Cold snap brings high heat bills, residents look for ways to save

We’re in another cold snap and homeowners are worried about rising utility bills.

Some homes in the Twin Cities might not be as energy efficient as they could be.

“The house was built in 1940, we moved in a 1965,” shared Doris of Bloomington.

For more than 55 years she has called the Bloomington house her home.

“We’ve had some work done remodeling upstairs but the house still is not warm enough like I would like it to be,” she shared Thursday as a heating and cooling company was leaving her house.

She recently replaced the furnace and just had it checked Thursday.

“The filter‘s only two months old and there is junk in here,” she showed.

She’s hoping for a little more warmth on cold days like today.

When asked if the blinds were pulled to keep the warmth in, Doris said “Yes, or to try to keep it inside.”

The city of Bloomington says more than half of its homes have no insulation or are under insulated, that’s more than 20,000 homes.

“We know that nine out of 10 homes in Bloomington were built before 1980 and that’s really important because that’s when state energy code started requiring insulation in homes,” said Emma Struss, Sustainability Coordinator for the city.

Bloomington is encouraging its residents to do energy audits, to see if there are ways to prevent the heat from escaping.

“We recommend having a or a home energy audit or a way to have an insulation inspection so you can see what’s in the walls, what’s in the attic and you can address the problem,” Struss added.

Struss says it could also save money as heating costs increase significantly, something Doris has noticed at her home.

“We got our bills for this month and everything‘s going up,” she said.

“For being a senior in our 80’s this is quite hard to accept some of the stuff,” she added.

The Center for Energy and Environment discusses other ways homeowners can save energy.