This Winter, Every Little Bit of Warm Will Help

Q In the wake of ferocious hurricanes that have disrupted supplies of oil and natural gas, heating bills are expected to skyrocket this winter. What steps can I take to control heating costs that will really give a significant payoff?

A There is both a quick-fix and a longer-term way to approach this issue.

For the quick fix, you can adapt some of the strategies of the past, when people had no choice but to heat drafty old houses with wood-burning stoves. Without a duct system to distribute the heated air, these houses tended to be too hot where the fire was and frigid elsewhere. So many families simply shut the doors on upstairs rooms and even main-floor rooms that were seldom used. That way, they could be comfortably warm in the rooms that they really used. Shortly before everyone headed upstairs to bed, they might open the doors to warm the bedrooms a bit. Or they donned nightcaps and filled hot-water bottles and just scurried to bed in cold rooms.

Today, when most houses have central-heating systems that distribute warm air or hot water to an entire house, most people never consider heating just a few rooms. There is simply no way to do it, unless the house happens to have a zoned heating system. However, you can still accomplish the efficiency of the past by turning down the thermostat really low and then adding an electrical space heater or two to the area where you want to be warm. Even though a space heater might not be as energy-efficient as your furnace, you almost certainly will see real savings in your home heating bill because you will be super-heating a much smaller area.

"Say you're a work-at-home spouse, and no one else is home during the day. You can turn the house thermostat down to 60 and keep your office room at 70 with an electrical space heater," says Tom Marston, marketing director for Energy Services Group, a company in Wilmington, Del., that evaluates energy-efficiency in existing and planned houses. "It's very economical."

If you take this approach, avoid kerosene heaters or any others that burn fuel and send the exhaust gas into your room. Also avoid any heaters with surfaces that become hot enough to start a fire. Beyond those considerations, look for the best bargain. "No one electrical heater is more efficient than any other electric heater," Marston says. "So if you pay more money, you're just giving someone else more money. Basically, these heaters are all just burning electricity through a resistance coil. A toaster is no more or less efficient."

People sometimes wonder whether turning back a thermostat really saves money. Doesn't it just take more heat to get the house back up to a comfortable temperature? The answer, Marston says, is that setting back the thermostat always saves energy -- and therefore money -- as long as you leave it set back for six to eight hours. Every degree counts. If the thermostat doesn't go below 55, you can even turn the furnace off completely, provided the outdoor temperature won't get so cold that pipes along outside walls might freeze.

You can adjust the thermostat manually, or invest in a clock thermostat if you want to bring up the temperature in the main part of the house at certain times, such as half an hour before you get up or half an hour before the kids get home from school. The only caveat here is that if your heating system includes a heat pump, you need to buy one labeled for "intelligent recovery setback," or simply ask a clerk for one suitable for use with a heat pump. Clock thermostats start at about $40 for one with just two settings -- night and day. Programmable thermostats cost more but offer more flexibility. You can program different settings to match your daily routines.

There are other good lessons from the past that can offer cost-effective, immediate relief this winter. People used to close thick drapes or pull window shades when the sun went down and open them up again in the morning. If you leave the windows covered day and night, or if you fail to pull drapes in the evening, you could be spending more than you need to on heat. Anything that blocks the radiant heat waves leaving warm objects in the room (including your body) and reflects the waves back into the room will make the room more comfortable even though you don't turn up the thermostat. Window coverings also cut down on drafts, which can occur even around new windows, depending on how they were installed.

Thermal window coverings are the best bet, but investing in new drapes is an expensive proposition -- the type of fix that this column will discuss next week, along with other strategies for cutting heating costs over the long term. Using several layers of window coverings also works to cut down on heat loss. You might already have what you need but just not be using all the layers. With shades, sheers and heavy drapes with an insulated lining, you can raise the insulation value of even a single-pane window by a huge amount. In the R-rating lingo used in the insulation industry, the value can go from R-1 to R-6.

Next week: Strategies for cutting heating costs over the long term.