Energy bills always seem to be on the rise, so you want to be sure that you’re not losing money because of an inefficient heating system. There are a few changes that you can make to your home and heating that will make a big difference – from adjusting the thermostat settings to getting a full furnace tune-up.
Read ahead to discover what you can do to heat your home more efficiently and start saving money today.
1. Set Your Thermostat Correctly
Perhaps the simplest thing that you can do to improve the way your heating system is doing its job is to ensure you are using the optimal thermostat settings. Most thermostats are highly programmable, and the right timings can make all the difference.
Turning down the heat for around 8 hours a day when you are asleep or out of the house can save as much as 10% on your total heating bill for the year – and you won’t even have to think about it once it’s set up.
You should also make sure that your thermostat sensor is properly installed in the right place so that it is reading the room temperature accurately and not increasing the heating unnecessarily.
2. Improve Insulation
One of the biggest changes you can make to the cost of heating your home is improving your insulation, and there are a lot of ways to do this.
For example, you can use caulk or foam to block up air leaks around your windows and doors or fill spaces in your attic or basement with insulating materials. You should also consider improving the insulation around the ducts and pipes of your home heating system, which will greatly impact how efficiently it runs.
For a more expensive but highly impactful solution, you might want to replace any single-panel windows you have with double-panel alternatives.
3. Control The Airflow
Heating a home is all about the distribution of warm air, so you need to make sure that air is able to flow in the right way.
Check that all of your vents, radiators, and other heating elements have some space around them and are not being blocked by large pieces of furniture. That way, you will actually be heating the air in your home rather than just the back of your couch.
Additionally, you want to think about what areas of your home the air is moving to and from. Keeping the door to an unheated garage closed, for example, will give your heating system much less work to do.
4. Check For Duct Leaks
The average duct system actually loses up to 40% of its energy, and leaky ducts are a major contributing factor to this. Plugging up those leaks will mean that your system won’t have to work nearly as hard to get results, which will greatly impact your bill at the end of the month.
5. Full Furnace Tune-Up
No matter what else you might be able to do, a faulty, clogged, or otherwise inefficient furnace is always going to end up costing a lot more money to run.
A furnace tune-up by a professional technician will help to make sure that all the parts are clean and functioning properly, and will let you know if there are any weaknesses or issues within the system as a whole that need to be addressed.
Summary: 5 Ways to Heat Your Home Efficiently
If you don’t want to be wasting money on your bills, then you can make a few adjustments to the way you are heating your home.
Make sure your thermostat is set correctly, improve insulation where you can, take control of the way the warm air is flowing, and make sure the ducts, furnace, and overall system are running in perfect condition.