How To Be Energy Efficient This Autumn And Winter

Like clockwork, every few months, weather patterns in most places around the world change. The hot and sunny summer days that melt your ice cream cones and make your sweat fade away into colorful leaves that fall on the ground around you. Quickly, the trees are barren, and you have to take out your winter coat to stay warm.

Yet energy efficiency is not only important for your wallet and keeping your bills lower but also for the state of the Earth. Warming your rooms and homes for these two seasons creates a plethora of greenhouse gas emissions if you don’t focus on efficiency. Let’s examine some of the best ways that you can stay warm while also being energy efficient in the autumn and winter months this year.

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Heat Pumps

A newer heating system is taking the world by storm, and it’s called a heat pump. Despite the name, a heat pump is a system that both heats and cools your space from the same system. It is powered by just electricity and is extremely energy efficient. If your home runs on renewable energy, these systems drastically reduce the amount of planetary-warming gasses that you emit to keep yourself comfortable. 

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A heat pump takes advantage of warm air that’s already floating around and moves it either inside out if you’re trying to cool off, or outside in if you’re cold and need some warming. Because it takes advantage of hot air, that’s a natural occurrence; it is a great way to be more energy efficient. 

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There are several different types of heat pumps depending on your needs. The most popular are air-source heat pumps and ground-source heat pumps. While the mechanisms of warming and cooling are slightly different, they’re both better options than the traditional furnace or fireplace burning that has prevailed over other options in the past.

Layer and Bundle Up

While heat pumps are a good option, simply wearing more layers or warming clothing requires no extra energy or greenhouse gas emissions at all. Even when you’re at home, you can wear an extra sweater or thicker pair of pants so that you can keep the temperature of your room lower. You can also get out a warm blanket and snuggle under it, or make sure you wear socks and a hat. 

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It may seem strange to wear these inside your home at first, but as time goes on, you may even find that these clothing items are often soft, fuzzy, and more comfortable than wearing lighter fabrics.

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Heating Hacks

There are many small heating “hacks” that can be added together to make a real difference in energy efficiency during the coldest weeks of the year.

• When you use your stove or oven, leave the door open so you can heat up the kitchen and surrounding area with the warm air you are already creating.
• Get an electric space heater to heat up a specific room like a bedroom or bathroom, without needing to increase the main thermostat.
• Exercise indoors so you can get your blood flowing and keep your body temperature up.
• Buy an electric blanket or clothing item that can give you more warmth than a traditional version. 

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This isn’t an all-inclusive list, either. When you’re thinking of ways to keep yourself warm, think about how you generate heat in your daily life and see if there’s a way to extend or amplify that to other areas of your home.

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Controlling Your Heating Systems

Whether you switch to an efficient heat pump system or you have an older furnace, you can be smart with your thermostat. All modern controllers give you the option to change temperatures during certain times of the day. Thus, when you are moving around your home and generating natural body heat, you can set a different temperature than when you’re still and sleeping at night.

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Another great idea is to turn the temperature down when you’re not home. Whether you’re out for the day or on vacation for a week, turning off or down your home temperature will prevent the wastefulness of heating a space that nobody is in.

Let The Sun Shine Through

The sun is the most efficient and best way to heat us up because it’s in the sky above us no matter what we do. When you’re walking around outside, you can often feel a substantial difference between walking in the shade and the sun despite our star being 93 million miles away. 

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There are ways to capture the sun’s energy and store that electricity for future use. Solar panels are one way that you’ve likely seen either in person or in stories. Getting and installing solar panels on your home is a great way to be energy efficient. Yet the accessibility of this may not be feasible. Thankfully, something as simple as opening your curtains and letting the sun shine into your home can have a big difference in temperature. 

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Key Takeaways

There is no single one-size-fits-all way to be more energy efficient in the cold months of the year, yet there are many small changes you can make that add up to having a big impact over time.

• Your daily routine likely generates heat already, so thinking of ways to capture or amplify this is a great way to be efficient.
• Just like when you go outside, you have the ability to wear warm clothes inside as well that keep your core body temperature high and your comfort level high too.
• Getting a heating system and thermostat is a good way to heat your home, as they continue to get smarter and better at regulating emissions and will only continue to improve in the future.