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Tips For Saving Money On Your Heating Bill This Winter

FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM) – With cold weather just around the corner, heating bills will go up as the temperatures drop. Heating and cooling specialists say the...

FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM) - With cold weather just around the corner, heating bills will go up as the temperatures drop. Heating and cooling specialists say there are several ways to be more efficient with the energy in your home this winter.

Eric Schein, owner of Complete Comfort, said if you're wanting to cut costs, it can be as simple as turning the thermostat down a few degrees.

"The most important thing is that you want to keep it above freezing," Schein said.

He said if you are gone more than a few days, turning the temperature down to 55 would be enough to save a few dollars and not freeze your pipes. Schein said if you turn down the temperature while you're home, don't try to compensate with a space heater.

"That little space heater, which is using a whole lot of electricity and a whole lot of energy to heat that little area, is actually costing you more than what it would to heat the entire house," Schein said.

He said another way to make sure the heat is staying inside the house is checking the seals on all the windows and doors to ensure there isn't a draft. He added that sealing doors doesn't have to be expensive.

"You can put a  towel at the base of a door that has a bad threshold, and it will really help out a lot because of the the fact that you're using it as a stop gap or an air gap," Schein said.

While some people may choose to light a fire instead of turn up the thermostat, Schein said you're doing more harm than good, especially if you have drafty windows.

"When you heat it up, all the heated air goes up the flu, up the chimney and then its gotta replace the oxygen that it's just burned, so it's pulling in from the cracks of the doors and windows, all the cold air from outside and replacing that air," Schein said.

The specialist said if you have single paned windows, you may hang up plastic to help insulate the glass, but with winter approaching, he said it may be worth investing in double paned windows which are more energy efficient.

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