A large part of our home’s day-to-day costs is taken up by the HVAC systems. In the winter, your Dagsboro, Delaware, home’s furnace needs a lot of energy to keep your home comfortable. Here are a few tips you can use to maintain your furnace’s efficiency and save you money on your energy bills.
Lower Your Thermostat
Running your furnace all day isn’t good for its health or your utility bills. That’s why you should consider turning your thermostat down while you’re not at home or when you’re curled up under blankets at night. It’s also important to remember that if you can be comfortable at a lower temperature, you should lower your thermostat. You pay for each degree your furnace uses to heat your home.
Change the Air Filters
Regularly changing your furnace’s air filters is a simple way to make it run more efficiently. As an air filter does its job, it gets dirty. Air filters that are too dirty make it more difficult for your furnace to send warm air through it, forcing it to work harder and use more energy. Replacing your air filters periodically is an easy task that boosts your furnace’s efficiency. We suggest changing your furnace’s air filter once a month, especially during winter when your furnace has to work extra hard.
Use Your Ceiling Fans Correctly
Many fans have a switch that makes them run clockwise or counterclockwise. Generally, clockwise is meant for winter use and counter-clockwise is for summer. Whichever way makes the blades tilt forward is the winter direction. This setting makes your fan redistribute warm air throughout the room, which helps keep your room temperature even. Having fans turn in the wrong direction can confuse your furnace because it concentrates warm air into smaller areas of your home. When this happens, your furnace may end up creating warm air your home doesn’t need.
Seal Leaks
Warm air can slip through cracks in your windows and doors, and when it does, your furnace has to work harder to replace the escaped warm air. On a cold day, run your hands along the edges of your outer doors and windows. If you feel a cold spot, you may have a leak. Use weatherstripping on doors and re-caulk, or cover your windows to properly seal them. These easy fixes should suffice in sealing your warm conditioned air in your home if you don’t have the funds to have leaky windows replaced.
Upgrade Your Thermostat
Upgrading to a smart thermostat is a smart investment for your home. Smart thermostats are designed to make your furnace and overall HVAC system run at their most efficient. These thermostats do this in many ways, such as learning your heating habits, providing you with energy reports, and automatically lowering temperatures when your home is empty. A smart thermostat is compatible with most modern furnaces and is proven to reduce energy bills. Though they cost more than your conventional analog thermostats, smart thermostats pay for themselves over time.
Properly Insulate
Proper insulation ensures that the work your furnace is performing doesn’t go to waste. When a home is improperly insulated, the furnace’s warm air is leaked to the outdoors, forcing it to work overtime to keep up. Sufficient insulation in your attic, walls, and floor keeps that warm air in for you and your family to enjoy. Have a technician inspect your home to find any problem areas that are letting your warm air escape.
Schedule Maintenance Visits
Scheduling regular maintenance visits from a certified HVAC technician can help you address possible problems with your furnace. Technicians look for HVAC issues that might be causing inefficiency in your system and repair them. We suggest scheduling a visit once a year at the very least, right before the worst of winter weather hits.
If you have questions about our heating services, give our team of certified HVAC technicians at Red Dog Associates a call at (302) 436-2922.
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