Champ Money

As winter approaches, most Americans will be looking for ways to save on heating costs over the cold months ahead. One of the most common trends is to increase the use of wood-burning heat, whether in a fireplace or woodstove.

However, don’t allow your desire to save money to put you and your family at risk.

If you’re burning wood, be sure to have your chimney cleaned and inspected annually, before the first use of the season.

Even if you didn’t burn wood during the previous heating season, there’s no telling what sort of small creatures may have taken up residence in your chimney, or what kind of materials they may have carried in for nesting. This is where the inspection is needed, even if a cleaning is not.

Qualified chimney sweeps aren’t very expensive, and you’ll still save plenty of money even after their fee. And, you’ll also have peace of mind while enjoying those savings, and the heat from your fireplace.

Natural gas rates have been falling slowly, but consistently over the past months.

Now may very well be the best time to “lock in” your rate. With winter approaching, it’s unlikely there will be any additional significant decline in natural gas prices – at least over the next 6 months or so.

Compare rates from all providers in your area, then lock in with the best offer.

You might not realize it, but the middle of the summer is one of the best times to schedule a furnace or boiler tune-up.

This task should be done every year to boost its efficiency. Take advantage of the summer months to schedule this service with a qualified professional and you’ll likely be able to have a much greater choice of service call times by beating the rush. Additionally, you won’t be like the others who don’t realize they have a problem with their furnace until it’s too late, during the first cold snap of fall or winter.

Tune-ups also remove scale, soot, and corrosion – postponing repairs and extending the life of your heating plant.

Many energy companies (electricity, natural gas, etc.) around the United States offer free energy audits. When performing an energy audit, a technician from the company will inspect your home for areas of energy loss (heating or cooling).

You can also do your own energy audit though. Pick up Black & Decker’s new Thermal Leak Detector to find weak spots in your home’s “insulation envelope.” Fixes are often as simple as installing foam gaskets under switch plates and outlet covers and adding new weatherstripping around your entry door.

In addition to lower bills, you’ll feel fewer drafts, which will make your house more comfortable year-round.

If your children are like most, all sense of time goes down the drain while showering. There’s no such thing as a “quick shower”.

You can still take control of the water situation however.

Install a shower timer in the kids’ bathroom. Usually this is a battery-operated device that  limits showers to your configured time, such as 5, 8, or 11 minutes.

Reducing shower time can easily save you over $200 per year.

Fight the electricity vampires – Plug in a SmartStrip.

Three-quarters of the energy that electronics burn is consumed when the equipment is turned off. Rather than unplug items after every use, hook them up to a SmartStrip surge protector, which automatically kills power to electronics when you turn them off and returns it when you switch them back on.

You can get a seven-outlet strip for about $30 at SmartHomeUSA.com, and save as much as $240 per year in energy costs.

The hot summer is upon us.

You can save on both heating and cooling costs by installing a ceiling fan.

In the winter, run it at low speed in a clockwise direction to recirculate the warm air that rises to the ceiling. This will allow you to lower the thermostat a couple of degrees.

Reverse the fan direction in the summer and the airflow creates a windchill effect, making you feel cooler.

Expect to pay about $200 for the fan, and to save about $100 per year on heating and cooling bills.

When you’re in need of a creative gift for someone special, the search can be tiresome. You can browse the store after store at your local mall or shopping center for hours and find nothing beyond the same-old-been-there-done-that.

While that may be fine in some situations, it’s just not good enough for those who mean the most to you.

To come up with a gift that will be treasured for years, you need to go back to the basics. Think nostalgic. Think old, yet new.

Enter the sock monkey.

We recently ran across this cool little guy online. There’s a certain charm that a sock monkey shares with its owner that makes it quite unlike other gifts. Perhaps it brings back memories from those simpler times?

When we received this particular sock monkey, “Izzy”, and he’s been a conversation starter since he arrived. While his home is supposed to be on the main computer desk, he seems to find his way around from person to person and desk to desk.

This sock monkey has awesome, vibrant colors, which make him hard to ignore. If you plan to get one of the cute little hand crafted monkeys, out best advice is to buy more than one.

This really is the perfect gift for “children” of any age, included those of us who have been around for a few decades – or more.

Many homeowners only think of this in the cold months, but you can reduce energy costs throughout the year by insulating hot-water lines.

The preformed foam tubes available at all hardware and home improvement stores will fit right around the pipes, thanks to a slit along their length. They are very easy to install.

This is an easy way to save $50 per year on energy costs.

Install dimmer switches and use energy-efficient halogen bulbs, rather than incandescents. Dimmable CFLs are even thriftier, but some flicker at low power.

There are some initial costs for the dimmer switch and bulbs, but each fixture should provide about $20 savings over three years.