How do you stay toasty warm for the winter season without having to overexert your heating bill?
First thing's first—wear a lot of layers. An extra layer of tights, a thick pair of socks, an additional sweatshirt or a wool beanie on your head can go a long way in retaining your precious body heat. And though exercising may seem all the more daunting in the winter season when you just want to stay snug under the blankets all day, keeping your body active on a regular basis will also help keep your body temperature warm.
Once that is done, follow the simple tips and tricks below. Seal all air leaks. Drink hot cocoa. Bake cookies. See, not having a heater isn't so bad after all.
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17 Comments
Awesome!
danke :)
I used to have an over-sized sock filled with rice that was sewed up. Stick the sock in the microwave for three minutes and put at the foot of the bed. I always liked the smell too. Unfortunately so did my dog... :)
Thats really smart!
I always find that actually wearing socks to sleep makes a huge difference in keeping me a lot warmer overall, rather than having to pile on multiple layers of clothing. I've also heard that wearing socks to sleep reduces your chances of waking up in the middle of the night! Geez, how convenient socks are...
Agreed, Elaine. Socks make a huge difference. I love the super-fluffy, super-soft socks during the cold winter months. :)
I love that idea! Thanks Cory
As an Eagle Scout, I can tell you we've used the hot water bottle trick forever in sleeping bags. If you get particularly cold when sleeping, try wearing a hat. Your body loses something like 80% of its heat through your head and that's the only thing not insulated when sleeping. That's one of the reason why mummy bags work so well.
Like the guy who made the rice sock, my wife made heat packs using feed corn. There are directions out there on the internet. Just throw them in the microwave for 90 seconds and they stay warm for quite a while.
Thanks for sharing Fotios. Good to know that feed corn works as well as rice!
Heated mattress pad FTW
second that. I couldn't live without mine in the winter.
hey Yumi, love these ideas, but have to mention that electric blankets may not by the warm friends we think they are. You can research it yourself, but they are full of electricity, usually all running in the same direction, millimeters from you. This has been proven to not be so good for living things.
Hi Trevor, thanks for pointing this out. I definitely was not aware of this. Layer on those extra blankets and heated water bottles, everyone! :)
As a Physicist...I'm not sure what the problem would be with a properly working electric blanket. Electricity running next you is highly unlikely to cause problems. It generates magnetic fields, but these are known to not cause problems at these intensity levels. If you're worried about this you should be far more worried about your computer monitor, or your cell phone, or any other common electronic device. The magnetic fields generated by these devices are far weaker than the magnetic field that you are constantly exposed to by the earth itself. There are a lot of article online that suggest that there is a lot of research supporting the hazards of these magnetic fields. There is not. There are a couple but there will almost always be a couple of studies supporting something. If there are 100 studies supporting the opposite...you probably should take them seriously. My two cents: Enjoy your electric blanket and don't worry about it.
Hi Cory, thank you for sharing your insight. Having dialogue like this in the comments is really important.
If you have south facing windows, open your curtains on sunny days. And keep curtains closed on cloudy days.
And if you don't have big south facing windows, build a solar air heater, put it outside on a south facing wall and circulate air through it using one of your small south facing windows. Free energy heater!
Great tips. Thank you!
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