Broke Heating, part I
This is a topic near and dear to our hearts. We love saving electricity. Also, we love figuring out how generations past got along without modern amenities like central heat and on-demand hot water. Maybe we’re just history nerds, maybe we have too much morbid curiosity. Anyway.
We here at Brokest Minimalist are not about deprivation. However, we are about 1) simplifying life 2) saving the earth and 3) helping out our fellow peeps. We’re too broke to help anyone out financially, however we are here today to give you the benefit of our experience.
It’s time to turn your thermostat down! Put it on 55 and use the following tips to stay cozy. Now, don’t get us wrong. We like to stay warm. But there are cheaper ways to do it than by cranking up the gas, so let’s walk through a few. Also, these are good skills to have for times when you live in houses without central heat or are too broke to run it or, like us, your furnace has been broken for two years and you’re too damn broke to get it fixed. BEGIN:
Get up during the day and move. This may go without saying for most, but for those of us who suffer from depression or SAD, our sleep cycles may be out of whack. Fix them, to the best of your ability. You want to be up and about during the daytime, when the sun is shining. Try to be up by midmorning and moving around. A hot shower is a great way to warm up and wake yourself up. If you don’t have to work, at least do some chores or some exercise. Rake some leaves, mop your floors. Get moving, keep your circulation going. The human body is great at warming itself if you give it a chance.
Dress in layers. This takes some practice to not feel stiff and uncomfortable, but it’s worth doing. Buy a few sets of thermal underwear. Spring for the big brands if you can afford it, like real Under Armour. Cheap waffle weave thermals are scratchy and uncomfortable. On top of that you want a t-shirt, then a fuzzy sweater. If you’re lounging around at home, put a cozy hoodie on top of that, or even a bathrobe. Pajama bottoms and sweatpants are great over some thermal bottoms. Wear thick wool socks, don’t go barefoot. Hats and scarves are things too. Fingerless gloves will help keep you cozy while browsing the web or gaming.
Open your blinds/curtains and let the sun warm your house. That’s what they did in the days before electric heat. This one is twofold, as well. Our grandmas used to say that people who sat around in the dark got depressed, and the folk wisdom wasn’t wrong. Vitamin D deficiency is strongly linked to depression and anxiety. So open up those windows and let that fresh UV light into your home! When the sun goes down, cover the windows back up to avoid drafts. You can use plastic film to cover the windows if they are old or drafty. Even a clear shower curtain taped over it will make a difference. Invest in heavier drapes if you can. Those will help block out extra light in the summer, too. Two birds, one stone.
Add insulation and weather stripping. These are fairly cheap and make a big difference. You may think you have enough, but we’d wager that you can add more. Check around doors and windows, check for cracks in your fireplace, gaps in your baseboards, etc. If you have a fireplace, make sure your damper is shut tight unless you have a fire or active coals in there. Canned spray foam is a great tool, but have a plan for it before you start spraying because it will clog up quickly if you put it down for a few minutes. Get a roll of plastic sheeting and tape it over your windows, or buy those kits that you use to shrink wrap them with a hair dryer. Failing that, even thrift store blankets nailed up under your curtains/blinds can knock some chill off.
Learn to light your fireplace, if you have one. We resisted this, but you have to just buckle down and do it. Invest in a load of well-seasoned firewood and learn to build a good hot fire for when you are home. It’s not an efficient way to heat an entire house, but it will raise the temperature a few degrees and the coals will keep burning for hours, putting off heat. Plus, it’s cozy and romantic. If you’re a city kid like we are, doing it for the first time can be scary. You might burn yourself. You might fill your house with smoke. Just go ahead and try it, you’ll be glad you did and you’ll have a decent backup plan in case of power outage. Plus, it smells nice. Have your chimney cleaned by a professional yearly if you do this often.
Heat yourself, not the whole house. Use electric blankets, mattress pads, and heating pads to keep yourself warm instead of the surrounding air. Dress in layers, wear thick fuzzy socks, and learn to love your electric blanket. Use it safely: no extension cords, unplug it when you leave the room. These use only a few watts and can create a delicious cocoon of warmth for you even in a chilly room. Failing that, get a hot water bottle.
Heat one room, not the whole house. Invest in a small, safe space heater and use it to heat only the room you are in. If you have to hibernate in your bedroom for most of the winter, then do it. Your utility bill will be much cheaper for heating just one room than for turning on the central heat and wasting heat on rooms you aren’t in. Stick it in your bathroom 30 minutes before you shower, then bring it with you afterwards. If you have open doorways, cover them with curtains or sheets to keep the heat in the room you are in.
Use your ceiling fans. This may seem counterintuitive, but run your ceiling fans on a low speed in a clockwise direction. Heat rises, and you want the fan to gently move that warmer air from the ceiling back down to you.
Add blankets to your bed, putting a sheet on top of your bedspread. Don’t ask us why it works, but it does. Our guess is that the denser weave of the sheet traps more air between it and the bedspread than it would between itself and another sheet. Wear pajamas and socks, don’t try to be one of those people who sleeps naked while it’s 10 degrees outside. We currently have a bedspread, covered by a thermal blanket, covered by a sheet. Combined with our electric mattress pad, we are super cozy even in the dead of winter. This is important. We don’t know about everyone, but we don’t fall asleep if we’re cold.
Cook or bake. This will add some heat and moisture to your house. In fact, you can put a pot of water on the stove with a slice of lemon or a shake of ground cinnamon in it to boil and add quite a lot of warmth. It’s a great natural air freshener. Eat hot foods and drink hot chocolate or tea.
Keep your feet, hands and ears warm. If your feet are cold, you will feel cold. Period. Keep thick socks on around the house, keep your circulation going by moving around. If you’re feeling chilly, go wash your hands in hot water for two minutes; the heated blood from your hands will circulate and warm you. Keep your ears covered by a hat.
Cover air registers you aren’t using to prevent drafts. Tape plastic over them, or stick a piece of newspaper or cardboard behind them. Take this off before you turn the heat on. Please do not cover registers in unused rooms if you are going to use the heat! Your furnace was designed to operate at a certain amount of air pressure, and covering a register can alter that and cause the unit to work harder, increasing your electrical consumption and reducing the machine’s lifespan. Seriously, remember to take all covers off before you use your central heat.
Move your bed: Keep it away from outside walls and as far away from windows as possible. Also, DIY yourself a canopy to help trap your body heat in.
You will acclimate, believe it or not. We haven’t used our central heat all winter, but now if the house gets over 60 degrees or so we start to feel too warm. This was surprising, but it’s true. Mankind has lived without benefit of electric or gas heat for most of history, relying on clothing, fire and body heat to survive winters even in the harshest of climates.
Some of this doesn’t sound very minimalist, but minimalism isn’t all about sitting around in a white room meditating. It’s about having the least you need to get by, and if you’re short on cash then these tips will save your electric bill and reduce your carbon footprint without you having to suffer too much. In addition, you’ll reduce your risk of carbon monoxide poisoning by not using gas heat. We don’t know about you, but both of those things are stress reducers for us.Please note again that minimalism isn’t about deprivation. If you’ve done all of this and are still uncomfortable, please turn on your heat. If you are elderly or ill and the cold exacerbates your condition, please turn on your heat. Contact your local utility department for information on outreach programs that will help you pay your bills. If you have a neighbor who you suspect has no heat, please check on them. We are all on this planet together.
Please be careful with fires and space heaters! Keep flammable objects more than 3 feet away, do not store your firewood next to your fireplace, and never use an extension cord with a heating device. Check the batteries in your smoke detectors and stay warm everybody!
Links: How to start a fire, and ways to winterize your home.
