Quick Tips:
Insulate your Water Heater: Is your hot water tank warm to the touch? If so, get a “water heater blanket” for $20-$40 – it should pay for itself in about a year.
Wrap Hot Water Pipes in Insulation: Foam tubes that easily pop on to cover exposed pipes are inexpensive and effective.
Leaky Doors: If air is leaking under or around your door, hang a blanket over it and/or put a rolled-up towel at the bottom as a quick fix. You can also get easy-to-install door weather stripping kits for a more permanent fix.
Cold Windows and Drafty Frames: Put up window plastic in the winter to stop drafts, hang insulated curtains, and re-caulk where the window frame is leaky.
High Fuel Bills: You might be able to set up a payment plan with your fuel provider. Call them to ask.
Insulate Where You Can: If you can, try adding more insulation to the underbelly of your mobile home or adding insulated skirting. You may need to hire someone to help.
Pick up the Phone: Calling service providers is much easier than looking on their websites. Don’t be afraid to pick up the phone.
Directly from Neighbors:
“Keep doors closed to rooms not using, have low energy light bulbs”
“I have a blanket over my back door with a towel along the bottom of the door, also a blanket & towel on the front door at night”
“New lint exhaust on dryer, sometimes [I] dry clothes on clothes bar. Leave curtains open on sunny days. I did receive fuel assistance this year, but not last winter. Other winters I was on a budget plan with Irving Energy”
“Purchased small home, installed insulated skirting upon purchase”
“Did the work ourselves with help from a friend. Insulated around the crawl space, did some caulking & replaced some windows. Have insulated blinds in windows & insulated curtains”
“I live in a mobile home and my opinion is the “biggest heat loss” (which I’m sure other MH owners would agree) is having insulated skirting, when it’s windy & cold you can never come up to temp, people really say it makes a BIG difference, I think some program to help would be great. As for a program if there is something I’m not aware of I’d be very interested.”
“Furnace quit a couple of months after moving in. Contacted Capstone for a new furnace through the Weatherization program”
“VT weatherization program helped me reinsulate mobile home and gave [me a] King Control power strip so when power off [from] the main source all things plugged into that particular strip also shut down, very helpful with teens in the house”
“Call COVER, if they can’t help, they will give you info as to where you can get help. I would speak to anyone on the phone. My experience with COVER was extremely satisfying and all workers were extremely friendly and accommodating.”
“In my experience, a person needs to keep calling until they get the help they need. With COVID it is very hard for these agencies to get to everyone but they all do a great job against though odds God bless them all.”
