This Device Can Help You Save on Your Winter Energy Costs

Space heaters are very user friendly.

Winter is a difficult time of year for me -- but I've chosen to live in a part of the country that gets extremely harsh snowy winters. It's really the only thing I don't like about living here, but after several years, I've adapted and can make it through winter while staying warm and not draining my bank account to pay for my heating costs. What's my secret? I own a few space heaters and I use them strategically all winter long.

Electric space heaters can be your winter best friend if you're trying to save money. They are inexpensive to purchase -- I bought mine for less than $100 each, and you can purchase smaller units for even less. Small ones intended for use in single rooms don't draw much power, either. They sometimes have neat features; mine came with remote controls, timers, and an oscillation function. Space heaters make it incredibly easy to just heat one room at a time to comfort, which can save you money during the cold winter months. Here's how.

Heating your entire home can be expensive

As WGRZ reported in Sept. 2022, winter heating costs are predicted to be up by 50% for 2022–2023 due to a few different factors. Inflation has of course served to make just about everything more expensive, and the Russia-Ukraine conflict has an impact too. Russia is a major natural gas producer for Europe, but as they've been cut off from selling it to the rest of Europe, the United States is exporting more of its supply overseas. So if you have natural gas heating (and you likely do, if you live in a cold place like me), keeping your heat set lower will save you money.

How do you easily achieve and maintain lower overall temperatures at home? One great way is to install a programmable thermostat so you get to set your home temperature and rely on technology to adjust it as needed. Plus, you can set different temperatures for different times of day; it hardly makes sense to heat your home to a comfortable temperature for hanging out if you're at work all day, so you might choose to turn the heat down on weekdays while you're out.

But if you're a renter like I am, you may not have the option to install a new thermostat, and your landlord may not want to spring for it either. But a space heater can help you more closely regulate the temperature in the room you're actually in. The two rooms I spend the bulk of my time in are my home office (I work from home) and my bedroom. I keep my central heating turned down and rely on a space heater in each of these rooms to keep them comfortable.

Space heater safety tips

It would be remiss of me not to quickly give you a few tips to run a space heater more safely. If you're leaving the room, definitely turn it off, and consider unplugging it, too. Supervise children and curious pets. Make sure your heater is set up at least a few feet away from flammable objects, and avoid plugging it into an extension cord. Don't run a space heater overnight (it's worth buying one with a built-in timer). Finally, look for space heaters that come with safety features. The two I have will actually shut themselves off if they're jostled or knocked over.

Other ways to save

There are other moves you can make to save on heating costs -- I rely on these as well as my space heaters. Note that you might qualify for government assistance with your heating bills, too.

Turn the heat down

I keep my central heating set at 64 degrees, but I know people who keep theirs even lower than this. You do want to make sure your pipes don't freeze, however; insurance agency Jerry recommends consumers keep their homes no cooler than 55 degrees in winter.

Seal cracks and openings where heat can escape

If you've got a big gap under your door and can feel cold air coming in, you know warm air is also getting out. Now is the time to break out the weather stripping and draft shields. Many of the windows in my apartment are in bad shape, and as such, I hang clear plastic sheeting over them in the fall and leave it there until spring. In the immortal words of my father, "We're not paying to heat the outside!"

Sign up for budget billing

Once I had lived in my current rental for a year, I was eligible to get on a budget billing plan through my utility company. The company averaged my year of costs, and now I pay the same amount every month. Because I took steps to keep my costs down last winter, the amount I pay per month is pretty reasonable. If budget billing is available to you, I recommend it. It's wonderful to be able to create a monthly budget based on predictable costs.

If you decide to pick up a space heater and employ the other tips mentioned above, you can save money on your heating costs this winter and stay warmer at the same time. What's not to like about that?