Tips for Lowering Your Heating Bills This Winter
In Connecticut, the winter months can quickly escalate heating expenses, as heating units strive to keep houses warm. Yet, the excellent news is several simple and easy steps exist to save on heating costs while remaining comfortable. In this article, we will discuss ways to improve heat performance and save energy during the winter.
Tips for Lowering Your Heating Bills This Winter? Evergreen Heating and Cooling Can Help!
Contact Ben at Evergreen Heating & Cooling
Close all unused doors
Rooms in a home are often unused therefore, keeping these doors closed can help to reduce the area that your heating system must heat. This prevents heat circulation into rooms not required to be heated and enables your heating system (furnace or boiler) to work more efficiently. By keeping the conditioned air in the most frequently occupied rooms you can decrease your energy demand for heating.
Turn the thermostat down
Changing your thermostat setting is one of the best ways to save money while heating your home. Reducing your temperature setting while you are awake and home by 5 to 8 degrees will significantly reduce your monthly utility bill. Keeping your home temperature at around 66 degrees F or lower will provide comfort and reduce your heating cost.
Additionally, lowering the temperature setting for when you're not at home and while sleeping will reduce the heating demands on your home even more. Using a programmable or smart thermostat to make these temperature adjustments automatically will ensure that energy is conserved without the need for additional effort on your part.
Seal windows and doors tightly
Windows and doors allow heat to leak due to gaps and drafts causing your heating system to have to work more than need be by looking for air leaks at the start of every season such as by checking window seals, door frames and weather stripping etc. Adding new weather strips or calk where necessary is an inexpensive method of enhancing comfort and lessening energy lost.
Small openings can greatly impact heating bills and addressing drafts as soon as possible will result in increased efficiency and maintaining heated air in the home.
Use wood-burning stoves
The follow-up to install and install and install wood burning stoves should promote supplemental heating. Reducing the necessity of your central heating system, but require some care and caution. Newer - EPA certified - wood burning stove models have been engineered to provide greater efficiency and effectively generate more heat with less waste smoke and wood consumption.
Although wood-burning may not be considered a practical or desirable primary heat source for all homes today, you can still reduce your energy costs by safely and effectively utilizing wood burning stove installations. Always follow the manufacturer's guidelines for installation and use and be sure to have your chimney or venting system inspected periodically to ensure its safe condition.
Use ceiling fans
Ceiling Fans Are Not Just For Summertime (Using Ceiling Fans In The Winter) Using a Ceiling Fan properly does help boost the heating efficiency of your home during the Winter. When you set your ceiling fan blades to "clockwise", the Ceiling Fans will cause Warm Air to slowly circulate down into your living spaces from the ceiling area in a manner that creates a very comfortable feeling.
When Warm Air rises, the air that has not risen will always be cooler than the warmer air on the top floor/ceiling area. As a result, with proper circulation of both Warm Air and Cool Air in your living space, the room temperature stays more stable, giving you a sense of feel warmer than you would without the circulating air.
Final thoughts
In Connecticut, there are many effective ways to save money on heating bills through a combination of several different strategies. The combined effect of several of these techniques will significantly lower your costs during the cold months of winter.
Another way to save on your heating bill? Schedule routine maintenance on your heating system and keep it operating efficiently for you.
If your HVAC system is old, or if it doesn’t heat your spaces evenly and consistently anymore, reach out to an HVAC expert like Evergreen Heating & Cooling to evaluate your system, determine the best options for you, and install them properly. Contact us for more information!
