Energy-Efficient Ways to Heat Your Home This Coming Winter
While you want to make sure that your home is toasty and comfortable in winter, you also probably want to make some savings as far as your energy consumption goes. You may find the practices that can save you money to also be sustainable and, therefore, they are great habits to have in general. Outlined below are some energy-efficient ways in which you can heat your home this coming winter.
Rethink Your Heating Source
While you may have depended on a specific source of heat for your home for a long time, you can try out other options to see if they cost less while having the same effect. The advantage of changing your heating is that you can give your existing option a break and make some upgrades that will increase the value of your home.
If you have a chimney, remember that you should have a certified chimney sweep do an inspection of your chimney at least once annually. Make sure that an expert installs the systems that you need so that they are set up the right way with no chance of presenting a safety risk or being inefficient.
Consider Only Heating Occupied Rooms
Another way in which you can make considerable savings is to heat only the occupied rooms rather than heating the entire house. This will call for less energy than you would otherwise use. With a little planning, you may soon enough find a way to make the heating work to your advantage by coming up with a reliable schedule to keep your house warm based on occupancy.
To get the best out of this, you may want to get a smart thermostat that will regulate your home’s temperatures. When replacing the heating devices around your home, remember to also pay attention to the physical aspects of your home. Note that simply replacing a filter that’s dirty and clogged with a clean one can lower the energy consumption of your air conditioner by 5% to 15%. This is enough to motivate you to take the time to make some necessary changes around your house.
Service Your Systems
Last but not least, take time to research the service and maintenance that you need to do to your heating systems, whether new or existing. This way, you may have a chance to keep them working efficiently for a long time to come. By doing this, you will be following professional advice, which is that both your heating and air conditioning need servicing annually. Servicing your units will ensure that you’re not at risk of potentially costly breakdowns that may occur as a result of ignoring the unit for a long time.
Remember that the amount it costs you to maintain your heating and cooling units is less than what you would have to pay in terms of both money and convenience. If the systems fail in the middle of extreme weather, you may have a hard time finding someone to fix them. It’ll also definitely cost you more than it would have cost to do the fix during the low season, not to mention the fact that you will be desperate to get it done fast.
Try these energy-efficient methods to heat your home this coming winter and you may enjoy paying a bit less for your energy consumption. Clearly, your health and peace of mind don’t have to suffer as a result of trying to keep your energy costs low. Once you perfect these practices, you can start looking for other ways to lower your energy costs while using these as a foundation.