by Jay Kana

With another winter season upon us, it’s time to run through some ideas to stay warm and save some cash while enjoying your castle.

Inspect/replace the weather stripping around your exterior doors, range hood and dryer vents. Basically anywhere where the cold air can invade your palace of warmth.
For your front and back doors, look into getting a "sweep", which can keep the warm air where it belongs. 

Inspect/replace the caulking around your windows as it's a fairly simple DIY solution. 

If you have a ceiling fan, run it in reverse mode at a low speed. It distributes the warm, pooled air (because hot air rises) throughout the room. Logical on the surface? No. Effective? Yup.

Program your thermostat for cooler temperatures during the day. Try 17 C during the day, 19 C when you're home at night and 18 C while sleeping. Before you say "blasphemy!” read the next tip.

Layer, layer, layer. Sweaters can increase body temperatures by a couple of degrees. So can long underwear. A long sleeved shirt and a sweater brings you up to nearly 5 degrees of extra warmth. Heck, even wear your ugly Christmas sweater. With the cash you save on heating costs, you can invest it into a couple of new ugly sweaters. 

Cook! You'll save money on take-out and create warmth from the stove. It won't warm your entire living area but the kitchen and adjacent room(s) will be warmer.

Sleep with the whole gang, including socks, sweaters, long underwear, flannel anything, extra blankets, sweatshirts, and anything else that's warm-worthy.

Light some candles to keep the room you're in warmer.

Clean your furnace filter, have your furnace serviced yearly to make sure it's in tip top shape and running efficiently, keep your vents obstruction free, wear indoor slippers, sip on some hot chocolate or mulled wine.

These tips will help keep your heating bills lower and your body temperature higher.

If you have any of your own tips, share them on our social media pages so that we can all stay warmer this winter.