keep your home warm  keep your home warm keep your home warm. That is, unless you’re smart about it and employ these five helpful hacks for turning up the heat without turning to your thermostat. Each of them can be very useful in reducing your energy costs and prevent you from calling your local One Hour Heating and Air Conditioning repair due to an overburdened HVAC system.

1. Kitchen Appliances

Two in particular produce enough heat to help you warm things up, the dishwasher and your oven. The former is good for bringing up the temperature just a bit while you wash all your dirty pots, pans, and plates. You may need to be hanging out in the kitchen to feel the warmth however. The latter is more effective as a heat source when it’s cold and windy out. So consider sticking something in the oven for any length of time. It can be a nice plump turkey for a four or five hours or a tasty bundt cake or some cupcakes. In either case, when you’re finished washing your dishes or you’ve baked that tasty meal or sweet treat, leave the doors on these appliances open and you can let that heat emanate out into the kitchen and the surrounding rooms.

2. Window Coverings

The chilly air outside doesn’t mean you need to make things cold indoors. Not when you put up thick window coverings like drapes, curtains, or shades. All three of them work well as insulators to prevent your warm interior air from seeping out the thin glass panes of your windows.

3. The Sun Above

Perhaps your best and most reliable choice for heat is the sun. You just need to know how to harness its heat and when to do it. Keep those window coverings wide open in front of those windows that get the most direct sunlight. Let those warm rays shine on in and when the sun starts to move out of position, close the window coverings to trap that heat and retain it.

4. Proper Air Circulation

Getting warm air in one room doesn’t do a lot of good if the others are freezing cold. So if you have a ceiling fan in the house, turn it on to help distribute your warm air throughout the rest of the house. Don’t worry about cooling things down instead, fan blades don’t generate air temperature, they merely move the current air temperature around. Just be sure you have the fan on the right setting to be the most effective.

5. Hot Water

The next time you run a hot bath or take a long shower let that water and the resulting humidity linger a little longer and keep your bathroom doors open. You’ll notice that the warm air can start to emanate into the neighboring room and bring the temperature up just a bit. Even better is this air has heavy levels of moisture which can be a lot better for your sinuses and skin than dry arid air which can have a drying effect on both.]]>