November 2024 Newsletter: Save Energy and Money on Your Utility Bill
- Jackie
- Jan 19
- 4 min read
Welcome to the second ever newsletter for Ecomorphosis LLC. As a small business owner, I appreciate your support. Fall is in full swing here in Cincinnati. With winter right around the corner, this newsletter will focus on ways you can save money and energy on your utility bill.
Adjust Your Thermostat
This is the easiest way to help reduce your energy bill. In wintertime, each degree that you reduce your thermostat, your energy bill could see money saving benefits. To set your thermostat lower, start with 1 degree lower, and continue to bump it lower until you find a good temperature for the people in your household. Your system won't kick on as much, which enables it to work more efficiently while still keeping you comfortable. All the other tips below will give you some inexpensive tools that will help your home feel more comfortable in your home so that you can adjust your thermostat.
Free and Easy: Ceiling Fan
Change your ceiling fan direction-it may seem counterintuitive, but having your ceiling fan on in wintertime can actually keep your home feeling more comfortable (https://homescale.net/does-ceiling-fan-keep-room-warm/#google_vignette.) The first step to do, whenever you start to heat your home more often than cool it, is make sure your ceiling fan is rotating in the right direction. In wintertime, the fan should be rotating clockwise. I like to turn the fan to low speed to more easily see which direction it is currently rotating.
Pictured here is one of my ceiling fans (cob webs and all). Most ceiling fans have a switch on either the outside or inside of the base of the fan. Turn off the fan,slide the switch to the other side to change the direction. For my fan here, I slide it up to switch to the winter setting. I'll dust the cob webs, then turn the fan back on the low setting.
By switching the ceiling fan direction to clockwise in the wintertime, the blades on the fan will draw the hot air that is already rising towards the ceiling up out and over to the walls in that room, and therefore creating a circulation pattern. The hot air from your HVAC system will no longer rise to the top of your ceiling and get stuck there. It will spread that warm air throughout your room, making it feel more comfortable.
While you may not enjoy the feeling of air on you in wintertime, it can help your house feel warmer, while using less energy than your HVAC system. I like a bit of airflow on me, especially while sleeping, but my husband does not. If your home is divided on turning on the ceiling fan in wintertime, you can still gain the benefits by having the ceiling fan on low, or turning it on while the people who don't mind are currently in the room.
According to How Much Does it Cost to Run a Ceiling Fan? (2025) "Ceiling fans use 0.6 kWh to 0.9 kWh per day in electricity and are an energy-efficient way to cool your home, typically costing less than 20 cents a day to run the fan all day long." Furthermore, according to How Much Does It Cost to Run a Gas Furnace? (With Calculator) - PICKHVAC, "Most homeowners pay $5.50 to $8.00 per day to run a natural gas furnace during average winter days." Any reduction of temperature for your thermostat in wintertime will help reduce these costs, and the ceiling fan is an easy tool to do so.
Other Free Energy Saving Techniques
Open blinds of south facing windows to get direct sunlight. This will create a greenhouse effect in these rooms. When I do this at my house, I can physically feel the warmth coming through the windows. I also have a clock that reads the temperature of the room in our bedroom, and have noticed several degrees Fahrenheit difference with the blinds up on a sunny day.
Get into a habit of closing the blinds or curtains when the sun is no longer shining directly into these windows. When the sun goes down, leaving the blinds or curtains open will create the opposite effect, especially if you have older windows. If you're not going to be home during the day, it's best to leave them closed and follow this practice on days off work.
Other inexpensive ways to keep outside air from flowing into your home:
Update cracking sealant around windows, doors, and trim
Replace deteriorating weather stripping on exterior doors
Install door sweeps on exterior and interior doors (to rooms that don't get heated like the basement or garage)
Install blackout curtains or blinds in your bedroom.
This can especially help if you have old windows that you aren't quite ready to replace.
This will help your room feel warmer at night.
These are just some of many ways to help save energy in your home. To find out more, take the free Ecomorphosis Home Sustainability Audit Interest survey. There is no obligation to book after taking the survey, but I will reach out to you to discuss how I might help you. For $99, the Home Sustainability Audit will look at what you can specifically do in your home to be more energy efficient, reduce waste, switch to reusable products, recycle accurately, and save money:
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