4
Use ambient heat from appliances. If you will be in your home office for many hours of the day, and you are cooking with a slow cooker for your evening meal. Bring your slow cooker into the office. They really do put off heat. Also, be sure to bake a lot, it warms up the kitchen and there is nothing like hot baked food in the winter.
5
Use a fireplace or better yet, an indoor stove. (have one installed) Some indoor stoves generate more heat than many common homes electric furnace. Often the savings of having a stove installed is cheaper than what you would pay in electricity for the winter.
6
Install a solar heater. These are large black panels where the sun heats the air within the “box” of the panel. A small fan blows air from your home, circulating it through the panel, and will push super hot air back into your home. All this costs is the power of a small fan! The only downside to this, is that it must be moderately sunny for these to work.
7
Be sure to seal up any windows or doors with simple foam padding. Do not allow drafts to enter your home.
8
If you have windows that are not visible to the street (or do not care) pull down black window shades will heat a room dramatically. This is the same concept of a solar heater, but they will be in your home already. Naturally, the sun heats up dull black materials the best.
9
Next of course is always be cautious of your lighting. Use the “cork screw” CFL bulbs whenever you can. They are far worth the money and will ALWAYS pay themselves off. They usually use only a fifth of the power of common lighting. (Sometimes a bit less!)
Tips & Warnings
Warm Clothing goes a long way.
An electric blanket only uses around 75 Watts of power & can be subbed in with a LOW temp space heater at night.