Heating your home or apartment is necessary for survival but you don’t have to break the bank over it. Here we are looking at ways to stay warm without turning up the heat and how to prevent your heating bill from skyrocketing.
Below you will find these 18 ways to stay warm without turning up the heat:
- Winterize Your Home or Apartment
- Check Your Furnace
- Invite People Over
- Hot Water Bottle
- Lower Your Thermostat
- Bundle Up
- Programmable Thermostat
- Extra Blankets
- Space Heater
- Start a Fire
- Take a Hot Bath
- Open the Blinds
- Cardio
- Hot Beverage
- Step Outside
- Bake
- Run a Fan
- Rearrange Your Room
Psst… did you know that I’m on YouTube?! Prefer the video version? Check this out!
Winterize Your Home or Apartment
Your first line of defense against soaring heating bills is to stop cold air from coming in. Beef up your insulation and seal any leaky windows where the heat can escape and the cold air can push in. Put door draft stoppers under your doors.
Check Your Furnace
Get your furnace checked by a professional and ask for an energy audit to ensure it is functioning at maximum efficiency. You may need to change the filter, too. Depending on the size of your filter, it should be changed every 3-6 months, or per the manufacturer’s instructions.
Ask for an energy audit. This will tell you want you can do to improve the energy efficiency of your home.
But what about apartment life?
If you live in an apartment or a rented home, you probably don’t have much control over the efficiency of the windows or the furnace. Our windows are cheap + leaky and the landlord said they aren’t going to put quality windows in an apartment building this size.. because that would cost too much. They aren’t paying for heat so it’s not really in their interest to make it energy efficient.
We aren’t the only renters that this happens to. So if you are in a similar situation where you can’t just go and replace the windows or add more insulation to your home or don’t have a furnace to check, here are ways you can take control of your heating bill by keeping yourself warm.
Invite People Over
Invite people over to your house or apartment. Have you ever been to a party in the winter and had to step outside because it gets so hot inside? Bodies generate heat and the more people you have the faster your place will warm up. Their heat loss is your gain.
Hot Water Bottle
My favorite way to stay warm without turning up the heat in the winter is by using a hot water bottle. Fill it up with hot water and you can use it to warm up your bed and yourself. You can find one at Walmart or Amazon for under $6. It’s super portable and I usually have one on my lap when I am working at my desk. But be sure to use caution: check out the this brochure from the Australasian Commission on hot water bottle safety instructions.. because apparently it gets cold down under, too.
Lower Your Thermostat
The U.S. Department of Energy recommends setting the thermostat at 68 degrees while you are awake and lowering it when you sleep. They say that by lowering it 7-10 degrees for 8 hours while you are away at work could save you up to 10% on heating and cooling costs a year.
Bundle Up
Layers upon layers upon layers. Put on an undershirt, regular shirt, and a sweater along with long underwear and heavy duty pants. It’s winter. You should not be walking around in shorts and a t-shirt. If you are really cold, put on a hat.
Programmable Thermostat
Get a programmable or smart thermostat such as Nest to do the raising and the lowering of the temperature for you. That way you don’t have to think about it, the savings to your heating bill are automatic.
Extra Blankets
At night, turn the heat down and throw on an extra blanket.. or three. To ensure maximum warmth, the fluffiest or knit blankets go closest to you – the air pockets will trap the heat – and the thinner/denser quilt like ones go on top.
Space Heater
If you live in a big space but spend most of your time in a small portion of said space, think about using a space heater instead of heating the entire house. You could actually save money by using a space heater to heat a small room, compared to forced air heating the whole house.
Start a Fire
Start a fire in your fireplace. If you don’t have one, you can make a faux one! Check out this post where I give you a sneak peak of our fireplace we made–it’s apartment friendly! Don’t feel like making your own? Put a video of a crackling fire (Netflix has a nice birchwood one). Believe me, you will think it’s warmer.
- Related: Budget Friendly Fall Essentials
Take a Hot Bath
If you’re feeling really cold, draw up a hot bath. In the same way that jumping through an ice cold shower will cool you off on a hot day, soaking in a hot tub will warm you right up.
Open the Blinds
When it’s sunny during the day, open up the blinds and let the sun in to heat your home. Close the blinds when it gets dark because you’re no longer letting in heat, but rather cold air. Let the curtains act as a barrier between your home and the cold air.
Cardio
Nothing gets your blood pumping like engaging in some cardio. Do jumping jacks or run in place until you get your heart rate up. If you live in an apartment and don’t want to be jumping around due to consideration for your neighbors, check out this silent cardio video from Blogilates. She makes ones specifically for apartment life and you can definitely get your body temperature up without running and jumping.
Hot Beverage
Pour yourself some hot chocolate or brew some tea or coffee. Eat a hot bowl of soup. It will warm your body from the inside out. Extra savings if you make it at home.
Step Outside
If you’re feeling cold, step outside. Nothing like getting a dose of what cold really is to make you realize you’re actually pretty warm.
Bake
During the summer, a way to keep cool is to avoid turning the oven because it will heat the whole place up. Now that it’s winter, it’s time to turn it on! Catch up on all that baking you were putting off. Kill two birds with one stone: warm up your house or apartment and have some tasty treats on hand. Then invite your friends to share in the goodies!
Run a Fan
Heat rises so to circulate that heat, turn on the ceiling fan. Running a fan in the clockwise direction will push the heat back down.
Rearrange Your Room
Stay warm by moving you bed away from the window or on an internal wall. If cold air is coming in through the window and your bed is right beneath it, it’s going to hit you first.
There you have it, 18 ways to stay warm without turning up the heat. Practice these and you will start to see savings in your heating bill. Even if you live in an apartment and don’t have much control over how energy efficient the furnace or windows are, you can still take control of your heating bill.
Now tell me: what do you do to stay warm in the winter?
Watch my YouTube video here and subscribe!
Share this with a friend who is looking to save money on their heating bill:
Thanks for sharing! Also, remember to seal and insulate your HVAC ducts. Poorly sealed ducts can lead to significant heat loss, making your system work harder to keep your home warm. By sealing any leaks and adding insulation to your ducts, you can improve your system’s efficiency and keep more warm air inside your home, reducing the need to turn up the thermostat.
Fantastic article with practical advice!
One more tip to consider is the installation of door sweeps on exterior doors. These simple, affordable devices can significantly reduce drafts, keeping your home warmer without turning up the heat. Door sweeps are easy to install and can prevent cold air from entering and warm air from escaping, further enhancing your home’s energy efficiency and comfort during the winter months.
Hey there! Thank you very much for sharing these tips on how to keep a home warm and comfortable.
Additionally, I would like to suggest the use of rugs and carpets. This way, you kill two birds with one stone. First, carpets can greatly enhance the coziness of your home. Second, they provide an extra layer of insulation, which is particularly useful for wooden floors. Wooden floors often have small holes and cracks through which heat can escape, and carpets can help mitigate this issue.
That’s a great tip! I love it because it’s easy to implement yet effective. Besides using carpets, think about adding foam mats to reduce air leaks through floors. Foam mats are cheaper than conventional carpets and can effectively seal gaps, contributing to improved insulation and overall warmth in your home.
Great tips! I never thought about rearranging the room to help stay warm but that makes perfect sense.
It actually can make a big difference!
aside from a couple months im always so dang hot in our house but this is an awesome well thought out post, i wish i was always cold at home then i could just bundle up haha!
haha, I WISH I was so dang hot!
Great tips on staying warm without turning up the heat! I’m planning to make lots of soup this winter. I never knew that the order in which I put on blankets would make a difference…fascinating!
yeah, I didn’t know it made a difference either but it does! And yum to the soup. Got any recipes to share?
Good tip on running your ceiling fan! No I need to figure out to run it the other way!
Ha, is there like a switch to flip or something? I had no idea they could go the other way.
These are great tips! We live in a camper and it’s always cold no matter what the heat is on. Thanks for sharing–we’ll put some of these to use this winter for sure!
Camper life must be fascinating. Bundling up is key!
I love this post! I am always cold! Hot baths are definitely my favorite! Great ideas.
Yes, they warm you up to the core!