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January 26, 2001
Keep the heat indoors this winter
With winter right around, now is a good time to check the efficiency of your
home’s heating system. Tighten up your house for winter using these energy saving
tips:
- Have your furnace serviced regularly and change or clean furnace
filters once a month during the heating season.
- To warm a cold basement floor, install subflooring and cover it
with carpeting and a thick underlay to help insulate the floor.
- Use door “socks” – long snake-like pieces of material stuffed
with sand or birdseed – to repel drafts under exterior and interior doors, with
too big a gap to weather strip.
- Install a ceiling fan in rooms with high or cathedral ceilings
to push warm air down to where it’s needed.
- Close window drapes as soon as the sun goes down in winter to
keep warm air inside
- Pull furniture at least 30 cm away from heaters and registers
to make sure heat is flowing efficiently
- Don’t open windows to “air” your house in winter, this defeats
all your energy-saving efforts. (One exception is when you are using a wood-burning
fireplace, in which case a window should be open).
- Check for air leaks using the feather test on a windy day. Using
a down feather (lighted incense or a strip of tissue paper will also work),
run the feather along the inside edges of doors and windows to detect drafts.
Make sure your furnace is turned off, as its operation can affect the tests.
Check along your interior walls, too. Caulk, weatherstrip or seal any air leaks
you detect.
- Look for drafts, cracks and holes in unusual places. Winter’s
cold can seep through places like milk or mail chutes, laundry chutes or pet
doors. And if you’re not using them, block them up completely.
- Replace or install weatherstripping around exterior doors. Rubber
provides the best seal; felt and foam are inexpensive but much less effective
and durable.
- Check for poor insulation in basement walls, floors or other crawl
spaces. Insulation acts like a giant sleeping bag around your house. It’s a
bigger job to install than weatherstripping, but so are the savings.
- Practice temperature setback. Turn your thermostat down to 20 C
during the day and to 17 C at night to save as much as 15% of your energy bill
Information provided by the BC Gas Hot Tips booklet.
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