, shorts and flip-flops. My kids tried to get away with that. Just two generations ago houses were drafty and people bundled up and wore warm clothes indoors. My grandfather told me stories about this. Heck, my father-in-law grew up in a farmhouse with no heat other than a wood stove and told me there'd be frost on his blankets when he went to bed up in the attic. You can save big money on fuel, you just have to dress warmer!
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Tim, you are so right! Our windows are really efficient so it stays toasty warm all winter but I know we could lower the thermostat and dress warmer. Another tip is to use an adjustable thermostat that lets you program the thermostat to lower when you're away at work. I know that one is old news and on every list....
You are so right about dressing properly to save energy. I'm shocked by the number of people I've seen who dress like a California surfer when it's 30 degrees outside. Their heating is jacked up to 75 or 80 and these are people who can't afford it. I dress in layers and 68 is warm enough. When I'm very active, it's too warm, even. When I was a kid and we complained about being chilly, my mother said, "Put on a sweater!" That's all it takes.
Boy, do I agree with you on this one! I work outside quite a lot in the winter so I'm always dressed in layers. But, some of the (grown up) children still dress in a tshirt or just one shirt then complain that they're cold. We keep our thermostat at 67 or 68 in the daytime and lower at nite, but I've been working for several years to seal up this 100 year old house. It takes me longer to get things done 'cause I'm a disabled vet. But, I'll get'r done this year. I love it! For God and Country.
I think the single-biggest thing we did to lower our oil consumption (aside from installing a wood stove), was to replace two old rotary-style thermostats with programmable units, and use settings for weekdays, weekends, nights and so forth that made sense, with ranges from 62 - 67. With the wood stove, the furnace doesn't run all that much.
But I have a question. Without the wood stove, let's say we keep the temp at 62 during the day and have it jump to 65 or 67 just before we get home. It clearly requires an amount of oil/gas to heat the home back up, so would it be just as well to have it set at a constant temp, or at a temp that isn't such a jump, say going from 65 to 67 vs. 62 to 67?
Poor people are often/usually in than situation due to bad choices. A woman I worked with had a $900 monthly heating bill during an Atlanta cold snap. She needed to move. My annual expenditure for gas is $960.
Anyone can put plastic over their windows. It may not look elegant but it works. And it is cheap.
New windows have the advantage that they cut out drafts. Drafty old windows at 70F feels colder than air tight windows at 60F. That is where your savings will lie. People can detect even the slightest draft, and it feels cold!
Not all drafts are caused by leaky windows. I have fantastic quality windows at my home that seal well, yet I have massive CONVECTION drafts if you sit next to them. Read my section about convection drafts. You can't stop them unless you heat up the glass panel to about 60 F.