There was just enough sun piercing through the sky for a walk.
“We just bundled up, and we’re heading downtown,” said Allen Pritzlaff, who lives in San Luis Obispo.
At home though, Pritzlaff is staying away from a gas heater.
“This year we decided to save money […] we already had solar on our roof, so we turned off the gas heater, and we put we're just using of space heaters, electric space heaters.” said Pritzlaff, “That keeps us plenty warm. ”
Another idea is to check the stripping on your windows and doors to prevent heat from escaping.
“Just closing the blinds during wintertime, that way, the heat stays trapped inside,” said Edgar Gutierrez, who works as the manager of Total Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning in San Luis Obispo.
Fire officials are reminding the community to not turn to dangerous hacks to stay warm.
“Please don't turn your oven on to heat your home, it's very dangerous, especially with gas heaters and gas ovens, we don't want to be putting up that carbon monoxide,” said San Luis Obispo City Fire captain Jason Pratt. “Make sure that you have your chimneys, your fireplaces, and your wood-burning stoves cleaned on a yearly basis by a professional. ”
If you are planning to turn on your heater, experts remind you to do it safely.
“You change the filters every 3 to 6 months, depending on usage, setting the thermostat at 68 degrees during the day that way, I mean, you're just running efficiently,” added Gutierrez.
Keep an eye on your vents.
“Another thing is to check the vents, the register boxes that are on top, keep those open,” said Gutierrez. “Make sure they're open for the rooms that are occupied and then the rooms that aren't occupied just have those closed that way, so It's not just wasting. ”
Another tip is monitoring your alarms.
“We also want to check our smoke detectors and our co detectors, I know that we change our batteries twice a year, but during these winter months, we want to make sure that we check to make sure that our CO and our smoke detectors are working on a monthly basis,” said Pratt.
KSBY News reached out to PG&E to learn more about ways to save energy during these colder times. They recommend dialing down your thermostat and lowering your water heater temperature.
For a full list of tips, click here.
