Energy savings for winter

Open the south facing drapes and blinds in the morning and close them in the evening. Vent dampers on bathroom fart fans and kitchen exhaust fan. Definitely an atmospheric damper on the fresh air inlet near the furnaces.

If you have a well insulated house built since about 2003, not a whole lot more you can do to save energy costs and have it actually pay off. You might save a litte, and or be more comfortable.

If you have an older house, there is a lot that will actually pay for itself. But the thing about moving your couch...insignificant. Interior venting of dryer vents...can work, can cause a mold/mildew issue depending on how your house is built and the actual configurations. If you have old windows, construction foam can be cut for inserts and put into windows in rooms you do not use and in rooms you do not occupy at night.

I installed a room darkening pleated shade in the bedroom at my old house. The primary goal was to be able to create a very dark room for day sleeping, but the added benefit was a significant insulating effect. The house was built in 1995 and had vinyl clad aluminum double pane windows. Not state of the art, but not completely crappy, either.

Like many of these ideas, the financial payback might take forever, but if you need the light control anyway, it'd be worth considering shades with an insulation factor.

FWIW...

something else we do is close heater vents and doors to rooms that we don't occupy in the winter.

I've actually found some very good insulating/blackout curtains at the local thrift store.

Use as much solar gain as you can. But if there is solar gain there will be loss when the sun goes down. I am a huge fan of radiant verse forced air heat. It is not feasible in some cases but much more efficient. Higher initial cost.


Turn your ceiling fans the other way during the winter to pull the heat from the ceiling into the usable space.


roasts and bakery items during the winter can add heat crack the oven when done and circulate the pre heated air.





I put a 150 lb container full of wet sand spray painted black in my south facing walk out glass door window thing last year and would measure ambient temps. During cold clear winter days I did not have to turn on my heat above 60 degrees at all it was enough to keep the living room comfortable


The Bwdroom need some augmentation but I am a cold sleeper so was not a big issue

Radiant heaters are available at the store for $50 ea and are much more efficient than forced air most of the time.

Reversable ceiling fans is only for ones with flat blades. Curved blades might have a reversing switch but it won't work right. Curved propeller type blades are much more effective and efficient but much more expensive

Opening the oven after cooking is a plecebo. It'll be radiant heat one way or the other

^^^ doing dishes with a cracked open cooling down oven is no doubt radiant and my warmed back side says it's not placebo



efficient? Probably not increased comfort for sure

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Originally Posted by Wulf202

Radiant heaters are available at the store for $50 ea and are much more efficient than forced air most of the time.

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Opening the oven after cooking is a plecebo. It'll be radiant heat one way or the other

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I would go broke trying to heat my house with radiant (electric) heat instead of cheap natural gas (yes I know the blower is elec). However, you can't possibly be serious. I know many people that got into a house with electric baseboard heat not understanding the electric costs in CO and can't wait to get out from under it.

He's saying that electric heat is a 1:1 efficiency ratio for the BTU output. I think. He can explain it better than I can.

Quote - I put a 150 lb container full of wet sand spray painted black in my south facing walk out glass door window thing last year and would measure ambient temps. During cold clear winter days I did not have to turn on my heat above 60 degrees at all it was enough to keep the living room comfortable

Why paint the sand?��