The leaves may have changed color and fallen from the trees, but that doesn’t mean there can’t be any green in your wintertime.  Check out these tips for going green in the wintertime.

Defeating the Cold Air Draft

Temperatures vary during the winter but one way or another; nobody likes to live in a cold house.  Stepping out of a hot shower or bath into the cold air of a bathroom can be one of the worst experiences.  Most people end up taking longer showers in the winter because the sudden rush of cold air outside of the shower is very unappealing.   The cold air we all fear surrounding the outside of the shower, the fearful draft, comes from the crack under the door or perhaps a window.  Put an end to this waste of hot air and roll a towel to fit under the crack in the door or window.  Your bathroom window may fog up, but your transition from hot shower to cold bathroom is sure to be a smoother one.  Take this trick from the bathroom and use it in other rooms that may be draft prone, perhaps a door to a backyard patio or the doggie door, both areas where heat can escape.  Drafts such as these have the potential to waste anywhere from five to thirty percent of energy use.  Rolling a towel under doors or windows around the house will help keep the heat in and the draft out.

A window insulation kit is another method to cutting out airflow and eliminating the draft, increasing your home’s ability to keep the heat inside.   When installed properly, the window plastic goes unnoticed.  Low-E film is a great tool for the summer or winter.  By applying the window film to your windowpanes, you can cut down on heat loss from older windows up to forty percent.  The film is reversible.   When flipped one way, the film keeps solar radiation out when it’s hot outside.  When you reverse it, the film reflects heat from the sun inside the household for the colder part of the year.

Installing a storm door is another way to keep the draft out and a great way to cut down on wasted energy, especially when the cold wind starts blowing outside.   Storm doors offer much flexibility in allowing ventilation and light into your household.  Make sure your storm doors are Energy Star Rated.

Energy Star Rated Products

Energy Star Rated products are identifiable with a blue and white label on the appliance and earned by meeting strict guidelines set forth by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy.  This label identifies products that are ten to fifty percent more efficient then standard models.  Keep this in mind next time you purchase an appliance; if half of the homes in the United States replaced a standard television set with an Energy Star model, the energy saved would be equivalent to shutting down an entire power plant.

The Ceiling Fan…A Secret Weapon

A ceiling fan is not only a great tool for the summer but for the winter as well, capable of cutting heating costs up to ten percent.   Ceiling fans run counter clockwise to generate a cooling effect in a room.  A little known fact is that numerous ceiling units are equipped with a reverse switch.  The reverse switch sends the blades of the fan clockwise.  An odd site at first, a ceiling fan running in reverse creates an updraft.   The warm air in a given rooms tends to collect near the ceiling.  The updraft from running the ceiling fan in reverse knocks the warm air loose and sends it spiraling down to the rest of the room.

Water Heaters

Water heaters in homes are often set at a temperature higher then most households need, often leaving hot water sitting in the tank cooling down.  To cut down on wasting heated water, check out the temperature gauge on your water heater.  Most are set to one hundred and forty degrees Fahrenheit by whoever installed the appliance.  However, most homes do not require this degree of heated water.  Try lowering your water heater temperature by twenty degrees.  If your heater is set to one hundred and forty, try setting it to one hundred and twenty.  Continue to lower it by a few degrees each week if you do not notice a difference in your daily functioning.  By lowering the temperature of your water heater by a mere twenty degrees, you can save on your energy costs anywhere from six to ten percent.