During the days when fuel was relatively cheap, it was no problem to afford staying warm throughout the winter. You set your thermostat to 78ºF, confident that your whole house would stay warm and you could afford the bill when it came due.
OK, not everyone was like that – but almost everyone who lived in a city or major suburb could.
Then, slowly, as wages stopped increasing or went up in fractional increments trailing far behind the actual cost of living increases, and fuel prices went up without any plateau or end in sight, it got harder to afford to warm the house. Maybe your heating system was old and it needed repairs, but parts were no longer available and you couldn’t afford to buy an entire new heating system. Maybe you became concerned about the environment and decided to go greener. Whatever the reason, it’s winter and you want to stay warm and cozy.
Well, I’ll tell you straight up, it’s not necessarily pretty or easy, but it can be cheap and cozy and environmentally friendly.
First, review what heating sources you have in your home. Most urbanites have either all electric or a combination of natural gas and electric. Both promise to be as expensive as they ever have been the last 7 winters, with the utility companies citing “shortages” and “high demand” and “severe weather” and “overloaded older systems”.
That latter excuse? That’s the fault of the utility company itself. It’s annual budgeting has a line there for “upgrades and repairs” – meaning keeping their infrastructure ahead of the demand and as up-to-date as possible. In reality, those funds were used for other things because what was in place was good enough. Only now – it’s not and the money they should have spent on keeping it good is gone and the sudden failures and need exceeds what they have in their budget. If they’d spent the money correctly all along, this wouldn’t have happened. Actually, if they’d spent the budgeted amount on annual upgrades and improvements to the system, the “severe weather” damage would be reduced as well, and they’d have kept up with the “high demand” as they added to the infrastructure to accommodate the increase in housing construction.
Those three reasons are, as far as I’m concerned, invalid reasons to jack the prices of heating up so dramatically in winter. A good business would manage their company so the customer would always know in advance exactly how much they’d pay for the fuel they use to warm and power their homes. The price of fuel is the one place where the customer doesn’t know before they use it how much they will be charged per unit so they can control their consumption, therefore the response has been to dramatically cut consumption, which reduces the expected income to the utility companies, who then pilfer the “upgrades and repairs” budget to cover other costs in the company and raises fuel prices again to cover not the actual fuel costs, but the delivery costs. It becomes a vicious cycle the utility companies could have averted through responsible use of their budget.
But since they didn’t do the right thing, we the consumer don’t need to suffer for their poor choices.
Every home can be converted to having multiple heating types. It’s slightly expensive to have a wood burning fireplace installed, but it provides warmth, a source for cooking hot food, light, and peace of mind. And it’s still cheaper than installing a newer natural gas, electric, or propane gas heating system. Assuming, of course, that you are the owner of the house and not a renter. If you do rent, ask the owner if they’d mind if you installed a fireplace. They may surprise you and pay for all or part of the installation, or give you permission to install it yourself and not raise your rent.
It’s cheaper by far to install a mass rocket heater, which has all the advantages of a wood burning fireplace and uses far less wood. It’s easy enough to put one in yourself, again assuming you own the house and aren’t renting. It’s much harder to convince a landlord to install a mass rocket heater because it is unconventional, but if you have a landlord who is environmentally concerned, try it anyway.
Diversifying your heating sources is important especially for those areas which might experience an interruption in service because of severe weather or a failing infrastructure. My home has a mass rocket heater, natural gas, and electric heat available through small space heaters and I hope to install a wood burning fireplace in the library primarily for looks but also as an additional heat source, since the library goes unheated all winter right now and due to its location (downstairs), the mass rocket heater doesn’t really heat it.
But – I also don’t rely on all (or even any) of these to provide an unlimited amount of heat.
I winterize my house by closing the under house vents, caulking windows and doors, putting up storm windows, using draft dodgers, hanging a large piece of carpet over the exterior doors for an extra layer of insulation (the carpet doubles as a scratching post for the cats down lower and as a message board/art center above as well as a door warmer), and other things.
If you’re caught without any alternate source of heat and no power for the source(s) you do have, there are plenty of things you can do to stay warm inside your home.
First, dress in layers. Wear a T-shirt under your clothes – or even 2 or 3. Wear 2 pairs of socks inside your warm slippers or shoes. Wear a knit cap or fleece hood. Wear sweaters, light jackets, or your warm robe over your clothes, or take one of your blankets and make a snuggly.
To make a snuggly, fold a blanket into thirds. On one of the folds, mark a neckline in the center of it. Do not cut it yet. At the second fold, on the outside edge, sew on a pair of heavy duty snaps, a tie, a pair of buttons or heavy duty hooks, or even a length of heavy duty velcro. This fastens your snuggly on. Now, try the snuggly on by wrapping it around you and fastening it in front. Pull the top part up and see if where you marked the neckline really is a good place for your neck. If it is, go ahead and take it off and cut the neck out. If not, adjust where the neck should be, then cut it out. Once you’ve done that, you can add a snap, tie, or whatever fastener you like to the flap so it fastens to the closure you’ve already put in. You can wear it with the opening in front or in back (I prefer in back so when I sit down, I’m fully covered in front – I also add big pockets). This will stay on, provide you with free hands that you can tuck inside for additional warmth, and keep you warm whether you’re sitting on the sofa watching TV or vacuuming or visiting with friends.
You can make short ones out of those $7.00 fleece blankets available at superstores, or longer ones out of old wool army blankets. You can even use old down comforters. You can pretty it up by sewing a fleece seam binding on the neck and edges, or by sewing on appliqués. If you’re experimental, you can use another small blanket and make a hood and attached mittens. I like having a hood if I need to wear it outside to walk the dogs, but I prefer my long-cuffed leather and thinsulite motorcycle gloves to mittens.
You also make a simple caftan from a fleece blanket by folding it in half and cutting a hole for your head in the middle of the fold and sewing 3/4 of the way up each side. Sew some fleece seam binding around the neck to keep it from stretching out of shape and you’re done.
You can make warm caps and hoods out of fleece to help stay warm. You can simply fold a long rectangle in half and sew up one side for a quick and easy hood or use one of these patterns to make cute and simple hats: Butterick patterns B5111, B 4332, B4003, B4584, McCall’s patterns M5773, M5541, M5254, M4681, M3400, or Simplicity patterns 3473, 3975, 4316, 4780. If you watch the sales, you can buy the patterns for under $2.00.
Other things you can do to reduce heating costs or stay warm when there’s no power or fuel available is to heat only one room of your house and close off all the rest except for forays to get clothes, take showers, etc. If your kitchen is large enough and has multiple fuels for cooking and heating, I recommend setting up in there. The living room is the next best choice. A kitchen/living room combination is ideal.
Hang blankets (2 or 3, overlapped) across the door and leave the door itself open – the blankets will block drafts and retain the warmth inside the room. The reason for hanging multiple blankets is so you when you go through them, the cold air never gets a chance to rush in as it would with just one blanket. Me, I prefer hanging as many as I can fit – usually 5. You can move and adjust the blankets until you get the configuration that lets you have quick access while keeping in the warmth.
If you haven’t done so, caulk all your windows. Caulk is cheap and it works very well.
Consider your electrical outlets – cold air seeps into the house through those, too. Put those little insulation sheets that you can buy at hardware stores inside the cover plates. They are relatively inexpensive and they do an amazing job of blocking that cold air. Do this for every single plug and switch in your house.
If you have an attic or crawl space over your house, check the insulation in there and renew or replace it. If you can’t afford to do that, lay down carpet scraps and thick layers of cardboard. Any insulation is better than none at all.
On the exterior walls of your house, you may want to hang blankets, carpet, or tapestries. If you place your hand on the wall and it feels cold, it needs covering. If you hang blankets, you can rehang artwork over them. Make the blankets part of the decor and visitors may praise your sense of style without knowing it helps keep you warm.
Some neighborhoods and apartment complexes have rules about what you can put in your windows, so some of the following suggestions may be forbidden. If you don’t live in one of those restricted neighborhoods, you can do either of the following:
Cut Styrofoam to fit your windows and push it into place. Pad the edges ropes of thick cotton piping (you can buy these by the yard at fabric and upholstery stores). Hang blankets or carpets over them. It blocks all the lights, but it also blocks all the cold air.
If you lack Styrofoam, you can use yoga mats, exercise mats, bubble wrap, or carpeting to fit into the windows, again, fill or pad the edges with cotton piping or tubes filled with fiberfill then hang blankets or more carpeting over them.
If you live in a restricted area, your best bet is to hang a neutral (cream, white, or beige) canvas in the window so it hangs like a curtain when viewed from the outside. Then, on the inside of the house, you can – if the window is deep enough, fit in Styrofoam, carpeting, or thick exercise mats, pad the edges, and then hang carpeting, blankets, heavy curtains on the inside.
Floors also need to be considered. If you have linoleum, tile, or wood floors, these can get chilly in winter. Throw rugs, thick blankets, carpets, even painted sheets of canvas can help increase the warmth. Anchor them down with furniture or use those non-skid rug mats under them for safety and sure-footedness. It doesn’t have to be ugly – again consider it as a decorating opportunity. Large floor pillows can also add to the decorating appeal and the warmth of the rooms and halls.
To reduce utility bills, I recommend heated seating. If your electricity is working, an electric mattress pad draped over the sofa and then covered with a sheet and a blanket can make for very cozy seating and you can lower your thermostat. These heated mattress pads don’t draw a lot of power, but they do an amazing job of keeping you warm.
If you have indoor pets, consider putting sweaters on them and providing them with blankets to snuggle inside. Short-haired and very small pets chill quickly and may appreciate the consideration. If you pet is under 10 pounds, definitely provide extra warmth for them. Most common pets like dogs, cats, ferrets, and rabbits tolerate temperatures between 45ºF and 85ºF. Some pets that are bred for warmer climates can only tolerate temperatures down to 50ºF for short periods of time. Always provide warm bedding for your pet, indoors or out. PetsMart has electric bedwarmers for pet beds, but they only work as long as you have electric power, so don’t depend on them to keep your pet warm.
Warm their water, too. Not hot, but warmer than a cold room – around 70ºF is good. I watched one of our chihuahuas drinking water one winter and shivering, and she shivered for half an hour afterwards. After that, I warmed her water and put a sweater on her, and she didn’t shiver. It’s a simple thing to do – I keep water simmering all winter long anyway to increase the humidity and to have hot water available for instant broths, tea, and cocoa, and adding enough hot water to the pet water dishes to warm them up a bit was easy enough.
And that’s another thing to do to help stay warm – keep a large pot of water heating on the stove or fireplace, just below simmer. It steams into the air to humidify it and provides you with hot water for beverages. If your hot water heater goes out due to a power failure, you will still have hot water for washing up.
In your bedroom, if you aren’t hunkering in one room, you might consider setting up a tent over your bed – it can be made roughly by stapling blankets to one wall and letting one set of blankets hang down the wall and the other set to drape over the bed – remembering to close off the ends. This will trap your body heat in a smaller space and you’ll stay much warmer. Putting your next day’s clothes inside the tent with you will pre-warm them. a flashlight will help you see to get dressed. Once you’re dressed you can emerge from your bed-tent and be able to handle the chill. Bathe or shower before you go to bed and sleep in clean sheets and blankets so you’ll still be fresh come morning.
When there’s no heat available, the bathroom is often the coldest room in the house – all that porcelain and cast iron and tile and plastic and fiberglass and glass holds the cold and makes it frigid in there. If you have electricity, leave a light on in there. The light will usually, except in really severe cold, keep it warm enough to prevent pipes from freezing. If you’re not using a wooden toilet seat, change it out. Wood seats don’t hold the cold as much as the plastic ones do, and you don’t stick to them, either. They are sanitary and easy to clean, too. If you have no running hot water, heat water on your mass rocket stove or fireplace or whatever other heat source you have and carry it in. Don’t add cold water until you’ve filled the to almost the level you want, then adjust the temperature. The steam of the hot water will warm the bathroom and keep it warm long enough for a quick bath. If multiple people are bathing, the first one uses the least amount of water, and the tub gets topped off with fresh hot water for each person. Children and the cleanest people should bathe first, with the dirtiest going last. The water in the tub can be used to flush the toilet so it isn’t wasted.
Invite friends to visit. The more people there are in a room, the warmer the room is.
I’m sure you’ll think of other things you can do to keep warm at home this winter. This is just a simple start.
