Get Ready for The Cold
with These Energy-Saving Tips
It's getting colder and Old Man Winter is on the way. Here are five ideas to help our customers cut their energy costs during the colder months while keeping their families warm and comfortable:
1. Get the Heating System Ready for Winter
Get your HVAC system ready for heating season with a tune-up! Its call preventative maintenance for a reason. The same reason you take your car in for its oil change, is the reason you need a tune-up for heating and cooling season. We make sure your heating unit is ready to operate at peak performance by cleaning, calibrating and testing its components.
2. Find and Seal Leaks
It's important to keep the heat inside rather than letting it escape through drafty doors or windows. You can use caulk or weather stripping to easily seal air leaks at home.
3. Run Ceiling Fans in Reverse
Since warm air rises, you can set ceiling fans to run at low-speed in a direction that pulls cooler air up from the center of the room and pushes warm air back down into the living space. To check a ceiling fan for proper direction, turn it on high and stand directly beneath it. The fan should be running in a clockwise rotation if looking up at it. You should not feel air blowing down from the fan.
4. Use a Programmable Thermostat
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, if you lower the heat in your home 10 to 15 degrees for eight hours a day, you could save as much as 10 percent on annual heating costs. Use a promgrammable thermostat for best results.
5. A High-Efficiency Furnace
Just like other forms of technology, HVAC is always improving. If it's been awhile since they've invested in a new furnace, it may have an AFUE rating (energy efficiency rating that is based on 0-100% scale) as low as 60 percent. AFUE works in much the same way as "miles per gallon" does on a car: the higher the AFUE number, the higher the efficiency and the more they could save on energy costs over time.
We hope you find these energy-saving tips helpful!
