As the temperatures start to plummet, homeowners crank up their furnaces and, unfortunately, many times their heating bills, too. The following are a few tips to help keep your home and your wallet well insulated.

1. Close down unused spaces for the winter. If you tend to stay out of certain parts of your house throughout the winter, consider closing vents and doors to those spaces. By shutting them off from your heating system, you’ll be saving money and letting your furnace work more efficiently.
2. Clean heating filters and furnace. Dust can accumulate on radiators, filters, and vents. This makes your heating system less efficient and requires more energy to produce the same amount of heat to fill up a room. With this in mind, it’s important to check and clean these areas a couple of times throughout the winter.
3. Use your ceiling fans. This might sound counterintuitive, but ceiling fans can also be used for heating. If homeowners set fans to turn clockwise at low speeds, the warm air trapped at the ceiling will be circulated down with the cooler air and heat the entire room. Some experts point to a 15% savings on heating bills for the entire house just from this one tactic.
4. Seal leaks around windows, doors and pipes. Old and peeling weather stripping around doors and windows can let in cold air and create excessive drafts. A short visit to your local home improvement store to get replacement weather stripping and window caulk could pay big dividends.
5. Use space heaters. Try bringing a portable space heater with you from room to room during the day. This allows you to keep your overall home thermostat set a few degrees cooler, which can translate into big savings.
6. Close the curtains. Drawing the curtains or drapes during cold winter nights will also help keep heat in. Consider using insulated curtains. Not only can they significantly lower heating costs, they can be a great way of blocking outside noise. To find the ideal curtains, try looking for those with high-density foam insulation and reflective backing, which help direct heat back into the room.
7. More blankets, more sweaters. This sounds so simple, but it’s a best practice. Running a slightly lower home temperature during the day and at night can find you some savings in your heating bill.