Daily Home Renovation Tips

Editor’s Note: To view the 240+ different energy conservation tips for the home we have collected, simply access our Un-Official Guide To Home Energy Conservation.

In Part 1 and Part 2, we looked at about half of the different energy conservation tips we have collected that you can use to reduce your home heating bills that will cost you nothing to do. Yesterday, it was a look at ideas which, while not overly expensive, can require you to spend a little money to implement.

Today we look at energy conservation tips for the home owner which require a not-insignificant cash outlay from the home owner to implement. In these turbulent economic times, we really do need maximum effect for our efforts. Sometimes spending a little money can go a long way.

One more time, here is the Un-Official Guide to Home Energy Conservation’s listing of air heating energy conservation tips:

OK, so where are the moderate and expensive tips? Like before, simply move the vertical scroll bar downward to see the remaining suggestions. Lots of ideas here so lets get right to them. If it costs more to implement, there’d better be more substantial savings to justify the higher implementation costs, right? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. You be the judge.

Increase / establish insulation in your basement floor (specialized concrete floor tiles, for example) (#36) and increasing the insulation in your walls (#37) will lower your heating bills to help keep more of the heat inside your home.

There are certain types of interior solar screen that can collect heat to help keep the area around them warmer (#38). We have one of these installed on the inside of our basement bedroom window.

Solar space heating (#39) ? Absolutely. We installed the Solar Max 240 from Cansolair on the south wall of our walkout basement in November. It really works! We’ve recorded a temperature rise of between 60 and 70 degrees F. with this supplemental device we installed in our own home (not that all home made DIY or different manufacturer models can achieve this). And this with generating zero … yes zero … pollutants when generating the heat for the home or any building.

Pellet (#40) and word (#42) are gaining more and more media attention as a way of using a renewable resource to generate heat for the home to thus reduce the amount of natural gas, home heating oil or electricity as a major heating source.

Venting electric dryers inside the house (#40) to use both the heat and humidity generated from electric dryers to help heat the house. This idea intrigues me. It would be challenging to implement in our home just because of where drywall ceilings and the external vent’s are located. And, you want to get a professional to do this IMO.

With food, Homer Simpson goes ‘Food … Yum’. For me, I’ll go ‘Wine … Yum’ (#43). ;) Brandy might be even better to get that ‘warm’ feeling.

Those who have stained glass windows in their home need to remember that usually stained glass is simply a single window pane. So, in the winter consider adding a Plexiglas cover on the inside, properly sealed (#44).

Which do you think feels warmer: Tuscon, Arizona or Orlando, Florida in the summer? Sure, Orlando with the higher Florida humidity. So sure, keep the humidity up in the home in the winter to make it feel warmer and thus allowing you to keep the temperature on the thermostat lower than otherwise because it still feels warm (#45).

Thermal sleeping bags keep one nice and warm and snugly when camping. So, some people use them to line their mattress of their bed in the winter to help keep them warm and snugly at night without needing the air temperature as warm (#46).

In most areas in North America, electricity is less expensive than natural gas or home heating oil. Therefore, the suggestions to use an electric mattress pad (#47) to keep the bed warm at night (allowing the temperature in the house to be reduced) as well as using an electric space heater (#48) to heat just the one room when no one else is in the home can make sense.

Remember the suggestion to wear layed clothing in the winter? Well, on a similar note you can also consider placing throw blankets on the chair and couch and love seat and … in the family room or living room or basement recreation room in the winter for folks to use allowing the temperature in the house to be lower (#49).

High efficiency furnaces (#50) are not cheap, costing several thousands of dollars, but they operate more efficiently to use generate more heat from the same amount of natural gas that is burned, thus using less natural gas to generate the same amount of heat. We were fortunate that the house we purchased about 2 years ago and now call home came with an ultra-efficiency furnace to help keep our annual heating costs down.

Installing from scratch a wood fireplace (#51) in a wall where no such fireplace was not included with the initial construction of a house can be very expensive, yet using a wood (a renewable resource) fireplace will reduce the amount home heating oil or natural gas or electricity that is used to heat the premises.

Radiant heating is more expensive than a furnace, especially if you incorporate it with a solar water heating unit. However, radiant heating is not as drying as forced air heating so the house does not feel as dry in the winter and there is less need for a humidifier. And, using a solar radiant heating system (#52) can significantly reduce the amount of other forms of heat that is needed in a home.

A heat pump (#53) which I have never had is not cheap but from little I have read can be very useful in certain circumstances to keep the heat from air in the home, well, in the home when cool air is brought into the house. I need to do more investigation of heat pumps to see if perhaps they will help us out in our own home.

And that’s it for our review of the tips available to reduce your home heating bills. Didn’t see a tip that you were expecting or are using? One reason could be that we have not thought of it. However, another reason could be because your idea can be used to both reduce your home heating bill in the winter as well as your home air conditioning expenses in the summer.

That is where we will focus the next time we review home energy conservation ideas; that being energy conservation tips which can both reduce home heating bills as well as air conditioning expenses.