Five Eco-Friendly Heating Helpers

Here are five eco-friendly ideas to help you get the most bang for your heating buck.

1. Say No to Your Fireplace
There's nothing like a fireplace to make you feel all warm and fuzzy. It's also the most inefficient way to heat your home. Consider yourself lucky if your fireplace provides slightly more heat than it sucks out of your house.

A fireplace insert, however, will transform your fireplace's inefficient ways into a 70-80% efficient heating appliance. Various models of fireplace inserts are available to match your fuel preference: wood or BioBricks for wood stove inserts, or wood pellets or corn for pellet inserts.

2. High Efficiency Wood Stoves and Fireplace Inserts
New wood stoves and fireplace inserts equipped with a baffle system in the firebox are just as clean and efficient (75%) as catalytic combustor stoves but don't require replacing the combustor every few years at a cost of $150.

3. The Pellet Stove Alternative
Pellet stoves are the free standing version of a fireplace insert but burn only corn or wood pellets. The recent introduction of multi-fuel stoves offers homeowners the choice of burning corn or wood pellets; whichever is cheaper. No matter how high the price of heating oil,

One major difference between wood and pellet stoves is the pellet stove needs a fan to distribute the heat, while a wood stove naturally radiates the heat outwards. One requires electricity, the other doesn't. If you buy a pellet stove, and your neighborhood is subject to frequent or extended winter power outages, you should have a backup battery system to run the fan.

4. Turn Your Thermostat Down in the Winter and Up in the Summer
The U.S. Department of Energy estimates households can save 10 percent a year on heating and cooling bills by turning the thermostat back 10 or 15 degrees for eight hours in the winter or up by the same amount during the summer. A programmable thermostat will enhance your savings and comfort by automatically turning your furnace or air conditioner on and off according to scheduled home or office arrivals and departures.

5. Weatherize Your House
You might not think those small cracks and crevices around your doors and windows are a big deal, but a 1/8" space between a standard exterior door and its threshold is equivalent to a two square inch hole in the wall. Closing those gaps can save up to 15 percent in heating and cooling costs and reduces demand on heating and cooling systems. Weatherizing your home should take only a day and you'll be rewarded with energy savings for years to come.