Saving money while heating your home this winter

DAKOTA DUNES, S.D. — We haven’t had much snow, but we’ve had plenty of cold days this winter. How can you save money heating your home when it seems like your furnace runs non-stop? “This is a tough time of the year, because it’s cold and we need heat,” said Geoff Greenwood with MidAmerican Energy. How do you get the heat you want in the winter without paying an arm and a leg? It almost goes without saying, but you can always turn your thermostat down a few degrees, especially at night or when you’re not home. Programmable thermostats work nicely for that and some smart thermostats can even learn your schedule and turn the heat down and back up for you. “It’ll turn it on just before you wake up,” said Greenwood. “It’ll turn it on just before you get home and your home will be comfortable when you get back.” How can you warm up the house for cheap? Let some light in. On sunny days, open the blinds or curtains and let the sun foot the bill for heating your house. “That’s really free heat!” said Greenwood. “The furnace is one of those machines that gets forgot about,” said Devin Bousquet, with A-Team Heating & Cooling. You shouldn’t forget about that machine, though – check in on it every once in a while. All furnaces have a filter you should replace regularly. Bousquet say, when you don’t do that, you could end up spending more money in the long run by paying to have your furnace fixed. “It’s going to make everything run hot, it’s going to take your blower motors out and it’s going to take your heat exchanger out of your furnace, eventually, because it can’t move any air,” said Bousquet. “Then it sits and runs up against the limit and then it won’t heat the house, because it’ll be blowing cold air at you all the time.” It’s a good idea to have a professional out at least once-a-year to give your furnace a good checkup, too. And while you’re in the basement and in a money-saving mood, check out your water heater. You could turn it down a little bit, especially if its temperature is set above 120 degrees! “That still gives you hot water, it’s not scalding and by keeping it at 120-degrees,” said Greenwood. “That’ll help you save money each month, as well.” MidAmerican Energy has a free home energy assessment, called it a HomeCheck Online, because it’s online only these days. Iowa customers can fill it out and get some free energy-saving goodies.