Why is my natural gas bill so high in winter?

• You need to heat your house: For most of the year, you might run a kitchen stove, water heater and maybe a dryer on natural gas to keep the bills at a manageable level. Once the temperatures start dropping, however, it’s time for your furnace to earn its keep, maintaining an indoor temperature that could be 30, 40, 50 degrees or more above the frigid outside air, depending on how cold it gets in your part of the country and how warm you like to keep your house. That means a significant amount of natural gas piping in to fuel your heater, and bills that rise as a result.
• A heavy load on the dryer: People need to wear more layers during the winter, and those bulky sweatshirts take up a lot of space in the dryer. Plus, during a snowy winter clothes tend to get soaked quickly during outdoor recreation, especially if children are involved. This means you’ll likely need to run the dryer a lot more. While your dryer is not as big of a natural gas hog as the furnace, all those laundry cycles can still add up.
• Don’t forget about the electricity bill: You can see your electricity costs increase as well, compared to the relatively inexpensive autumn period when you don’t need to run an air conditioner or a furnace. In many parts of the country, it gets dark in the afternoon come winter, forcing you to keep the lights on for hours longer than you would during other times of the year. What’s more, when it gets chilly outside, you’re more likely to stay in and watch television or pursue other electronic forms of diversion, all of which will up your electricity consumption.

How to reduce natural gas costs by making your home more efficient

Short of moving to the tropics, there’s no way around diverting an extra portion of your budget toward your winter heating needs. However, there are several steps you can take to keep your natural gas bills from getting out of hand:

• Turn the thermostat down: This is the easiest action you can take to lower your gas bill in the winter, and one of the most effective. According to the Department of Energy, if you bring the thermostat down by 7-10 degrees for 8 hours a day, you can reduce your fuel bill by as much as 10%. That’s easy to achieve if you reduce the temperature while you’re away from home or sleeping. For even more savings, put on a sweater and keep the thermostat a few ticks lower while you’re home during the day.
• Consider a smart thermostat: If it’s too much to remember to constantly manually adjust the temperature in your home, think about installing a smart thermostat, which you can program to automatically to maintain optimal efficiency. The device can even monitor your habits on its own and make automatic tweaks to get the very best in energy savings while providing you with a comfortable house to live in.
• Install fresh air filters: If you have a furnace , you should swap out your filters regularly to keep the furnace blower from working too hard and reducing its efficiency, and to improve your indoor air quality. Your exact specifications will vary depending on your filter model and living conditions, but typically filters should be changed every 1 to 3 months.
• Consider alternative heat sources: Bundle up in warm clothing and blankets, and use other heat sources like electric blankets, space heaters or a fireplace to give your central heater a break.
• Get help from the professionals: You can ensure your heating system is running at maximum efficiency by having an HVAC technician pay you a visit each year before it gets cold to check that all your components are functioning properly. Not only will this keep your bills lower, but it will also help reduce the risk of a breakdown in the dead of winter.
• Insulate, insulate, insulate: Poorly insulated homes are a huge money waster, as they allow the warmth you generate inside to leak out of the house. Pay special care to your attic. Without proper insulation, the precious (and expensive) heat in your living space will try to rise to the top of your house. Along the same lines, check for drafty doors and windows, and weatherproof them as necessary to help seal the warm air inside.
• Air dry your laundry: This may not be feasible for everyone, but if you have the time and space to air dry your wet clothes, you can save a substantial amount of energy by not using your dryer. Outdoor clotheslines are no good in sub-zero temperatures, but if you find space in your basement, bathroom or other areas, you will thank yourself every month when the natural gas bill arrives.
• Set the water heater to a lower temperature: Most households have no real need for water at extreme temperatures like 140 degrees. You can reduce your risk of scalding and save on your natural gas bill by setting your heater to the Department of Energy-recommended temperature of 120 degrees, which is quite sufficient for most families.
• Use your windows to your advantage: Nice heavy drapes provide an extra layer of insulation and block drafts in the nighttime. Then, when the sun comes up, you can open the drapes and let the light shine in, warming your house as well as helping to keep the wintertime blues away.