Thirty Second Thrift – Close the Vent and Shut the Door
February 14, 2009 by Katelyn Thomas
Filed under save-money
We have a few rooms in the house that we just don’t use frequently. The guest room, the other bath, the “sun room” and the craft closet. I used to heat them all winter long. Then I realized we used the other bath about once a month and the guest room once or twice all winter. The sun room and craft closet were just duck in and grab it type rooms. Did they really need to be 69 degrees all winter long? No.
So, I closed the vents in most of these rooms and shut the doors. In the bathroom, which has plumbing, I didn’t close the vents completely. I don’t want frozen pipes, but I don’t need it to feel like a little sauna, either. My bill went down a bit, which makes me happy. The fact that I only spent about thirty seconds per room shutting vents and slamming doors made me really happy!
A recap:
- Evaluate the way you use your home. If there are rooms that you only use a few times during the winter, you are wasting your heating fuel on them.
- Think about whether there is a secondary reason to provide at least some heat to the room, such as plumbing or a houseplant collection.
- See if you can close your vents. If so, close them and shut the door on the room.
- Make sure you do a quick check of the room at least once a week to be sure all is well. If you have a home with high humidity, you could end up with a mildew problem in the closed off room.
Do you have a fast and easy tip for saving money on heating costs?
Image – me
We don’t use the front door, so I throw a couple of rolled up towels behind the bottom of it to help keep out any drafts.
Diana,
Great tip! I have a door I use very sparingly that I should try that with.