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My Story: Utility Savings
contributed by Sheila
Being a self-supporting single mom and having my own home, I pay my actual heating bill, but I am on a contract with a secondary provider that offers a set unit rate for up to 3 years. I am amazed at the number of my neighbors that do not do this or have never even heard of it when it is so well publicized.
One of the things that I found to be most beneficial when attempting to cut costs while living in my 55-year-old home was to cover the metal heating pipes in the basement with the metallic and foam insulation sold at the local home center. I installed it myself and I am almost 60! It cost approximately $200 to cover the extensive metal pipes, but this immediately resulted in a 25% reduction in the heating bill. I actually can feel heat coming out of the vents rather than just cold air. It has allowed me to reduce the temperature, and now I have a less costly utility bill. Next, I decided to go after a greater savings by putting plastic on my windows. Replacing windows will cost me $15,000, as I have a lot of windows in my brick ranch. There is 15 to be exact and some are over 108 inches wide. All of my windows have the "steel frames" that are costly to remove. I used the 3M insulation and hung it on suspension rods in the windows right up against the glass. Since I have a kitty that loves to sit in the window, I used a folded blanket on the window ledge. My kitty loved it. It eliminated moisture build up on the windows and water sitting on the ledge when it warmed up. And I found an additional savings on the heating bill of 25%.
"My Story" is a regular feature of The Dollar Stretcher. If you have a story that could help save time or money, please send it by mailto:MyStory@stretcher.com.
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