Winterization blues
Don Reich, an energy conservation specialist with KEMA, uses a blow dryer to tighten up the plastic insulator installed around a window. The plastic helps eliminate drafts and conserve heating energy. Reich was installing the insulator at the Samaritan House apartments in Kalispell during a weatherization demonstration Monday afternoon. Craig Moore/Daily Inter Lake
Utility offers tips to help customers keep their homes warm without freezing their
bank accounts
Natural-gas prices are going up. That means the cost of heating your home this winter will go up as well.
"Heating bills could go up as much as 30 percent this winter," said Deb Martin Young, a NorthWestern Energy program manager.
The causes include production dropping at existing gas wells, Hurricane Katrina shutting down Gulf Coast wells, not enough new wells being developed, and historically low prices finally rising, according to energy industry Web sites.
Prices are expected to increase through at least 2008, according to those sites.
That has prompted NorthWestern Energy to push winterization measures to help prevent heat from escaping homes.
These winterization measures are fairly cheap and easy - using materials available at most hardware stores and likely taking less than an hour to do, NorthWestern officials said.
There's the classic measure of taping or tacking clear plastic across single-pane windows. And there's weather stripping, which seals cracks between doors and door frames. Latex-based sealing foam can be sprayed into crevices around pipes.
The idea is to cut down on how much heated air can escape from a room - whether in a house or an apartment.
However, NorthWestern Energy officials warned against making a room totally airtight, especially rooms with fuel-burning appliances which need sufficient oxygen to function properly.
"With the message of conservation, there is also an important message of safety. … It's important for people who know their homes are tight to not to tighten them further", said Jack Kovacich, NorthWestern Energy's Kalispell area manager. He recommended having fuel-burning appliances inspected routinely by certified inspectors.
Other measures include special thermostats that can be programmed to raise and lower room temperatures at predetermined times - automatically lowering the heat when residents are sleeping or away at work.
NorthWestern Energy offers rebates to its customers for installing programmable thermometers and adding insulation to their homes. In Montana, basements frequently are not insulated, which create a major source of losing heat, Young said.
Through a contractor, NorthWestern Energy offers free energy audits for its customers' homes to determine what can be done to make them more heat efficient.
"We have a pretty long waiting list for the audits, but it's worth the wait," Young said.
Utility officials said there is no rule-of-thumb for how much winterization can save a home in heating costs. These calculations depend on room sizes, lifestyles, appliances and when a home is occupied.
"Every homeowner has a different situation," Young said.
More energy-saving tips can be found at the utility's Web site at www.northwesternenergy.com.