Tips On Lowering Your Heating Expenses
With winter around the corner, you will depend on your heating system to keep your home warm. This will affect your heating costs significantly. Here are some tips to save on heating costs this winter.
Servicing Your Furnace
When your furnace is worn out, it applies more effort to warm your house. This leads to increased energy bills. Therefore, servicing your heating system regularly ensures it runs more efficiently. Servicing involves cleaning air ducts and changing the filters and other worn-out components. These simple processes will save you the cost of high energy bills and system repairs.
Sealing Air Leaks
Make sure you seal all the cracks in your home. Inspect the pipes, windows, doors, and electrical outlets. You can use outlet sealers and draft blockers to fix air leak problems. Additionally, check the window and door stripping.
During cold weather, these building materials tend to shrink. Call a professional to seal the cracks around the windows and doors. Studies by the EPA show that sealing cracks can save you a significant amount on heating and cooling expenses.
Insulate the Attic and Water Pipes
Insulating your attic and water pipes can translate to low energy costs. Insulate your attic with plastic-encapsulated fiberglass. You should also insulate hot water pipes. This will prevent hot water from losing heat when it moves out of the heater. Consider using foam pipe wrap to insulate these water pipes.
Lowering Your Thermostat's Temperature
Reducing the temperature on your thermostat can amount to huge savings on heating costs. However, you shouldn't lower the temperature to the point that you are uncomfortable in your home. Also, choosing a setting that is too low will cause the plumbing outside to freeze. Try to find a balance between saving and staying comfortable.
Turning your thermostat on and off frequently will not save energy. On the contrary, this will cause the moving parts to work hard to adjust to the different settings. Instead, ensure your furnace runs for longer and steady intervals based on fixed schedules. You can consult a technician to help you choose the ideal settings.
Investing in a Programmable Thermostat
If you cannot create a schedule manually with the ordinary thermostat, invest in a programmable thermostat. This thermostat will help you create schedules and automatically adjust the heat in your home based on your schedule. This will maximize your energy savings and keep your home at comfortable temperatures at all times.
For example, if you want a low-temperature setting when you are away and a high setting when you get back home, you can program your thermostat to start warming up the house right before you arrive back from work. When you walk into your home, you will find it's already warmed up.
Reach out to heating contractors near you to learn more.
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