Easy Ways to Retain the Heat in Your Home

By Stuart Fendor

If your heat is turned up high, but you always feel chilled anyway, you may have a problem with air leaks that are letting the heat out and the cold in. Check each room of your house; are some rooms colder than others? If you notice that they are, try checking to see if any doors that lead to the outside (as well as the windows in the room) seem to have a draft.

If there are drafts, you can do several things to fix it. Luckily, none of these quick fixes cost very much money. One options is rope caulk. It can be an easy and great way to seal up windows. It's very inexpensive and easy to apply it. If the draft seems to be coming from underneath a door try getting door sweeps or blockers, which are also very inexpensive.

If the doors and windows don't seem to be the culprit, check out your chimney. If your chimney is open all winter long, you are allowing heat escape and cold air to seep in. When your fireplace isn't in use be sure to close the chimney flue up - you'll notice a big difference right away.

Sunshine is a great source of natural warmth, so if the sun is shining open up curtains to let it in. You might be surprised at how much heat is generated by doing such a simple thing, and the best part is its free! You can see how solar paneling would easily be able to generate enough energy to heat a house.

A programmable thermostat is another solution to achieve a warm house and yet keep the energy costs down. A programmable thermostat can be set to lower levels when you are under blankets in bed at night and be set to higher levels when you are awake. This is the easy option to practice to achieve a low bill and yet keep the house warm - the cost of a good thermostat is well justified and makes it all worth it.

Heat may also be lost to an unfinished basement. You may wonder how this can be if it's closed off from the rest of the house, but where is your water heater? It may be losing heat before it even gets into the rest of your house. You can purchase inexpensive outer casings to protect heat loss.

If you have tried all the easy tricks and your house still feels like a tomb, it may be time to get your insulation checked. Of course, no one wants to hear this. Ask for a couple of consultations to see if the insulation is doing its job. If it's necessary to replace it, check carefully and shop around for different installers. You may be surprised by a lower cost than you originally anticipated. Besides, in the long run these changes may result in reduced heating costs.

No one likes to be cold in the winter, and keeping your home nice and heated doesn't have to cost you enormous amounts of money. Try these tips and you might be surprised at the difference it makes.