3393: How to Lower Your Heating Bills This Winter by Sierra Black with Get Rich Slowly on Cutting Heating Costs

Get more for your business with Northwest Registered Agent. They help you launch an LLC for just $39 plus state fees, while helping protect your identity by keeping your home address private. Don't wait. Protect your privacy, build your brand, and get your complete business identity in just 10 clicks and ten minutes. Visit northwestregisteredagent.com/paidofd and start building something amazing. Get more with Northwest Registered Agent at northwestregisteredagent.com/paidoft. This is Optimal Finance Daily, how to lower your heating bills this winter, by Sierra Black with getrichslowly.org. The chilly season is upon us. If you live in North America, you've probably had at least a few cold nights by now. Up in my neck of the woods in the Boston area, we've had our central heat running for a few weeks, which means we're in full swing winterizing with an eye to keep the heating bill low. Over the past few years, we've actually gotten pretty good at this. In New England, winter heat can eat up a big part of a family's budget. Our heating bills used to run over $500 a month. Last year, we had them down to $250 or less. This year, I'm hoping to go even lower. No. We don't live in a refrigerator. Our house is pretty comfortable all year round. Here's how we keep the bills low. Invest in insulation and efficiency. Small changes can have ripple effects, but big changes are worth even more. Last year, we had our walls insulated with blown cellulose insulation. We also replaced our 40 year old burner with a high efficiency natural gas system. These home improvements aren't cheap. Since they're good for the environment as well as your budget though, there are often government grants and loans available to help make them more affordable. We didn't have the savings to do this, so we took out a 0% loan through our state's energy efficiency program. The loan payments are far less than the immediate savings on our heating bills. The upgrade is paying for itself already and will continue to do so long after we've paid off this loan. Of course, I use the savings from lower heating bills to accelerate paying off my higher interest debt. I wouldn't normally suggest taking out a loan as a step towards financial health, but in this case, it clearly saved us money. It also helped shrink our whole household's environmental footprint. In addition to your heating system and your home insulation, you may wanna think about upgrading your windows. To find out what big ticket investments will pay off, you can schedule a free energy audit through your utility company. They'll send someone to your home who will walk through the house and give you a full report on ways to save energy and money. When we had ours done, the nice young man also replaced all of our light bulbs with compact fluorescence free of charge. Bundle up. There's no need to keep your house balmy enough …