How to Save on Heating Costs 

Heated mattress pad. Doesn't cost a fortune to run, and you can keep just your bed toasty without having to keep the entire bedroom warm. Turn it on a bit before bedtime. Only problem: it can be hard to get out of! Great if you have arthritis or similar. While you're turning the heat down, keep in mind any pets that are older or have arthritis or similar conditions and set up warm spots for them. A regular incandescent 60-watt bulb in a reading lamp over a pet bed makes a nice warm cozy nest that keeps older joints from getting stiff and sore. (Also, obviously, vet and maybe glucosamine and/or pain meds.) Or leave that heated mattress pad on, if they'll use it. ;-) House plants will help keep the air from getting so dry from heating and increase the oxygen levels even with all the windows closed. If your landlord won't let you do plastic over the windows (I had one that was worried about condensation) even a fleece blanket tacked over the window with a bit of a gap for an air barrier will help a surprising amount, but may reduce light.

A few years ago we complained to my landlord that the apartment was too cold (we don't have a thermostat we're just at the mercy of how warm the landlord wants to keep it) and he came in with his little gadget to check the temperature and he was like "I don't know what you're complaining about it's 55 (Fahrenheit) in here" he also kept talking about how ridiculous we were for complaining when we have the warmest apartment in the building because we're right over the boiler. I just had to mention that when I heard Hank say that you wouldn't want to keep your place any colder than that because 55 is pretty cold, which yes, yes it is.

We have a metal door and it's a huge source of drafts. So, when I'm at home, I'll take a tension curtain rod and hang a blanket in the door frame. It definitely helps keep the cold from seeping in!

Bake. Turn on the stove burners. We have a gas stove, so it heats up the house really quickly. This works best with insulated homes. Don't leave it on for too long, it is still fire and should not be left unattended.

is there/will there be a "save on cooling" video? for those of us with extended summers?

This is amusingly timed because it's currently 35 degrees celsius in Australia, but also I'm gonna send this to my friend who's not coping with his first winter in Canada, so someone will get some use out of it!

Rice bags! Get some fabric, sew it into a square (like a pillow) and fill it with rice. Then you can pop that thing in the microwave for a couple minutes, and you've got a nice warm thing to put under the covers. Or, if you want a cute little friend, get an old stuffed animal (from a thrift or second hand shop if you don't want to cut up the ones you have), pull out the stuffing, and fill it with rice. The only interesting part is watching your new friend spin around in the microwave...

Some tips from a lifelong resident of the Great Lakes region- -Electric blankets are in about the same price range as radiant heaters. If your budget allows for one, they're great for snuggling on the sofa while reading or playing video games or whatever, though my favorite way to use them is to put it between your top sheet and comforter and then turn it on a half hour or so before you go to bed (or, if you have an older/cheaper one that doesn't turn off automatically, turn it on about an hour before bedtime and then turn it off before you get in bed.) -Tucking a heating pad under your sweater is pretty nice, and you might already have one around if you deal with chronic pain or frequent cramps. -Super easy DIY neckwarmer: Get a pair of sturdy knee socks and fill one about halfway with uncooked long-grain rice (NOT instant rice!). If you're worried one sock isn't going to be sturdy enough, use the other one to line it. Microwave it for a minute and a half and drape it over your shoulders for some extra warmth. You can also stick it in a pair of boots or slippers to warm them up before putting them on. -If you have the money for it, a kigurumi (a loose-fitting onesie popular in Japan, usually styled as an animal costume) was one of the best investments I ever made, I wear it over my pajamas.

Similar to foam tape but without the adhesive, foam backer rod can be found in the insulation aisle at most hardware stores and it's like $3 for a boatload of foam (like I only needed 1 bag to go around all of my kitchen baseboards /and/ counter tops for a separate project - it's a bunch). I've also rolled up extra bedsheets and towels and taped them around the edges of drafty windows in the past. If you want to go really extreme and don't care about living in the dark, hanging a think blanket over a drafty window really helps. The plastic sheets worked pretty well for me, but it peeled the paint off the walls in my apartment, so maybe sample the tape in a discreet place first. I've also tried at least partially closing the heating vents in rooms w/o pipes that I don't spend a lot of time in, although I honestly have no clue if that's actually working. Baking is a fantastic solution and it also makes your humble abode smell delicious :)

Thick rubber bags with plugs! If they don't sell them in the US, they should. Heat up some water in a kettle, then pour it in, and screw on the cap. It's a cheap and amazingly efficient personal heater that lasts HOURS. Also makes crawling into a cold bed a lot easier.

Something I learned camping in the winter: PEE, even if you don’t really need to. Water requires a lot of heat to change temp, so if you frequently empty your bladder, your body doesn’t need to expend that energy on heating your urine and can instead go towards heating your fingers and toes. Always do a quick bathroom run before bed - it may even make leaving the toasty covers a little easier when you wake up.

just found out about this channel on the last vlogbrothers video and i definitely intend to binge every video !

Roll up a towel, fabric, or a blanket and press it along the base of a door to help keep any drafts out of those spots. I think I have also had friends that have hung blankets in front of doors and windows to help, but I am not sure how well that helps. If the sun is shinning during the day open the shades to let the light do some of the heating. Also if you are in a house be sure to get something to cover and inculcate the spicket outside to keep them from freezing.

We set the thermostat to 60, then bundle up. Cook more with the oven. I have a space heater, but only really used it when it was hard to get out of my cozy bed to get ready for work in the mornings. Rice socks (literally tube socks filled with dry rice, microwave for a minute or two) are good personal heating pads and fit well in a hoodie pocket. My senior dog gets a sweater, and insulated bed up off the floor, and another rice sock. In college, my December and January electricity bills were always like $15.

Additionally for dealing with utility bill fluctuations many companies offer a system where you pay the average of your bills for the year. So while it will fluctuate if your usage fluctuates it won’t spike so high you have a heart attack.

OH! This is really important actually. Look into the government weatherization assistance programs in your state. What many of them will do is come and update your home to make it more energy efficient and better insulated. It's only really for low income and elderly families who own homes, but it's an amazing resource. And an important notice: One of the programs that the new tax plan is planning to cut funding for is this one, so PLEASE contact your congressmen to tell them that we want important programs like this. And if you need it sign up for it NOW in case any of it does get cut, you get the help you need before it's too late.

Heat saving tip, CLOSE YOUR CURTAIN. I live in a house with quite large windows, this means excellent views but also once it gets dark a large cold black surface. This absorbs much of the heat in the room. The way around this, curtains they reduce the absorbtion generally make it feel nice

Actually, keeping your home lower temperature when nobody is in it will be cheaper. You are saving more energy by having it at a low temperature than what it takes to heat it back up.

I recommend the book "Keeping Warm in Hard Times" lots of ways of saving on heating costs and even covers emergency heating methods and cooling.

Another thing I use all the time is a rice heating pack, which is kind of like the hot water bottle idea. Take a sock (or if you’re feeling really motivated you can sew together two square shapes of thicker material) and fill it with uncooked rice. You can microwave it over and over many times, just make sure you don’t microwave it too long since you can burn the rice, and it works really well to warm up your bed so it isn’t ice cold.

If you don't have them already, get some flannel sheets and/or a down comforter. Both can really help to keep your bed warm and cozy! I would also recommend finding a temperature to keep your apartment at that is comfortable for you when you are already wearing a few layers, so you aren't heating things as much as you would be if you had it at a temperature for when you are just in a t-shirt.

my parents got a digital and/or programable thermostat years ago! it allows you to program the heat to not turn on unless it gets below a certain temp at certain times. this would be helpful if you dont want the heat running when you're not home! this is something i want to ask my landlord for because we currently dont have one

A trick from my late teens at my mom's house: turn on an Xbox 360! I had it under my desk and even when not using it, the incredible heat it made kept my legs toasty for a bit each day. My old desktop computer ran hit and had the same effect. Though it did have the opposite and very undesirable effect in the summer...

My first winter in Chicago was in a nearly 100-year-old building with radiators and VERY drafty windows. Lacking other insulation materials, I stuffed plastic grocery sacks into the gaps in the window frame and was toasty all winter long!

Lots of utility companies around the nation have free or cheap energy audits you can do to not only save money on your bill after remedying things, but they really help you identify problem spots and places where heat is escaping..

electric blankets! My mom gave me some that she's had for ages from korea and they still work great! I usually put them on my bed between the mattress and myself since heat rises and all, plus they use less electricity than my lamp, and that just a normal desk lamp. It has a dial that goes from 1 to 10 on the heat settings, 1 being lowest and 10 being highest, I usually keep mine on a 3 or 4 just to add that little umph of warmth. Also, to go along with the idea of "make it look cozy so you feel cozy" I usually use warmer yellowish tones light bulbs and that really helps with the cozy factor (To be honest I use them year round but thats just because daylight bulbs that are more blue give me headaches). Those fancy pants pink salt lamps are also great, not because of some mystical magical nonsense, but because they diffuse the light really well and make it a really nice pinkish yellow shade thats really cozy.

Put wool rugs on bare floors, hang thermal window curtains.

Most of this only makes sense in the US where you have one thermostat for the whole house. Most European houses have thermostats on the radiators. Easy to keep rooms at different heat levels. If your radiators don't have thermostats, get some. Cost a few bucks. However, there is still a central heat source. Be smart about when you switch it on or off. Sometimes they run on external temperature sensors which can lead to dumb decisions. There should be a manual override. Try running your central heat on lower temperature if that works for you. Rooms heat up slower but you have less loss. Aerate clever. Don't have half open windows or open vents. Get fresh air in the house by opening all windows once a day for a short time. Run your hot water at a lower temp. You don't need scalding hot water on tap. If you own the place, get modern circulation pumps. They run much cheaper. Also keep the circulation after run low. Some pumps run 24h after the heating turned off or even run continuously. Drafts feel cold. Eliminate them. And for fucks sake. Wear some extra socks an cosy up. Use waste heat. Gaming all day? Computers and Plasma TV are nice dual use devices. But they suck bad in summer.

If you have central heating and a room that you rarely ever go in (like a laundry room or a spare bedroom) put a little bit of insulation in the air vent to block it off. Not only will you not be wasting hot air trying to heat that room but depending on the duct layout you''ll have more efficient heating in other rooms that you do use.

This is a very helpful video for someone who's living in an apartment as opposed to a college dorm for the first time this winter. Unfortunately, the heating system I have automatically shuts off after three hours, so there is no keeping it at an even temperature at all times if I'm not home to turn it back on.

I️ misread “Strategize” as “stargaze”. And my initial thought was “Well that’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.” Strategize makes much more sense.

strategic heating can only be done so far. I don't spend a lot of time in the bathroom but turning the temperature down there is simply not an option. when I get out of the warm bed and enter a cold bathroom the day has already taken a bad start

I just moved from my grandparents who keep there house in the 70s to my parents who keep there house in the 50s It’s all good though, Iv recently become more aware of how much using excess electricity actually affects the environment and it’s not good, so I probably would have done this anyway. I used to wear just shorts through winter, but now I have long shirts, pants, and slippers

I have a studio apartment and I really miss being able to close the door to my bedroom to keep heat in. I used to spend a lot more on heating - now I have fleece pants, fleece shirts and a fleeceblanket to wrap myself in and that works.

I pin sheets over the windows during the winter. This works well in rooms you don’t often use.

I pretty much did all of this when I lived in Ohio--great tips! Now in NYC, I don't control my heating and I basically get baked alive if I'm home too long--I have to have the windows open to breathe, which is so counter intuitive to everything I know and you've listed here!

My heating is entirely controlled by a central entity somewhere and I seriously don't know how they work but it's either boiling or freezing, no in between. I've learned to cope by having a shitton of blankets and pillows and tea. Pro tip though: close your curtains as soon as it gets dark! You'd be surprised how much that helps

Rather than fuel assistance, look into LI-HEAP (Low-income HEating Assistance Program). This includes efforts to improve home energy efficiency which is a more permanent solution and improves comfort to boot.

My heated mattress pad has been a lifesaver. My house has like, no insulation, and my and my son's rooms get very cold. Also, blankets and hoodies.

Heated mattress pad, lava lamp, and afghans. Cook your food on the stove so you can stand there and warm up. Don’t like tea, coffee, or hot chocolate? Drink warm broth, use bouillon to make your favorite.

I honestly dont know what to say.... but why am i JUST finding this channel now at 29!!!! WTF 😭😭😭😭

So many people need this! Seriously!

Perfect timing on the upload, today’s the coldest its been in Massachusetts, we’ve got a deadly wind today!

Great show as always

Wish there was a blooper reel for every Hank channel video!

Simmering a huge pot of water makes my apartment feel warmer and apparently keeps winter nosebleeds away. I also add a few cloves and a cinnamon stick to help mentally warm up.

Related to my other comment, but the temperature you experience in a room is made up of the air temp and a concept called radiant temperature. Even if the air temperature is low the resultant temperature you experience can still be bearable if the radiant temperature is high enough. This is the theory behind infer red heating in warehouses, they heat the object/people not the air. This is also why underfloor heating is soo much better than conventional radiators as they can be heated to a lower temperature but still offer the same resultent temperature. Less of a tip but hopes it helps

I skipped the fingerless glove option but went for something simmilar. There is a place online called "Storyarts" and their arm warmers are just lovely.

Encourage your dog/cat to crawl into your bed earlier than you do at precisely the spot where your feet line up on the mattress. Then kick them off so that you can steal the warm spot for your toes :)

i'm gonna start this by saying "cold" is relative depending on what you're acclimated to. yes i live in california. no it doesn't even snow where i live. yes 43 degrees at 7:30am is cold af to me. (but on the other hand, 85 is still comfortable to me so like i said. acclimation.) anyway, one year in college i lived in a really shitty house and my window didn't shut properly. the glass wasn't broken or anything, but the center where the slidey part is supposed to lock didn't close correctly and so there was a significant gap between the slidey bit and the stationary bit, so lots of air could get in. it was (relatively, for our area) super cold that december and duct taping the gap wasn't even cutting it so i ended up pinning some too-small-for-my-bed-anyway blankets over the window. didn't get any sunlight in my room for a few months but it's not like there was a lot of that anyway. also, sleep with your pants! and the rest of your clothes too maybe? to save time (and because morning-me is an awful human being and refuses to get up with more than 15 minutes to get ready in the morning) i'll sometimes change into what i'm gonna wear the next day before bed. (it helps that it doesn't really matter what i look like for work, and that i take evening showers.) then i don't have to change clothes in the cold morning. but it's not like i want to sleep in jeans, so i just stick them under the covers with me and in the morning they're just as warm as the rest of me :)

Can also wear thermal pj. Will absolutely warm you up.

If you're able to- INSULATE the house. Insulate the attic, floors, and walls. It makes little sense to heat cold walls, floors, and ceilings.

I have a "Honeywell" thermostat. I really don't need my whole aprtment heated as I live alone. Can I just keep the setting @ 56 and run a small personal fan when needed to save money? I heard some say lower it to 55-57 during night and bring back up to 62-68 during the day. Just wanted to know if I can keep it @ 56 to save the most money during winter rather than adjusting it daily and before bed? I'm not worried about pipes freezeing as it hasnt below 37 degress Fahrenheit yet.Thanks in advance!

What are your thoughts on smart thermostats as a cost saving measure?

Love the vid. Great advice!

Move to Florida

When I lived in cold climates we sealed the windows with caulk every winter.

I wish they did one like this but for cooling a house before they retired the channel. I live in a pretty warm part of the us and my summer electricity bill is pretty awful (also climate change is kinda beating the planet over the head with a rusty pipe right now so I know I’m not the only one with this problem)

I don't know why I'm watching this, my utilities are included in my rental, I know, unicorn find, it's amazing. But I will say, as I have had to pay for electric/water/gas before and I know how outrageous those bills can get, good tips! I love electric blankets/mattress pads, they are great for you, and they really help my dog with his arthritis situation, of course you have to be willing to share your bed for that. 😂

invest in a nice puffy vest to wear over a hoodie.. keeps your core warm and it's way better than going around in a coat when you're, y'know, at home.

If someone lives in Texas, sorry to say the old-reliable Lite-Up won't be available soon. I work with a utility company and for what it is say, It was cancelled because this program was founded through taxes and many cities were on red numbers in an effort to reduce the local debt. I really sorry for elderly people but a lot of lazy people just wants all for free.

I'm sitting here watching this in three knitted jumpers, a hat and a scarf, trying to figure out how to persuade my housemates that we need the heating on for more than 2 hours a day.

Honestly never understood fingerless gloves. Does it keep you that much warmer? Your fingers are still exposed and usually that is the problem spot for being too cold.

I was hoping you would mention Hygge :D

I'm watching this in my chilly narrowboat while my partner is lighting the fire!

layer up

He forgot two important heat sources: halogen lighting (lasts longer than incandescent and produces a sun-like spectral (and heat) output for SAD and quality video/project lighting) and properly cooled OC FX 8350 CPUs while gaming (I swear it works too well at times. I even have to vent in cold air from other rooms into my room to keep me from sweating).

Dane here. You nailed the hygge part 😉

This is literally the most adult video I have ever watched.

how about how to deal with year around autumn or a video how to survive the swooping season for our aussie bretheren XD

hank!

I did something similar with Avasva solutions.

I use a wheat pillow for my toes which get a lot colder than anything else.

Throws!! And cats. Saving grace throughout winter

Electric blankets! It doesn't even get all that cold most of the time where I live, but my body's internal thermostat is busted so I get freezing cold for no reason anyways. My electric blanket is one of the best things I have ever bought! Another added bonus: cats love them too, your feline friends will come bundle up with you.

Dude "call of a warrior" play air guitar all MORNING!😂

What a rad jacket! I want one.

I'm so angry I only just found out this channel was back

I would just go outside for a bit and get used to winter/fall temperatures. I like the cold

Am mad have to turn heat onto 50degrees. I prefer cold and blankets. And dogs. Warm fluffy dogs who insist on cuddling even if you’re hot

Kesha is the solution to many problems.

I beat the cold by washing my fingerless gloves, drying them in the dryer, and then putting them on my hands while they’re still warm. Hint hint Hank.

from the south. winter still kills me, even here.

0:44 Well, bad advice and wrong physic here. Please let Kate Whittle, your writer know. (well... it's a 6 years old video... most of the staff is probably retired in a paradise private island I guess!). Here we are 100% electricity. The more economical is to turn off 0% the heat few hours before leaving and turn it on at 100% few hours before getting back to home. Ideally, you would reach the setpoint just when you arrive. From there, the system just follow the setpoint. You can turn it to a lower setpoint for the night (again, few hours before going to bed) and crank it up few hours before you wake up.

Put some AREA RUGS and RUNNERS on those bare floors!

Two words: insulating glass.

You almost pronounced "hygge" like "hikke" ("(to) hiccup"), actually. Double gg's and double kk's are pronounced the same way. Danish "i" is pronounced like a short "ee". I don't really know what to compare "y" with, though... Kinda like "ooh" but that's how you pronounce the "u" in Danish, not the "y". Well, I think a Dane could guess what you mean. Not bad at all :) Greetings from Denmark!

Kotatsu

The best thing I've found on the net was plans from Avasva .

If turbines, only with Avasva.

How about chopping some wood and burning a fire to keep warm.

I just cuddle with kittens.

just mine bitcoin

California= Close the Door

Sit in the corner as its always 90 degrees there. 😉

cuddling with furry pets is always a great way to warm up

But heavy clothing