When the temperature dips well below freezing—and stays there for weeks at a time—heating your Minnesota home can leave you paying a small fortune in energy costs. With a few changes to how your system runs and how your home holds heat, you can reduce energy waste without giving up comfort.
Understand How Your System Heats
Not all heating systems work the same way. Some homes rely on forced-air furnaces, others run on boilers, and more are switching to heat pumps or dual-fuel setups. Each system moves heat differently—and knowing what you’re working with helps you make smarter decisions about how to run it.
A forced-air furnace, for example, cycles air through a heat exchanger and pushes it through ducts. Boilers warm your home by forcing hot water or steam through radiators or in-floor systems. Heat pumps pull in warmth from outside air, even in winter.
Each system has its strengths, but all require slightly different strategies to operate efficiently. If you’re not sure what type you have, a quick check of your equipment or a call to a technician can clear that up.
Program Your Thermostat Thoughtfully
Instead of constantly tweaking your thermostat, aim for consistency where you can. Let the house run a little cooler overnight or during the hours when everyone’s gone. You don’t have to drop it dramatically—just 5-7 degrees to give the system a break.
If you have a programmable thermostat, take advantage of it. And if your setup includes a smart thermostat, that would be even better. Many of those can learn your patterns or let you make changes from your phone, which makes it easier to stay on top of things.
Avoid the Temptation to Crank the Heat
Turning the thermostat way up won’t warm things faster if you come home to a cold house. It just tells your system to run longer. Furnaces and boilers deliver heat at a consistent rate—no matter what the thermostat is set to.
Instead, set it to a reasonable target temperature (around 68°F is a good starting point) and give the system time to work. If rooms still feel chilly after a while, that may be a sign of an airflow issue or insulation gap—not something the thermostat alone can fix.
Keep Vents and Filters Clear
If your home uses forced air, airflow is half the battle. When something’s blocking the vents—furniture, dust buildup, even a closed door—it can throw off the way heat moves through the house. Over time, that uneven circulation forces the system to work harder than it should. It’s worth glancing at vents every so often, especially in high-traffic rooms, to make sure air can move freely.
That means pulling furniture back a few inches and clearing out buildups like dust, pet hair, or rugs that may be covering returns.
Replace your air filter regularly, preferably once a month. A clogged filter makes your system work harder than it needs to, using more energy and wearing out components faster.
Address Drafts and Insulation Gaps
Even a well-tuned system will struggle if warm air keeps slipping out through gaps. Small fixes—like sealing cracks around windows or adding insulation above the ceiling—can ease the load on your equipment in a big way. Heavy curtains also help, especially on older windows that leak cold air at night.
Don’t Neglect Routine Maintenance
When it’s already below zero outside, your heating system doesn’t get much of a break. That constant demand takes a toll, and little problems can quickly turn into much bigger problems under that kind of strain.
The best time to deal with little issues is before the season ramps up. During an annual tune-up, a Schwantes HVAC tech checks combustion components, clears dust from control boards, tests airflow, and makes sure safeties are working like they should.
Use Zoned Heating if You Have It
If your home has multiple thermostats or zones, then use it. Letting the primary living areas stay warm while scaling back a bit in guest rooms or storage spaces can make the whole house feel more balanced and helps the system run more efficiently overall.
Don’t be tempted to shut off vents to force air into specific rooms. It throws off pressure and airflow, which can cause problems at the equipment level. Instead, adjust the temperatures in each zone rather than trying to micromanage the vents themselves.
For homes without built-in zoning, you can mimic it using smart thermostats with room sensors or by adjusting baseboard units in individual rooms if you have them.
Think Long-Term About Efficiency
Some upgrades aren’t decisions you make overnight, and that’s fair. That said, if your current system is creeping up in age and struggling to keep up, it’s worth looking into what a newer model might offer through the coldest months.
Variable-speed furnaces, for example, burn less fuel and tend to heat the home more steadily, which cuts down on those constant swings in temperature you get with older systems. In the proper setup, zoning can solve the age-old problem of one part of the house overheating while another stays cold.
It’s also good to keep in mind that many Minnesota utility companies offer rebates. The bigger payoff, though, is in how the system performs once it’s installed. Between utility incentives and what you end up saving on your energy bill, the gap tends to close faster than people expect.
Final Thoughts
There’s no getting around the fact that heating a Minnesota home takes work, but that doesn’t mean your energy bill should keep climbing month after month. There’s usually a fix, which doesn’t always mean replacing your entire system. Sometimes, it’s a better filter, a tighter duct seal, or just running the thermostat differently.
If you’re ready to get more out of what you’ve got or want help planning for what’s next, we’re here to walk through it with you.
