Last month our gas bill was over $260. I live in Georgia, and for the most part this year we have had a fairly mild temperatures during the day, but when the sun goes down at night it gets very cold here some nights. My fingers are cold as I type out this article, but I refuse to turn on the gas logs for heat here in the den that serves as my office. For all of February I have been cutting back on the gas that is used in our home.
Since the gas bill was so high, I have decided not to use the gas to heat until nighttime, and then only if the room is uncomfortably warm. There are three people in our home, and I have asked that none of us use the exhaust fan when we take a shower, because we are wasting heat and water vapor. Why would I not want water vapor to escape? Water vapor adds humidity to the home environment, and where there is moisture the air feels warmer. We have 3 gas heaters, plus a gas fireplace in our home.
If you stop and think about where heat comes from in your home, you may be able to save some of it to warm your home with. I just mentioned about the shower. Once you are done showering leave the door open so the water vapor can permeate the rest of the house.
I have a gas stove with an oven. I harvest the heat from the stove and or the oven by not switching on my exhaust fan. When you use your exhaust fan most of your heat from the stove goes up your exhaust pipe and out into the outside. While I am writing this article I am baking chicken in the oven. The kitchen is warming up; it was really cold in the kitchen when I first put the chicken in the oven, but now it is much more comfortable to work in the kitchen.
My home is over 100 years old. There were some places that I could see daylight through the cracks around the windows. We calked them. If you notice any cracks in your home where a draft can get in, it will save you money in the long run if you calk those areas. Don’t forget about weather stripping either, because you lose a lot of heat from the open spaces between your floor and the bottom of the door. You can also weather strip your windows.
In summary, it is our job to make our homes as energy efficient as possible. I was shocked to see that our gas bill had gotten so high. This month we took measures to try and conserve what heat we have in the house. We do have two heaters on in the day, but we are not using any gas heaters during the day. I do expect that our heating bill should be much less when the next bill comes in.
