It’s not too late to save a few extra bucks before winter ends. Have you taken a candle around to your windows and doors to see if air is making its way into your home? Hold the candle still if the flame flickers you have a problem. How expensive can a candle be? Using this simple technique, you can find and repair every major air leak in your home in less than 30 minutes. Temporarily seal each leak with good old fashioned duct tape. When spring rolls around and things begin to warm up get rid of the duct tape and perform a proper repair. You’ll save money this winter and next season too. Keep a little WD40 handy to remove any duct tape residue that remains.

A lady recently called our radio program and explained to us that her furnace filter never got dirty. We found that she wasn’t using a pleated filter. Hold the filter you intend to purchase and install in a horizontal position. Pour a small handful of salt onto the top surface of the filter. Shake the filter as if you were sifting flour. If the salt passes through don’t purchase the filter. If it won’t hold salt it sure as heck won’t hold dust particles and allergens.

If you have a decorative ceiling paddle fan use it to increase the efficiency of your home heating source. Turn the fan on low and run the fan in reverse (the leading edge of the fan blade is the lower of its two edges). This will blow air upward forcing the hot air on the ceiling out to and down the walls. Reusing the layer of hot air captured near the ceiling will reduce your heating bill, eliminate condensation at windows (if the blinds are open) and will make the heat in your home even and more comfortable.

If you own a ducted central heating system and have extra money you can hire a heating contractor who can “zone” your existing heating system. Zoning your heating system allows you to selectively heat different sections of your home (“zones”). For example: if your current furnace warms the whole house at once it can be modified to heat the left and right sides independently of each other. When the family is in the kitchen or family room heat is not needed in the bedrooms. Visa versa is true at bedtime. Think about how much more efficient you heating system would be if such a control were available at the flick of a thermostat.

If you find zoning to be more than you can afford look into a portable space heater. But be careful, many are dangerous: Even consumer reports can goof. The following URL will take you to a heater that Consumer Reports recommends as a unit as its “best radiant space heater”. Then it states that the unit is:
• “Ineffective for whole-room heating”
• “Uneven surfaces can trigger a safety shut off”
• “Grill is hot when in use”
http://www.consumersearch.com/space-heaters/optimus-h-5210-infrared-quartz-heater

We have found that just about every website we visited wasn’t very savvy when it comes to modern, energy efficient space heating. These new contraptions use infrared quartz heating elements that work in conjunction with copper heating chambers wherein a 1500 watt unit will heat a thousand square feet or more. What is most interesting about this new kid on the block is that it doesn’t look like a heater and it doesn’t burn like a typical space heater. Even better, the old fashioned fear about a house fire or a child getting burned doesn’t apply to these new units. They are a bit pricy compared to what you may be used to, but we haven’t found anything to compare. Check it out: http://sunheat.com/newhowitworks.html