5 Tips for Reducing Your Heating Bill This Winter
Cut your winter heating costs with five proven steps, then learn the Missouri protections that keep your heat on — the Cold Weather Rule, energy assistance, and your rights when a landlord will not fix the furnace.
By Joseph Ott
Missouri winters swing hard. A 50-degree afternoon can collapse into a single-digit night, and your furnace runs overtime to keep up. You cannot control the weather. You can control how much of your heated air escapes, how hard your equipment works, and whether you claim the help the state already offers.
This guide does two things. First, it gives you five steps that genuinely cut a winter heating bill. Second — because we are a law firm, and because we have seen what happens when heat fails — it explains the Missouri protections most people never hear about: the rule that limits winter shutoffs, the assistance programs that pay part of the bill, and your rights when a landlord ignores a dead furnace.
Tip 1: Seal the drafts before you touch the thermostat
Heated air escapes through the gaps you stopped noticing. Weather stripping around door jambs compresses, tears, and pulls away over the years. When it fails, your furnace reheats air that leaks straight outside.
Test each exterior door on a cold night. Turn off the indoor lights, close the door, and have someone shine a flashlight around the frame from outside. Light coming through means air is getting through too. Replacement stripping costs a few dollars at any hardware store and installs with a peel-and-stick backing or a handful of screws.
Electrical outlets on exterior walls leak too. Pull the faceplate, add foam gaskets or a bead of silicone caulk around the box, and reinstall. Do the same for window frames and the attic hatch. None of this is glamorous. All of it is cheap, and it attacks the bill at the source.
Tip 2: Let your thermostat do the saving
You save the most when you stop heating an empty or sleeping house. The U.S. Department of Energy reports that setting your thermostat back 7 to 10 degrees for eight hours a day can cut heating and cooling costs by up to ten percent a year. See the Department's guidance on programmable thermostats.
A programmable or smart thermostat automates that setback. Let the house cool while you are at work and overnight, then warm it before you wake or return. If you own your home, installation is a straightforward weekend job. If you rent, ask your landlord — many will agree, because it cuts wear on their equipment.
Resist the urge to crank the thermostat to 85 when you come home to a cold house. Furnaces heat at a fixed rate. The high setting only makes the system overshoot, and you pay for the overshoot.
Tip 3: Service the furnace — carbon monoxide is the real threat
A neglected furnace costs you twice: once in wasted fuel, and once in risk. Schedule an annual inspection before the heating season. A technician cleans the burners, checks the heat exchanger for cracks, and confirms the flue vents properly. Change your filter every one to three months while the system runs; a clogged filter makes the blower strain and drives the bill up.
The safety stakes are higher than most people realize. A cracked heat exchanger or blocked flue can push carbon monoxide into your living space. Carbon monoxide is colorless and odorless, and it kills. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission urges every home to have working CO alarms on each level and outside sleeping areas. Test them when you change your clocks.
Never improvise heat. Do not run a gas oven for warmth, bring a charcoal grill inside, or run a generator in a garage or basement. Each of these sends families to the emergency room every Missouri winter.
Tip 4: Use windows and curtains as insulation
Windows insulate poorly, even modern double-pane units. On a cold night, the glass chills the air beside it, and that cold air spills across your floors.
Close heavy curtains or thermal drapes at dusk to trap a layer of air between the glass and the room. Open south-facing curtains during sunny days to collect free solar heat, then close them the moment the sun drops. For older windows, clear plastic insulation film — the kind you shrink with a hair dryer — creates a cheap storm window for the season. Renters can use every one of these measures without altering the property.
Tip 5: Claim the help Missouri already offers
Millions of dollars in heating assistance go unclaimed because people assume they will not qualify or never hear about the programs. Two protections matter most.
The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). Missouri's Department of Social Services runs utility assistance that can pay part of a heating bill for eligible households, with extra crisis help when a shutoff threatens. Eligibility turns on income and household size. Apply early in the season; processing takes time, and funding windows open and close.
The Cold Weather Rule. Since 1977, the Missouri Public Service Commission's Cold Weather Rule has limited winter disconnections of heat-related gas and electric service from November 1 through March 31 when temperatures are forecast to drop below freezing. The rule also gives you the right to a payment arrangement — typically paying a set portion of each bill, such as half of the actual bill or a level budget amount — to keep service connected. Know its limits: it delays disconnection, it does not erase the debt, and it covers PSC-regulated utilities rather than every municipal or cooperative provider. Call your utility and ask whether the rule protects you before a shutoff notice becomes a shutoff.
Your rights when a landlord will not fix the heat
A space heater and three blankets are not a legal answer to a dead furnace in January. Missouri law gives tenants real, if narrower than many expect, protections.
Start with the lease and the common law. Missouri courts recognize an implied warranty of habitability in residential leases. In King v. Moorehead, 495 S.W.2d 65 (Mo. App. 1973), a Missouri court of appeals allowed a tenant to defend an eviction by showing the landlord had failed to keep the unit habitable, with rent deposited into court while the dispute was resolved. A decade later, in Detling v. Edelbrock, 671 S.W.2d 265 (Mo. banc 1984), the Missouri Supreme Court confirmed that a residential landlord warrants that the dwelling is habitable and fit for living, and that landlords answer for latent defects and for dangerous conditions in areas they control, such as furnaces serving multiple units.
There is also a statutory tool for serious conditions. Under RSMo 441.570, if a dwelling deteriorates into a nuisance, a court can appoint a receiver to collect the rent and spend it on repairs — or give the owner a deadline to fix the problem. The full text lives at the Missouri Revisor of Statutes.
Now the honest limits. Missouri has no general repair-and-deduct statute, so do not simply stop paying rent; withholding without a court's involvement can get you evicted. Give your landlord written notice of the problem, keep copies, and document temperatures and dates. If the unit becomes truly unlivable, talk to a lawyer before you act, because the order of operations — notice, code complaint, court filing — matters.
Where winter heating injuries come from
Most winter heating injuries we encounter trace back to a short list of causes. Space heaters placed too close to bedding or curtains start fires; keep three feet of clearance and plug them directly into a wall outlet, never an extension cord. Furnaces and water heaters with blocked vents or cracked heat exchangers leak carbon monoxide. Desperate measures — ovens, grills, generators indoors — poison whole households at once.
Responsibility for these injuries is rarely simple. A landlord who controls the heating equipment and ignores written complaints may bear liability for resulting harm. But Missouri applies comparative fault, so a person's own choices — disabling a CO alarm, draping laundry over a space heater — can reduce or defeat a claim. Manufacturers answer for defective heaters; utilities answer for negligence in service. Each case turns on its facts, and no article can tell you how yours would come out.
If you or your family suffered carbon-monoxide poisoning, a burn, or another injury tied to heating, our pages on personal injury and premises liability in Missouri explain how these claims work, and our slip-and-fall and unsafe-property practice covers injuries from dangerous property conditions more broadly.
What to Do This Week
Work the list in order; the cheapest wins come first.
- Flashlight-test every exterior door on a cold night and replace worn weather stripping.
- Gasket the outlets on exterior walls and film the oldest windows.
- Set a thermostat schedule: cooler when you sleep and when the house sits empty.
- Book a furnace inspection and swap the filter; test every CO alarm.
- If money is tight, apply for LIHEAP through Missouri DSS and ask your utility about Cold Weather Rule payment arrangements before you fall behind.
- Renters: report heating problems to your landlord in writing today, and keep the copy.
Frequently asked questions
Can my utility shut off my heat during a Missouri winter?
Between November 1 and March 31, the Cold Weather Rule restricts disconnection of heat-related gas and electric service by PSC-regulated utilities on days when freezing temperatures are forecast. You still owe the bill, and utilities outside PSC regulation may follow different policies, so call your provider at the first sign of trouble rather than waiting for a notice.
My landlord will not fix the furnace. Can I withhold rent?
Not safely on your own. Missouri offers defenses and remedies — the implied warranty of habitability recognized in King v. Moorehead and Detling v. Edelbrock, housing-code complaints, and the receivership procedure in RSMo 441.570 — but unilateral withholding risks eviction. Send written notice, document everything, and get legal advice before missing a payment.
What temperature should I set in winter to save money?
Set the thermostat as low as your household comfortably tolerates when you are home, then schedule a setback of 7 to 10 degrees for the hours you sleep or are away. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that pattern can save up to ten percent a year on heating and cooling.
Are space heaters safe to use overnight?
Running any space heater unattended raises risk. If you must use one, pick a model with tip-over and overheat shutoff, keep it three feet from anything that burns, plug it straight into the wall, and turn it off when you sleep. A working smoke alarm and a CO alarm are non-negotiable backstops.
Talk to a lawyer if winter heat hurt your family
This article is general information for Missouri readers. It does not constitute legal advice, and reading it creates no attorney-client relationship. Every situation turns on its own facts.
If a heating failure, a fire, or carbon monoxide injured you or someone you love — in a rental, a home, or anywhere else — call Ott Law Firm at (314) 710-2740 or reach us through our contact page for a free consultation. We will listen, explain your options, and tell you plainly whether you have a claim.