Twinkle's Tips | DIY warm winter tips

Let's face it, trying to forecast manageable heating and electric bills for upcoming cooler weather can be pretty nerve racking. What you can do, however, is try some easy, DIY methods for keeping warm, without cranking up the heat.

Turn it down

One of the easiest ways to save energy this season is to set your furnace or heater thermostats at a lower temperature. For every degree you lower the thermostat you can also considerably lower your heating bill.

According to the Department of Energy, by turning your thermostat back 10 to 15 degrees for 8 hours, you can save five to 15 percent on your bill per year.

Try and avoid electric space heaters if possible, too, since they can easily knock your electric bill out of the park.

If you aren’t really using a room much during the colder months, close the heating vents, and close the doors to help condense the heat into rooms you are using on a regular basis.

Cover drafts

This may seem like a no-brainer, but it’s hard to tell sometimes where a draft might be in your home. And it can become a big draft on your pocketbook if you don’t get those cracks covered before cooler weather sets in.

Find your drafts, and cover with old towels or rolled-up fabric.

You can easily make some cute draft blockers yourself with some old towels and scrap fabric.

Photos – Make It: Door draft cover

Change your furnace filters

If you’ve gone a whole summer season without changing out your furnace filters, now’s the time to stock up. Dirty filters can trap heat making it extra hard for your system to warm up your house.

It will help out tremendously on your heating bills to switch these out monthly.

Think in layers

The easiest, quickest and cheapest (re: FREE) way to help lower heating bills in the winter is basic – put on a sweater.

Pile on the jogging pants, socks and sweaters until you are comfortable. Add an extra blanket to the bed or even keep your stocking cap handy for colder nights.

This can ultimately help when you are deciding how low you want to turn the thermostat down, as well. If you are wearing layers around the house, then a lower temperature is much more tolerable.

----------------------------------------

For more on gardening, food and music, check out twinklevanwinkle.com. Find Twinkle on Foodspotting, Tumblr and Twitter.

Twinkle VanWinkle ponders, creates and discovers cool stuff about music, movies, food, fashion and so forth. Her thoughtful writings and interactives give great advice about healthy food, cooking tips, DIY projects, fashion and more. She’ll teach you a thing or two about music as well. Along with producing dynamic lifestyle content for LIN Media, she is a mother, musician and social media fanatic.